Mi Vida en Viña: An Incredible Study Abroad Semester in Chile with API

I lived in Viña del Mar, Chile, a lovely city on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, from July-December 2019 as part of a study abroad program through API that was focused on Business and Spanish. I lived in a comfortable, centrally-located apartment with a retired Chilean grandmother as my host mom for the duration, and it was fantastic. I'm Celiac, and was worried about the availability of gluten-free food options while abroad, but my host mom cooked all of my meals without a problem - and they were delicious! So is traditional Chilean food, by the way - empanadas, completos, lomo a lo pobre, sopaipillas, pebre, pastel de choclo, alfajores...try them all. My coursework was engaging and interesting, too - I took 5 classes at the local Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (UAI), 3 in Spanish and 2 in English. Although sometimes the periods were long, the professors were clearly passionate about their subjects and were on top of teaching international students with varying levels of Spanish and knowledge about Chile. Studying at UAI also gave me a fantastic opportunity to get to know other students outside of the API program itself. Within the program, we were all pretty close-knit, and often traveled together on excursions planned and executed by API - my favorites were a long weekend trip to the Atacama Desert in the north, a tour and lunch at a local vineyard, and a walking tour of incredible graffiti art in Valparaiso, an vibrant, artsy neighboring city. Overall, it was simply a fantastic study abroad experience, incredibly well-supported by API and our resident onsite coordinator even through some instances of political unrest. I gained self confidence, cross-cultural understanding, lasting friendships, and serious Spanish competence and business knowledge, and I can't recommend the program with API enough.