IES Abroad Reviews

Hi there! I spent the Fall 2014 in Barcelona and truly LOVED it. The rich culture, the food, a musician around every corner. I was terribly sad once the program ended, and I wasn't ready to leave. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect once I arrived in Barcelona, but I was pleasantly surprised. I owe a lot of my wonderful experience to IES. IES was invested in making sure we had a great experience and offered many services. For example, I would like to be a physician someday and IES put me into contact with a physician I was able to shadow and even watch perform a back surgery. It was definitely one of the biggest highlights of my experience, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of IES. Barcelona has a lot to offer, from beaches to the nearby Montserrat all while being a bustling metropolis. I loved going and buying fresh juice drinks at one of the many markets located throughout the city. I also had the great opportunity of taking salsa classes at a great place called Antilla where I was better able to integrate and meet some locals. Some difficulties I encountered included finding a good balance between staying in Barcelona and traveling to other parts of Europe. I found that I didn't live as much like a local as I had hoped to and traveling a lot was physically exhausting, but my overall experience was great. This IES program is HIGHLY recommended!!

I had a great experience studying abroad with IES Freiburg. Freiburg itself is a small town in the Black Forest that is vibrant and has lots of culture and things to do and experience, like museums, concerts, and outdoor exploration. At the same time, the town is not overwhelming and did not feel too much like a big city. It's also very centrally located and perfect for travelling around western Europe, especially Germany, France and Switzerland. The classes themselves are very interesting and the professors very knowledgeable. The staff of the program are also extremely helpful and go out of their way to help and accommodate students. It was also really fun to interact with fellow students from all over the country and with Germans I met through living arrangements and while living in the city, and experience my perspective and worldview shifting. I would highly recommend this program!

THe IES program in Vienna was incredible. The staff is a wonderful community, all of whom are willing to help with anything and everything. The classes are interesting with professors from varied backgrounds. One of my professors was a curator at the Art History Museum, allowing us to have class there once a week. Vienna is a beautiful city full of culture.

I couldn't be happier that I decided to do this program! I was able to perform music, explore Europe, and make life-long friendships. If you are a musician who wants to study abroad, this is the program for you!

I had the time of my life in Granada. From the super friend IES staff to my wonderful host family to the lifelong friends I made, I would recommend IES Abroad Granada to everyone interesting in studying abroad.

Leaving home for the Paris BIA program was my first experience of Europe. I was nervous, but I certainly couldn't keep my excitement at bay. I had never taken French a day in my life. Luckily, I had amazing professors who taught me just what I needed to further my exploration. I simply needed is a bit of confidence and courage to put myself out there and speak French whether it was right or wrong. The lesson allowed to travel to Italy and Hollande without the fear of being put down for my language barrier, and it allowed to learned a little French and Dutch as well! Additionally, living in a new city all by myself really taught how to fend for myself. Cooking became joy instead of a chore because why I shouldn't I have some fun in my kitchen. I love exploring a city on my own, going down random streets, finding miscellaneous street art, or meeting a couple of open markets. Moreover, I made wonderful friends and had great time with them on our explorations. Paris certainly changed my life. I see my surroundings differently now. Not only am I more aware of cultural differences, but I now notice that sometimes it doesn't matter where one is from. Everyone is still looking for the same happiness and people still look out for others, even the French!

Travelling to Milan through the IES Milan: Italy Today program was one of the best experiences of my life. IES not only helps you provides you an opportunity to travel to a foreign country, it helps you immerse yourself within a foreign culture where you are able to learn, experience, and take in all the sights, sounds, and smells of Italy. This program provides you with opportunities to travel outside of your chosen Italian city, and also provides many opportunities to experience day to day life as an Italian. Activities such as Italian conversations, tours around the cities, trips to soccer games truly shows what it is like to live in Milan. In addition to this, courses that cover Italian cinema, history, art, business, and more truly show life as an Italian young adult. These courses, which are both provided at the IES institution as well as partner institutions helped my immersion into Italian education. The internships provided by this program also add an aspect of Italian life that one couldn't get anywhere else. Overall, this experience was wonderful and I would highly recommend it.

