API Study Abroad in Vina del Mar, Chile

If you're looking for a place full of adventure, a place to improve your Spanish speaking skills, a place full of natural beauty, and a place that will push you out of your comfort zone, then Chile is the place for you! While abroad, I gained so much more than I expected. I learned so much about myself, and how to be on my own. I immersed myself in the country's history and culture.
I made lifelong relationships with classmates and my host family. I made business connections through an internship in the city, and I traveled the country every chance I got I don't think there is one thing I didn't gain throughout my semester. It was the greatest 6 months of my life!

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.

Housing is found by API and is really nice. My host family ended up being amazing, and I consider them my second family now.

Classes are scheduled with API and can be either challenging or not depending on what you want! You can take them in English or Spanish, and you can even take classes with Chileans (and those classes are harder but are more interesting)

The API staff is wonderful and very helpful (both in the US and Chile). The Chilean woman who worked with us was a genuine person and I miss her so much!

And Chile itself is a beautiful country with wonderful people. You're right on the beach, plenty of bars and places to hang out during the day and at night. Transportation is great so you can hop on a micro (bus) and go anywhere!

The only downside to this program can be some of the other students who tend to do this program (not everyone understands they are in another country and that they can't act like they would on a college campus), but hey, you probably get that everywhere!