Wonderful experience with IES Abroad

While I was abroad, I met up with a friend who was studying abroad in Spain and was traveling to Paris for the weekend. She was studying through her home institution and knew almost everyone in her program in Spain. She explained it was almost an extension of her university, and many people in the program did not know Spanish. Her traveling companions even explained to me how they never spoke to their host families because they did not speak Spanish and their families did not speak English. There classes were too easy and they felt as if they could be living in America if not for the fact they were halfway across the world.

If this is what you want, then IES Abroad is not for you. However, I was turned off by the typical extension-of-America study abroad programs commonly offered by large universities with campuses around the world. I wanted to feel as though I was a resident of my host country: speak the language, eat the food, be set in the routine of a typical Parisian student. Luckily, IES gave me exactly that. The classes were all in French and offered a challenge that only serious students could take on. I felt as if I was Parisian for four months when I would hop on the metro, roll my eyes in annoyance at the accordion player as we sped past the Eiffel Tower, and skim my French novel for that day's class discussion. Although there were bumps along the way, IES prepared students to become integrated into French culture and experience life as a real university student instead of a four-month American vacation.