Living In Rome Through API

My time in Rome with API was a phenomenal experience. Even though I had never taken a semester of Italian before leaving, the program directors made me feel right at home and it did not take long to get acclimated. My apartment was beautiful, it had an amazing granite lobby and it was very spacious. I didn't need to worry about anything except for towels; the apartment was fully furnished, had a fully stocked kitchen, and I was even provided with sheets and a comforter. The location of my apartment was perfect, I was about a 15-20 minute walk to John Cabot University and lived next across the street from Villa Doria Pamphili, which is one of Rome's largest public parks. The nearest grocery store was a 5 minute walk down the street and I also lived right next to the bus stop, which allowed me to easily travel to the downtown area.

As for the school, it wasn't as challenging as my university at home. The teachers were probably the most passionate people I had ever met; they deeply cared about the subjects they were teaching and had such a unique perspective when explaining things. The school was very safe, there were guards at the door and it was right next to a military checkpoint.

As for API, I can't stress how fantastic they were. The weekend excursions scattered throughout the semester were slices of Italy I never would have seen on my own. It was the perfect balance of interest tours during the day and the freedom of personal time at night. The woman in charge of the Rome office were incredibly knowledgeable about any question I could ask. When I was afraid to get my hair cut because of my lacking Italian skills, they took me to their favorite salon and literally dictated what I wanted done and stayed with me to ensure nothing got lost in translation.

As a whole, my time in Rome was a definite life changer. Because of my time there, I've decided to move to Europe this summer for graduate school.