Incredible City & Amazing Program

The CIEE ALA program struck a perfect balance between the comfort and support of my home university and immersion in Catalan culture. The size of the program—about 30 students—was perfect and meant that I got to meet a lot of awesome students, while still being close with the whole group. The instructors and program directors at CIEE were some of the warmest people I've met, and classes at 'la casa' were always interesting. While the classes at the University of Barcelona were challenging, the professors were understanding of the difficult transition to Spanish-language instruction, and were—for the most part—helpful inside and outside of class.

Beyond the classroom, the CIEE program couldn't have been more supportive. There were multiple occasions where we met with our program directors outside of class for meals or other adventures. We traveled all as a group to San Sebastian and Bilbao, an had an amazing time together. They were also incredibly helpful with things like setting up medical care and straightening out banking difficulties, which made being far from home much more comfortable.

Barcelona is like a second home to me after my experience last semester, and I couldn't imagine a better study abroad program.