This is my first year truly living abroad. CIEE has made a truly wonderful experience with teaching seminars and email blasts offered every so often to update us, keep us informed, and offer programs to help us improve our experience here in Madrid as well as our teaching skills! CIEE made the daunting VISA process simple with step-by-step instructions and instructors and group leaders available with any questions along the way. The accommodations during the orientation program were phenomenal--offering breakfast daily, a safe place to stay, and helpful group activities during orientation. My group leader, Sandra Kinkaid, was super fun and insightful. Her awesome walking tours and friendly advice were invaluable during what could´ve been a very stressful first week here. I loved my year here so much, I´m renewing for a second! I highly recommend this program for first-timers
living abroad.

After being born and raised in Los Angeles, going to university there, and spending my first year as a graduate working in LA, I found myself yearning for a dramatic change of pace. I then learned about CIEE and eventually made the decision to leave everything to move to teach English in Spain. I had little to no experience as a teacher nor as a world traveler, but CIEE really provided us with the resources and community to begin thriving from the moment we arrived. And along with everything CIEE provided, Madrid is just an incredible place to live, work, learn Spanish, make tons of international friends, and much more.

Honestly, I chose CIEE because I was half nervous/half lazy to try and figure out the paperwork process on my own. After having been in Spain for almost a year now, I know that I could've completed the paperwork on my own. However, having CIEE's help, training, and hotel accommodation at the beginning of my stay here in Madrid took a lot of stress off of me. I would 100% say it's worth it to go through CIEE if they didn't charge so much, but I'm not sure the help was the worth the amount I gave them to help me. Still, I'm grateful for the help and the extra classes they held for participants throughout the year.

Madrid was amazing. I taught 4th, 5th and 6th grade at a bilingual school in the suburbs and the students and teachers I worked with were great. Everyone spoke English pretty well and most of my teaching was in a small group setting. The pay was definitely liveable for the city and every month I was able to budget in some traveling too. I think the hardest part of going abroad was the language barrier. Even though I have a minor in Spanish it was difficult to communicate effectively at times but I tried to look at it as a learning opportunity. I was almost fluent by the end of the school year! I would highly recommend this program for anyone who likes teaching and wants to live abroad and travel!

The program is great in terms of answering questions about visas and paperwork. They’re very knowledgeable about housing and safety and things to do in Madrid. However, past that, I didn’t gain much and don’t think it’s worth the money. Orientation wasn’t super useful and the hotel is overpriced, although it is cool that you get to meet so many other teachers. I’d recommend applying through the ministry instead!

Coming to teach in Spain through CIEE was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I had always wanted to live abroad but the logistics of applying to programs and all of the legal paperwork were extremely overwhelming. I felt very supported by CIEE, who constantly kept me in the loop on deadlines and important information via email. They got me through the visa-application process, and equipped me with incredibly useful information about how to find housing, a phone provider, etc. It was amazing to always have a reliable place to ask all my questions.

I've had an amazing experience teaching in Madrid. But I wish I'd applied directly through the Ministry instead of through CIEE. CIEE is really expensive and didn't offer me the help I needed. If you already speak some Spanish (I could get what I needed but was an intermediate speaker when I arrived) and if you have experience and are comfortable traveling, then it's so worth it to apply directly through the Ministry. You get much better healthcare (if you go through CIEE, you must pay up front and out of pocket, only to be reimbursed several weeks later-- which many people can't afford and functionally means you have no insurance). For me, CIEE was a waste of money, but if you don't speak Spanish and/or need lots of hand-holding because you don't have much experience abroad, then I suppose it's worth the money! Here's a searchable facebook group with all the info you could need: https://www.facebook.com/groups/madridauxiliares/

CIEE was the perfect program to help me prepare to teach in Spain. I appreciated they're help I obtaining my visa, answering questions, and preparing me for life in Spain.

The communication was excellent! Every one of my questions via email was answered within 48 hours. Having step by step help obtaining my visa was especially helpful. Many people who went to the consulate the same day as I did were missing an item or two from the list, but with the list provided by CIEE I had all of the necessary documents. Orientation was not only a good way to prepare to live in Spain, but also meet people in the program. I still spend time with several of the auxiliars that I met through CIEE.

One of the best parts ofb teaching in Spain is how easy it is to travel around Europe! I have loved seeing so many different cultures and so many different places. Make the most of it!

Some advice would be to watch the webinars they've put online. This will help you make a good decision about what type of program is best for you. Also, I would reach out to your school at the beginning of September via email or phone and take some time to stop by if you can before you begin. It gives you a chance to meet some of the teachers and shows that you are someone who is dedicated to this position. Best of luck!