During Deutschland

I studied abroad with USAC during Fall 2016. I was in Lüneburg, a small town about thirty minutes outside of Hamburg, for four months and I learned more about myself and my culture during that time than I ever expected to. In my opinion Lüneburg was the perfect city to study in. It was small enough that you weren't surrounded by tourists and people who were going to be speaking English, but close enough to a big city that it was easy to travel around and find the resources that you needed.
I stayed with a host family that quickly became like a real family. Choosing this housing option made my experience better than I could have ever hoped. It really gave me the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the language and the culture. USAC offered multiple different housing options, though, so if this hadn't been the best choice for me it would have been easy to find a new situation.
The classes were awesome! I did the language intensive program, so I took four semesters worth of German classes in the timespan of one semester helping me finish my minor. It might sound scary, but it wasn't! The teachers are very good and very understanding and you can even go study without any prior German language experience!
USAC also provided multiple excursions to other parts of Germany so that we could branch out and see the rest of the country. Even when they didn't have USAC sanctioned events, there was multiple three-day weekends that you could use to go all around. I was able to visit Spain, Copenhagen, Munich, Italy, Amsterdam, and London during my program which was an unbelievable opportunity.
Overall the support and opportunities that USAC gave me made this the best possible experience. I highly recommend studying through USAC if you want a program with a lot of support and options. Now it's time to plan my trip back to Germany!