Spain: Alicante - Spanish Language, Linguistics, European, and Gender Studies

I studied abroad with USAC in Alicante last summer. I was 26 wih a Masters and was my first time studying abroad and first time spending an extended amount of time in a foreign country. I was going with the goal of taking a graduate level course and learning a bit of Spanish along the way. The USAC program helped me achieve these goals and so much more. My professor for Spanish Gender Studies (Pilar) was one of the best professors I've ever had. She cares so deeply about the subject, her students, and education in general. She helped me tailor my research paper to be relevant to the course, my interests, and my job, and she was an invaluable resource throughout the project. I decided to audit an intermediate Spanish course as well, and had a wonderful professor (Paloma) who understood that I was a beginner and challenged me to learn as much as possible in our short four week course. I did spend a lot of time Monday through Fridays on campus at UA , but I don't think that got in my way of spending time with my apartment mates , going out for tapas, salsa dancing, shopping, to bars , museums, and playa posiguet. I had an intercambio who I still keep in touch with, and went on a few awesome excursions led by the incredible director, Luis. In the short 4 weeks of this summer program, I made long term friends, learned about The history and role of women in Spain, aprendí un poquito de la lengua, explored parts of Spain I never would have seen on my own, lived in downtown Alicante, and had an overall amazing time.

I LOVED living in Alicante. Even though it was winter, it never went below 60 and was sunny everyday. Friends and I traveled to Barcelona one weekend as well. The Resident Director was so friendly and helpful!

There is a local market where you can buy fresh groceries and the sellers are so kind and happy to help teach spanish. I lived a 5 minute walk from the beach and in the center of downtown. Everything is centrally located and I could easily see the entire city in a day. You can take the metro to school with a pass. Living here is really cheap compared to many parts of Europe. In USAC, the staff is great and will help at anytime with anything. They set me up with housing, roommates, and a job. When my boyfriend hurt himself riding his bike they took him to the ER with no questions asked. Everyone was so welcoming and I don't regret a single day.

My session was short; classes were small and teachers did not follow the syllabi but instead changed lesson plans to focus on our weaknesses. I learned more in 5 weeks there than in any of my classes back in the US.

The host family I was placed with absorbed me into their family right away. I felt extremely welcomed, included, and loved. I was terrified to move to another country and live with strangers but my house mom was more accepting and helpful than I could have dreamt of.

The program offered multiple weekend field trips to nearby cities in a very short time frame. This program was well rounded; I feel like they were able to share every aspect of Spanish life with us in every way imaginable (through trips, food, class structure, housing, etc).

My experience in Alicante changed something in me; I have realized how much I do not know about other cultures and how much more I want to learn. Because of this program, I have returned to Spain and am working as a language assistant in Palma de Mallorca. I had to find a way to come back and I am not sure I ever want to go home!

My time studying abroad was everything I had wished for, a good host family, great classes, amazing program directors, and good people. My best tip would be to live with a host family in your city and have an open mind - especially with meeting the locals.

Everyday riding the bus to school, to becoming a spanish college student, to being an independent women in this new city of Alicante. This experience USAC provided me with was a never ending learning and life changing experience. I not only grew as a person, but was a ble to fully embrace another culture with the means USAC thoughtfully provided me with. The was endless possibilities, opportunities, and experiences that were handed to me and was really able to take it all in mentally, physically, emotionally. I am still liberated off this life changing opportunity I am so grateful to have had. Being a college student with little means to be able to travel overseas, USAC made it happen. The Staff, the USAC Community, the entire organization made one my life long dreams come true. If it wasn't for their constant support, kind advise, and willingness to work with your financial situations, I wouldn't be on here to express my gratitude. So thank you USAC, I 100% support all that you do. Thank You.

The experience I had in this city and the study abroad program was unreal. Any fears, doubts or nerves went out the window when I arrived in San Sebastián with all my new friends and the USAC advisors. They made it clear that they would be there to help with anything we needed and they were not lying. After a month or so there I got extremely sick and I had an advisor take me to the doctors and translate my symptoms and medicine I needed. In San Sebastián it was easy to get to school by foot but also by bike and usac made it easy by giving us bike rental places to go get them. All of the students housing there was also amazing. I lived in an apartment with 3 other girls and we lived right in the art of old town. Everything about my experience was incredible. From the travel the travel and weekend trip to immersing myself in the Spanish cultures. I highly recommend studying abroad and using usac as your program.

I do not have enough amazing things to say about USAC or about Alicante. The on-site staff (Luis, Sylvain and Veronica) are incredible and are always in the office available to help with anything you could possibly need, such as travel or restaurant recommendations. All of the USAC professors are great- they're very clear, extremely fun to be in class with, incredibly nice and overall great teachers. What I am most grateful for is that I decided to live with a host family. I knew from personal experience with different program providers in other parts of Spain that host family situations could be risky, however USAC did an exceptional job choosing the families and everyone who decided to live with a family loved the experience. I only had a host mother in my family and she treated me like family and was an amazing cook. For anyone considering studying abroad, I believe that living with a family is truly the only way to become fully immersed in the culture and the best way to learn the language. I also really enjoyed being set up with an intercambio (a local student language partner) as it was a great way to meet/hang out with locals and practice my Spanish. The excursions USAC took us on were a lot of fun (and we were always fed really well!) and Alicante is an amazing city. It is small enough so that everything is relatively close (and walkable) but it still has everything I could want in a city (good shopping, fun night life, great restaurants, beaches, etc.). It is also very close by tram to many cute cities nearby that are beautiful and fun to explore so there is never a shortage of things to do. Overall, this summer I met a lot of great people, improved my Spanish drastically and experienced a lot of personal growth. I cannot wait to have the opportunity to return to Alicante and I highly recommend USAC and Alicante to anyone interested in studying abroad (which I believe everyone should do).