I fell in love with Barcelona!!

Ratings
Overall
5
Academics: 5
Support: 5
Fun: 5
Housing: 5
Safety: 5
Review

Not to sound clichéd, but my summer abroad in Barcelona was a life-changing experience. And it is all thanks to CAPA!

I loved my courses! Learning about Barcelona from local professors really enhanced my overall experience. The CAPA directors in Barcelona were an amazing help and were always there if I needed anything. My host family was incredible! The food in Barcelona is amazing, and my host mom always made new local dishes for me to have for dinner each day. My favorites were all of the fresh seafood and definitely paella!

Interning at a local nonprofit and staying with a host family were really immersive experiences. Not knowing Catalan made it apparent that I was a foreigner, but everyone in Barcelona speaks Castilian Spanish, so I was able to communicate pretty well with everyone. I spoke Spanish in my internship and homestay, but I took my courses in English, so most of the time I was speaking with locals in Castilian Spanish. I was taking the metro and living pretty much like a local for the whole summer!

My advice if you are traveling to Barcelona: The city is extremely safe, with the only real danger being pickpockets. Make sure you guard your phone, wallet, purse, backpack, etc. at nighttime and on the metro. Never put things in your back pocket or out on the table! Also, don't eat or shop in the touristy spots if you can avoid it! You shouldn't be paying more than 1.50 euros for a café con leche, for instance, but touristy areas will charge you 2 or 3 euros! You can find a sandwich and a drink for around 4 euros if you know where to go. Barcelona can be an expensive city if you stick to just the tourist areas, but if you ask around you can find the places where locals hang out. That is where the reasonable prices are!

Everything about my experience, from the language immersion, to my internship, to my engaging courses, to my local friends, to the individualized tailoring that CAPA offers, was outstanding. 11/10 would recommend, and I would 100% do this again in a heartbeat!

Would you recommend this program?
Yes, I would
Year Completed
2018
Media
Photos