Best year of my life

I graduated in 2004, and my year abroad in the Reading program is still the best year of my life, for many reasons--the opportunity to take tutorials with Oxford professors, the proximity of Reading to London and the continent, and the sheer wonderfulness of the program director. One of my fondest memories is of taking a Victorian novel class with just one other student at the program director's house, where we'd discuss the 800-page book of the week over tea and with his cat purring next to us on the couch. Heaven!
Another wonderful thing about this program is that you go with a cohort of classmates, so you aren't just thrown abroad to fend for yourself; you're on a learning curve with other students from your institution. My sister spent her junior year abroad in Leeds but as an individual student, and she often felt overwhelmed because she didn't know who to ask for help.