After all the paper work was done and my semester at my home school was over, I was terrified. I really started to second guess whether or not I could live away from my family and friends for 5 whole months! January 4th came way too soon, and the moment I got on the plane, I was regretting my decision. Landing in Spain and getting accustomed to my apartment ( I chose the apartments instead of the homestay) was very difficult, I’d had never been so homesick in my life. I remember the landlord of the apartment caught my roommate and I crying and said, “ This time is going to fly, and they day you leave Granada, you’ll be crying a lot harder.” It took about 3 weeks for me to really get used to the idea that Granada would be my home for the next 5 months. Slowly but surely, I began to fall in love. The city, the sights, the traveling, the food, the people, all of it; you not only get to discover a new gorgeous city, but you feel as though the world is at your feet, and that’s because for those couple of months, it really is. You learn to seize every moment, and seek out all new opportunities, and for 5 months you get enjoy life to absolute fullest.
AIFS does an amazing job at accommodating your every need. The resident director of Granada, Paula Messina, is an absolute sweetheart. She along with AIFS provide you with the best possible experience imaginable, and tend to your every need. I got sick while I was in Granada, and I e-mailed her around 4am and she got back to me later that morning and pulled me out of class for my appointment with the doctor. I never once felt like I was alone in the city there was always someone there to talk to about anything.
As far as academics the CLM, ( Centro de Lenguas Modernas) provides you with a very unique experience. The university and the curriculum are designed in a way that is challenging, but still incorporates your experience abroad. The professors at the CLM were probably some of the best I have ever had. Their style of teaching is very different to what we are accustomed to, but that’s what makes the experience so memorable.
May 24th came way too soon. The best memories of my life were made in Granada. Everything from the lively city to AIFS, makes you fall in love over and over again. The day I left my apartment, I said bye to the staff members, and told the landlord how right she had been, and then she hugged me and told me to come back soon. Going abroad was the scariest thing I have ever done, but looking back now, the thought of not having gone abroad, is absolutely terrifying.
If I can leave you with any words of advice, seize the moment. Don't take your time out there for granted! Travel a lot, study a lot, eat a lot, discover a lot, dance a lot, just do it all, and then do more.

I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed living with a host family. I felt that AIFS really made the best accommodations for me as far as travel and living arrangements. Our AIFS program coordinators made themselves so available to us as students and provided detailed step-by-step instructions for everything we needed to know. They guided us with the process of getting around the city of Salamanca, safety procedures in the city, and they arranged entertaining excursions for us to participate in such as tapas tours, a cooking session, and a horseback riding adventure! While at first I was a little homesick and it was difficult to acclimate to a completely new country, AIFS really provided me with all the help and advice in starting my life in Salamanca. The coordinators always left their office open for us to come in with any issues concerning us and we received their cell phone numbers as well. Overall the whole experience for me was great and my host mother was an amazing fit for me. She was maternal, welcoming, and patient with me as I attempted to learn the culture and language. While my host mother's house was in a safe area, there were other students in my program who were not placed in the safest of areas. This was one thing I noted that could be improved upon for future programs.

Whenever people ask me where I studied abroad in Spain, it always saddens me that most have never heard of the wonderful city of Salamanca. The experience I had in Salamanca with AIFS was amazing. The staff from AIFS are warm and always keeping you up to date on what's going on. I highly recommend taking the AIFS only classes at the university, especially the writing course, because I found them more challenging and rewarding than the regular classes the university offered. The town itself is wonderful, very easy to navigate and has lots to explore. I stayed at a homestay and loved my senora immensely, I grew close to her wonderful family who visited every weekend and she cooked amazing food! I really liked that there were so many excursions already included in our AIFS package, because I didn't have the resources to travel as much as others did on the weekends. Another thing I recommend is to take the opportunity to get involved with the people in Salamanca, for example with the help of the AIFS staff I joined a local church choir and also volunteered at a school nearby twice a day. I also used a recommended website from the staff to arrange intercambios with local Spanish students-it's totally terrifying at first, but really worth the extra practice! Ultimately, this experience was really worth it and I highly recommend it.

I loved my Spanish professor, I loved spending time with my new friends in the Plaza Mayor, and I loved getting to see more of Spain and Portugal! Salamanca is full of things to love.

In the morning I would wake up to Nutella and toast with juice that my senora had left out. I would then go to classes with students from all over the world. My teachers were great and loved hearing about all of our experiences in Europe. At 2pm it was lunch time! Lunch is the biggest meal in Spain and we had delicious food. After lunch I took a traditional siesta and then went to another class. I did not have afternoon classes on Wednesdays so I would go to teach 5 and 6 year olds English. After dinner at 9:30pm I would get ready and go to the plaza to meet friends at midnight. We would hangout for awhile and then venture on to the bars to experience the nightlife. The next day my senora would ask me all about my night and we would laugh about what had happened.
Whenever I left for trips on the weekends my senora would give me a doblebeso goodbye and also give me a bocadilla for the trip. When I returned home she got so happy and we would immediately sit down and rehash my trip and see what things we both had did at that city!
The only thing that was difficult was the two hour ride to the airport for trips but it was fun with friends and my senora packed me snacks!

Studying in Salamanca marked a very special point in my life. The months I spent there did not only help me realize of how much I love Spanish, but it made me fall in love with the culture and people of Spain!
I found that classes can be as challenging as you want them to be, you just have to find the right balance and not be afraid to expose yourself to the language.
One of the great opportunities of living here is that you meet people from all over the world. I was lucky enough to choose a large host family, and ended up with friends from all over. Within the 3 years after this experience ended our close group has been fortunate enough to meet twice across the globe.
Salamanca is close enough to anywhere you want to go, and the people are very friendly. If your thinking on going there, just do it! You won't regret it.

Studying abroad in Salamanca, Spain was one of the best times in my life. The city, the culture, the people, everything there is amazing. You learn so much more about the world and about yourself by having this experience. I highly recommend this program to anyone interested in studying abroad.

This program helped me better learn Spanish, become acquainted with Spanish culture, and so much more. It was incredibly planned and living with my host family was the best experience I could have ever imagined. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we could have somehow gotten the fellow program students to speak in Spanish for the duration of the study abroad. While it was great to learn and speak Spanish with natives in Salamanca and in class, the American program students would speak English with one another during program events. Other than that, this study abroad was phenomenal.