When I first decided to go abroad I was a little hesitant and here is why. I played basketball all of my life since I was a kid and was, at the time, playing for Sewanee: The University of The South, a small division three liberal arts college in Tennessee. Thus, my identity as I knew myself, was in basketball. Granted, I had joined a fraternity, and gotten involved with various groups on campus, but I was still rooted in basketball. Deciding to go abroad would cut my career short. I decided, however, struggling through a lot of prayer and thought, to go. I can honestly say that this was the best decision that I have ever made in my life. I was stretched in ways that I never knew I was capable of. I knew that if I was going to go abroad I had to go by myself because if not I would just be in the same old bubble I had been in. I wanted to stretch myself and see things about myself that I had never seen before. Hence, I decided to go to The Eternal City of Rome (mainly because I am a history major and a religion minor, I will readily admit). When I got to Rome I was awestruck from day one. I was completely interested and immediately inquisitive about this place and what it had to offer to me—because as one can easily see, Rome has dealt with a plethora of people all containing differing identities. I promptly decided I would let this place change me—the way I thought, the way I wandered around this life, and the ways that I was used to. Looking back I can honestly say that this place has given me things that I never thought possible of attaining. I learned to love people that were different than myself and had differing opinions on almost every topic. I learned that people everywhere are all innately attracted to happiness, and all equally impervious to suffering. I learned that basketball is not the only sport that people love. I learned to not only appreciate the differences in others, but also I became fond of my thoughts, beliefs, and values. I learned that reading a book is not the only way to learn—although I will admit it is very valuable. I learned that if you have a fear of something the best way to overcome it is to face it head-on. I was completely petrified of fights, so I sky dove through the Swiss Alps one weekend. These are just a few of the examples of what IES and study abroad has done for me. My perspective on life is completely changed and it’s something that I am very thankful for. So, in closing, I want to thank IES and all the people involved because I can truly say that my life would not be the same had it not been for study abroad. C.S. Lewis said it best: “its funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different.” My time abroad is something that is not a four-month experience I hold in my mind, but it is a life long memory I will savor until the day that I die.

I would wholeheartedly recommend IES Granada to anyone even remotely considering studying abroad. The program is very focused on meeting its students' requests and providing the best experience possible. To outline a few instances....
•As I had signed up to stay with a host family, I was paired with a host mother and host sister that live in an apartment ten minutes away from the IES building.
•I didn't do very well on the written portion of my Spanish language entry exam, but the staff was very responsive in making sure I was placed in a class that reflected my true level of Spanish speaking/writing/listening.
•One night I returned home around midnight after having had a tiny hiking accident. Once my mom noticed my scratched face and crippled gait, she called the program staff member on duty that night and asked her to escort me to the hospital. Within fifteen minutes, she was at our doorstep to help me down the stairs into the taxi. She waited with me for about an hour until the doctors were finished with my MRI, then she brought me home. It was so nice to have her with me--I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with that hospital visit on my own.

One of the more annoying parts about returning to school has been that some people want me to condense my entire experience abroad to a thirty second conversation. I simply can't do that. I treat those people to some friendly chatter, smile a bit, then wrap it up by saying something like, "Yeah, definitely a pretty cool experience!" But then there are others that want to hear more. I've found some people who've travelled, or studied abroad themselves, or are considering studying abroad in the future, that earnestly want to hear about my Argentine host mother who devoted nearly all of our two hour sobremesas to converting me to Catholicism.....and how I took an Islamic Art and Architecture course that offered four guided visits to the Alhambra and one to the Great Mosque of Cordoba, both of which (I remain steadfast) stand as two of the most beautiful pieces of architectural mastery one can ever hope to see.....and that I got hitched with a group of musicians from my program, and that we jammed with locals in the Andalusian courtyards as the sounds and heat of Granada's nightlife pulsed around us....and how we became buddies with the owner of an adorable hole-in-the-wall crepe shop called La Creperie, and how his rotund, cheery face and bulgy French belly always welcomed us with free crepes and delicious imported beer. I've talked to some friends that have even given me enough time to explain that I missed the morning bus for our trip to Morocco and, with the periodic help of the IES staff, managed to find my way to Tangier alone.
Now that I'm "home," I can't help but tear up as I think about my host mom, tapas, Javier (the IES program director), La Qarmita (a friendly cafe in town with a very personal waiting staff), the view of La Alhambra from El Mirador de San Nicolas, hiking in Las Alpujarras, and my friends and how we spent three and a half beautiful months actually living a dream.

Studying abroad with IES was my best decision in college so far. Being located in the middle of Vienna, I was able to see the magnificent beauty of the city. The IES classes allowed me to engage and understood the way that I learn. Also, IES gave me the opportunity to grow my friend network across the country.