Program Reviews

The Teach English in Colombia program has been an incredible experience. It was a relatively new program so there were some changes in the beginning. More cities were added at the last minute and the specific details about the centers weren't clear but CE did a very good job of staying in touch with me before and during my time here. By participating in this program I have had the opportunity to improve my Spanish, to learn more about the Colombian culture, I have been able to teach English to Hotel students, I have been able to travel in Colombia and experience living in the beautiful coffee region. Although there were difficulties, I believe the benefits out way them. If you enjoy adventure, experiencing a new culture and can go with the flow then this is a great program and I would recommend it to anyone.

First of all, Chile is an awesome place to go if you want to experience all types of scenery, practice your Spanish, eat awesome food, and meet some of the kindest people in the world! Chile has the driest desert in the world, an amazing coast, mountains in Patagonia, and so much more. No matter where you are, there is so much to see. That being said, pack for all climates if you choose to study here because likely you'll want to see a little bit of everything!

As far as the university goes, it was a nice mixture of courses taught in English as well as Spanish so that you can do what is best for your current level. They also have a great program that allows you to volunteer while you are there. I chose to teach English a few hours a week and others did activities with the local orphanage, planted seeds at gardens, spent time with disabled people at the hospital, and a few other things.

Lastly, my host family really made me fall in love with Chile. They became my second family while I was there and we have kept in touch since. They were the kindest people ever and it was also really good for me to practice my Spanish. You must stay with a host family if you go here!

Safe travels! :)

Stepping off of the bus, onto the cobblestone in Florence was like a fairytale. The city is the most beautiful I have ever seen and the food is second to none. The university also offered great courses including Italian cooking, the impact of the Holocaust on Italian Jews, Italian philosophy, and much more. You could study almost anything here. I would highly recommend this program. We also got to go on excursions to classics like Rome and Venice to name a few.

Having studied abroad in Europe (Ireland) before, I knew I wanted to go to the place where half of my family comes from. Spanish culture has been an active part of my life for as long as I can remember, and though we are not from Granada, it was the perfect place for me to stay for a full academic year (winter break and all).
My Spanish was "okay" before I left my home state of New Hampshire, but I noticed right away that I improved and gained all sorts of knowledge about the language that even my professors at my home university could not have taught me.
I did request to live in a shared apartment with several other people (including a fellow API program student), but it was a rough adjustment and we all chose to go our separate ways. API found me a great new place to live in a matter of a couple of days, and I thoroughly enjoyed having a host family living in the same building as I was, even though I did not live in their apartment with them.
The Universidad de Granada (sprawled across the city, which I did not know initially, but adjusted quickly to walking pretty much wherever I needed to go) was great, and the views from the top of el Centro de Lenguas Modernas were phenomenal. I went to school in a mountain university, so seeing the Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance made Granada feel like home.
The program directors were wonderful; Carmen and Curra, along with their student interns Lydia and Gabriela were helpful, especially with the adjustments as the shift of students happened between winter break (right before Christmas) and the new students arriving in late January after the holidays. I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of their lives and it was difficult to say goodbye (as well as departing from my host family).
I love(d) Granada, and I could see myself living there in the future.

I'm so happy I decided to teach abroad in Colombia with Cultural Embrace! It definitely wasn't easy getting here because it was a relatively new program when I joined, so I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into. However, Cultural Embrace did the best they could to make me feel safe and supported as I prepared myself to move to Colombia. They worked extremely hard to get me contacts with current teachers before I arrived in the country and although it took a long time to confirm city placements, they continued to stay in touch with me on a regular basis to let me know they were working hard to get me a teaching position in Colombia. Cultural Embrace answered all my questions in a timely fashion and continue to stay in touch with me now to see how the teaching is going. Teaching English in Colombia is both challenging and rewarding and I'm so happy I made the decision to come here!

Our university shared a building with a Dominican Monastery and only had 100 kids. When I was there it was 10 Americans, 9 International students and then around 80 Locals. There was really no campus but the school is inside the Old Town Walls. It's a very new program which makes it quite an interesting place to study. I cannot say enough good things about it. I 110% reccomend this for anyone who wants to stay in Europe but wants to go somewhere different than the "usual" destinations of Italy, Spain, France... ect...

I purposely chose an abroad program that would allow me to focus on traveling and experience Europe. Lorenzo de Medici had a relatively easy academic program with classes ranging from 3 to 4 days per week. This allowed me plenty of time to explore both inside the city and beyond while also providing a basic academic challenge that introduced me to Italian life.

I spent a semester in Bilbao attending the University of Deusto and having been many years since my experience I have had time to reflect on my experience as a whole. First off, if you are looking for a true academic experience I think you may be disappointed. Before attending the program I did not know what the setup was like for classes. It turns out when you arrive everyone takes a test after which you are sorted out into classes depending on your skill level. Within these classes are primarily all fellow American study abroad students, I was under the impression we would be taking classes with fellow Spaniards. While I was placed in the intermediate level class it felt more like the first semester of Spanish you take freshman year of high school. The curriculum consisted of workbooks that seemed fairly pointless and some actual writing assignments. All and all not the academic experience I was looking for. Outside of school however was a much better story. I decided to do a homestay and am very glad I did. The ladies I lived with taught me more of the Spanish and Basque language than I learned in class as well as more about the culture than my fellow American classmates were going to teach me. Bilbao is a wonderful city, it was clean and safe and I can't wait to return. Living day to day life in Bilbao was really what made it special; stopping at the bakery on the way to the metro, meeting up with friends for café con leche and churros. API and our resident advisor Andrea took excellent care of myself and fellow API students. We went on several cool excursions from flying to Barcelona to attending the Cirque de Soleil performance that came through town. Lastly I really enjoyed the small group of students that were in my API semester. I like that there were so few of us we could all really bond and enjoy each other.

