API: Experience Seville, Spain (Scholarships Available)

My spring in Seville was amazing. I was definitely nervous about the language barrier before I left. I had taken Spanish in high school and thought I was moderately fluent. However, you do not really know how fluent you are until you are immersed in the culture. It was definitely not an issue that I was not completely fluent. The other API students I met were very nice and I had a great host family. My host family made sure that I was well taken care of and prepared 3 meals a day. I took 5 classes at the University of Seville. I had a language course, a healthcare and voluntary work course, the theory and history of Flamenco, Spanish Cuisine, and Literary and Cultural Traditions of Spanish Speaking Countries. The classes were very interactive and we even took some field trips in order to dive into the content deeper. The scenery is beautiful and it is a nice city to go for long walks.

I studied abroad in Seville, Spain with Academic Programs International for the 2016-2017 academic year. This program stood out to me because of the options to take both courses in Spanish and in English, live with a host family, and the included excursions! The program began in Madrid with an orientation, and the program staff was very helpful and informative. We left Madrid and went to Toledo, El Escorial, and Cordoba on our way to Seville by bus. This beginning orientation was a great way to become acquainted with the other students in the program, and see more of Spain than you maybe would on your own.

Universidad de Sevilla is a centrally located university in Seville, and it's close to many shops, restaurants, and historical sites. I was able to take some traditional and non-traditional courses, and received credit for all of them. My favorite classes included Painting in Literary Seville, a water color class, and Literatura y Cocina, a combined literary and cooking class. I also took some incredible history courses that actually involved a lot of time outside of the classroom, at historical sites and museums in and around Seville. I think that the classes were challenging in that many of them were long lectures entirely in Spanish, but the workload was very manageable.

I chose to live with a host family in Seville, and I think that this really added to my overall experience. My family consisted of a host mom, a host grandmother, and a host uncle. I also had an American roommate, another student from API. The family provided all of our meals, and also provided a lot of helpful information about the city. If you are looking to really improve your Spanish, choosing to live with a host family is the way to do it! I ate most of my meals at home, which meant a lot of my time was spent in Spanish conversation with my host mom.

My favorite aspect of my program with API was the availability of such incredible excursions, all included in the program! This is something that really sets API programs apart from other program providers. I was able to see and experience so many things in my host country that I know I would not have even known about otherwise. My favorite excursions include a trip to Extremadura, where we hiked 13 miles to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery, and a trip to Aracena to make bread. The international excursions were incredible as well, and during the 2016-2017 year we went on an excursion to Paris and to Lisbon. Although the excursions are constantly changing, no matter where you go with API, you'll have an incredible time.

If you are considering studying abroad in Spain, Seville is a lively, warm city with close proximity to an airport, which is important if you are planning to travel during your time abroad! I looked at many of API's programs in Spain, but the proximity of an airport was a deciding factor for me, as well as the size of the city. Seville has a population of about 700,000, which means that you'll never run out of things to do or see. The excursions and affordability of API's programs in particular really sold me, and I'm so glad that I made the decision I did! Having the ability to take a wide variety of courses in both English and Spanish also helped me to find credits that would transfer to my home university. I was able to finish my Spanish minor at the Universidad de Sevilla, and am now participating in the Global Leadership Academy through API, to continue integrating international experience into my final year at my home university. I could not recommend studying abroad with API more!

-API included many excursions within Spain and northern Africa. Don't skip any of them, for they are all worth the trips.

-Get of out of your comfort zone and explore when possible.

-Getting into the Spanish "siesta cycle" is easy. Try not to give in, but instead use that valuable time to explore and experience the city.

API Sevilla, Spain was amazing. I had the best host mother in a residencia, and the classes at my school were with other study abroad students but taught by Spanish professors. The whole experience was amazing, we went on trips, had thanksgiving dinner, and many other fun activities throughout the city during our semester. The staff is absolutely dedicated to every student, and the program size was manageable, only about 20 students, the perfect size as far as Im concerned.

I had originally chosen API because it was the most affordable study abroad program that I could find in Sevilla. However, that did not stop them from offering an inclusive, cultural program that would be very difficult to beat.

My experience in Spring 2012 was overall very positive, and I'll list some of the highlights, as well as some of my not-so-positive experiences:

1) Excursions - we were given tours of Madrid, Toledo, a bike tour of Sevilla when we arrived, Granada, Cadiz, Extremadura, Portugal, and probably more that I'm forgetting at the moment. Not only were these tours wonderful, informative, and intimate, but we were given great hotels to stay at (a monastery from the 1400's was my favorite), but we were essentially shown a side of Spain that we would have never seen from an insider's point of view.

2) Staff - API hires wonderful, caring people to work with us, and I was very impressed with them. They helped us plan trips, find churches, and gave us candid advice.

3) Housing - It was both a good and challenging experience for me. I chose a host family stay, and I was well-fed and cared for. My mom was a fabulous cook! I did struggle a bit with her timetable; my mother wanted me home at certain times for meals, and it was hard to do so with all of the activities going on. However, overall it was very good. API was very eager to make sure that we had good housing; some of my friends disliked their situations and were able to find better accommodations with API's help.

4) Academics - I took classes in Spanish but with Americans, and that is probably my biggest regret. The classes were good, and I learned quite a bit, but my Spanish would have improved so much more had I taken the classes with Spaniards option. I'd encourage anyone to do that.

Overall, a fabulous experience.

I would absolutely recommend API to anyone looking into studying abroad. From the very first day when you land in your host country the staff is ready to help you transition into your new life, and on all the excursions the group leaders were incredibly knowledgeable about every place that we visited. My group leader would even usually point out good restaurants and sites to visit on our free time in all out cities and sometimes would even purchase a small treat for our whole group so that we could get a taste of the truly local flavor. And this program is absolutely the best value when you take into consideration how many trips you get to take for about the same amount of money as most other programs. Studying abroad was the best decision I have ever made and the best experience I have ever had and I think I owe a great deal of that to API.

A.P.I. helped me adapt to the life and culture in Spain. They placed with a fantastic host family in Sevilla, who had a daughter around my age. I met friends there who are just as close to me as my friends at home and one came to visit me in the U.S. Thanks to A.P.I. I feel like my home is truly in 2 parts of the world, while more travel adventures await me in the future. ¡Gracias API!

My overall experience in Seville was nothing less than amazing. I couldn't find a better word to describe it. Even getting to school, which was a 25 minute bus ride from my home, was enjoyable, something I thought would be a pain. People are the nicest in South Spain, the weather is good, food is great, and the overall atmosphere of one's life is magnificent. There's always something to do, there's always people on the street having some tapas, drinking a cold beer, having a good time. I learned so much about myself being abroad. The staff of API was great in helping me adjust, get around, and know the city and its surroundings in a way I couldn't have done on my own. My classes at school were very interesting yet challenging, and my classmates were always very inviting. My host parents were amazing, two of the nicest people I've ever met. No cliché, having studied abroad has been the greatest experience of my life.