Spanish summer of my dreams

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

My time in Madrid was wonderful, but what everybody needs to know and what I quickly learned is that your experience abroad depends almost entirely on what you make it. The first two weeks of classes went fine. I was placed in an intermediate class "because I had been taught Latin American Spanish and I could brush up on some basics," but I felt that I didn't learn all that much. The classes were geared towards the people that were there long term, since we spent the whole two weeks going over direct and indirect pronouns during the grammar section. I thought that we would be getting more of an intensive overview of Spanish grammar to remember the main points, but the conversation section was great to learn new vocabulary and get used to speaking Spanish again! After the two weeks of classes, I started out at one company that ended up being a horrible fit, but Adelante quickly helped me to find another placement at IFEMA (Feria de Madrid). It's a huge business, and it was an incredible experience to work at such a big company while still a student. I had a few projects to do, but I also had a lot of downtime where I browsed the internet to kill time. Some of this could probably be attributed to the slower summer season and my short time there, but if I were to re-do my summer I would probably choose something more hands on. I did a lot of Spanish writing, but I feel like I did not get to practice my spoken Spanish as much as I would have liked to. I traveled a little bit since I was on a tight budget, but I definitely want to come back to see more. Madrid is filled with endless shops, restaurants, bars, and clubs, and I tried my best to check out the most popular places and some of the more obscure ones as well.

Would you recommend this program?
Yes, I would
Year Completed
2015