Have you ever thought about studying abroad? What stopped you? Did you look through a few brochures and fantasize about what you would be doing in (insert dream country), only to toss them aside and continue with your life? If this isn't the case, and you are interested, then what is stopping you? Take the leap, and you shall not be disappointed.

Still settling in and getting used to living on my own, I was that person during my first year of college. The next year, my Spanish tutor advised I look into some of the affiliated programs offered, and so I did so. A very low probability that I would follow through, he was surprised and excited when I came into my session the next day with firm intent to leave the country the following semester.

I chose the Intensive Language - San Jose program due to the hours spent on Spanish, as well as the city location, as I'm from the very rural, mountainous state of Vermont. New language, new city, new climate, and a new culture. I had plunged myself into this lifestyle and was about to make good of it.

Weekdays I enjoyed a beautiful and sunny 20-minute morning walk to Universidad Veritas through my neighborhood. I would give an enthusiastic "Buenos dias!" or "Pura Vida" and a wave to the local cafe and bar owners that now knew me by my first name. The barking dogs behind peoples gates, the occasional homeless person, and crossing a small highway were the only items that could possibly make someone feel uncomfortable on the walk to class.

My classes included intensive Spanish classes that were held from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., 5 days a week, with 30 minute breaks in the middle. These were essential to the maintained attention span of the students as 4 hours can be a long time for learning the same subject. My peers and I would gather in the courtyard and share class or weekend stories over a cup of coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, or a tasty enchilada from a nearby vendor. The professors clearly love teaching, yet are lenient enough because they understand that they are teaching students from another country. Sometimes I would practice Spanish on the way home from class, which I found to be one of the most rewarding aspects of studying a language; being able to use what you learned in class the moment you re-enter the real world.

Esteban and Francy, the program staff for API, were of the utmost in assistance and advice. Passionate about what they do, interesting to converse with, understanding, and moreover; caring about your personal safety. I sustained an injury while studying abroad which involved having my big toe's toenail removed at the hospital. Esteban readily brought me to the hospital, paid the taxi driver for both ways, and helped me buy the proper prescriptions.

My host family was a perfect match. Two six-foot tall males and myself shared the pleasure of having this host family which included a very traditional, old woman and her son. She cooked for us whenever we were hungry, showed us love when we were feeling down, and spoke to us of old times and customs in Costa Rica when we had the chance to sit down with her. Her meals ranged from an occasional "French-Bread and hamburger" sandwich and savory Costa Rican coffee at breakfast to other very traditional dishes such as Black Bean Soup and Gallo Pinto. The proportions served were enough that we would have to tell her we had enough. One of my roommates was very picky, and the other gluten--intolerant. Our host mother catered to them tastefully and effortlessly.

Although no program is perfect, I feel as though the sheer number of equally lucky and unfortunate experiences I faced while abroad gave me an extremely positive experience overall.

My unfortunate experiences include, but were not limited to, losing half my big toenail and have it ripped off with pliers shortly after, getting lost in my own neighborhood until dark on the third day, getting attacked and successfully escaping four muggers, food poisoning, bad sun burns, witnessing a possibly fatal accident, and almost stepping on a venomous Eyelash Viper.

My especially good experiences included scuba diving for a class trip, exploring to a new spot every weekend via the convenient public bus system, snorkeling for class field trips, climbing volcanoes, acquiring my Advanced Scuba Certification while touching turtles and seeing Bull sharks under 99 ft. of water, cliff jumping off waterfalls, jungle hikes, bungee jumping, making a good number of local, life-long Tico friends, (two of which let me drive their motorcycles and cars the second time I visited). I'm especially grateful for one Tico friend in particular who showed us the deeper part of Costa Rica (Strip clubs, jazz clubs where we'd watch him play, his cousin's private paintball arena in the jungle, go-karting, unique restaurants, his home, haunted hospitals, etc.).

Avoiding the cliché, "Best. Experience. Ever.", I truly believe I may have had one of the better experiences abroad than many others. It is something that becomes a part of you; your second home on this Earth. I think about it everyday since I've left. The collective experiences brought about by friends (U.S. and Ticos), family, faculty (API and Universidad Veritas), animals, and even the common bystander left me with a sense of belonging in Costa Rica, as well as a mind that was now open to even more things than I had imagined four months prior.

I now heavily advocate for students to study abroad by setting up information tables on my college campus, promotion through daily conversation, as well as voluntary presentations to local middle schools about the importance of studying abroad and learning another language. If someone asked me about my time in Costa Rica, I would ask them why they weren't already signing up. To determine whether my time abroad could be reproduced in an equally positive manner, I'm now currently enrolled to study for five months at Universidad Catolica de Valencia in Valencia Spain with ISA for my coming Spring 2015 semester. I'm still counting the number of doors that this journey has opened for me, as I now have tentative plans to teach English in Colombia after I graduate as one example. Keep it relaxed, y viva la pura vida, mis amigos.

API is probably one of the best study abroad programs in the world. My experience in Grenoble so far has been amazing and I wouldn't want to be in any other program. The people I have met here are fantastic and our Resident Directors are AWESOME! They answer numerous questions and they make sure we understand everything, even when they speak in English. They are always available for us, even for the more personal things you face while studying abroad. Also, you are literally surrounded by mountains. Anywhere you turn you see mountains. It's awesome to see the view of the town from the tops of them as well! If your French is not that great right now, don't worry! This program will definitely help you pick it up, even if you just stay a semester! I've been here for about 6 weeks and I already see major improvement. This is a great city to become a part of and all of the host families are GREAT! And it's an unbeatable price for all of the excursions and the education you receive!