The Best Semester of my College Years!

I studied abroad in Seville, Spain during the spring semester of 2019. I will cherish those memories for the rest of my life and I am so grateful for all of the time I was able to live abroad!

Living with a host family was the highlight of my experience. I lived with a older woman and her husband, but her husband was typically away living at their beach house. She only spoke Spanish- and my Spanish was not great upon arrival! We ate lunch and dinner together and that made my Spanish improve dramatically, as well as allowed us to bond. The Spanish people are very direct. I would say that it is more offensive to be wasteful of food and say you like it, than to say you don’t like it or don’t prefer it. To have a good relationship I think it is important to keep your room and area clean, to communicate directly, and to occasionally bring home little treats from travels (my host mom loved that!)

For a typical school day, I only went to school from 9-6, two days per week. I would have four classes throughout the day. They were blocks of about an hour and a half I believe! I would sit and eat lunch with my friends outside or run the track at the university.

The API excursions happened every so often, and were so fun! We got to stay in amazing places, like a Montessori! They provided educational and informational tours as well. They also arranged fun things for us to do in Sevilla, like go to the movies or attend a tile painting class.

I traveled outside of Spain quite frequently! I went to about 8 different countries, like Morocco, France, and Hungary. I would take the bus to the airport (it cost 4 euros) and then hop on a flight out of Sevilla! The flights were generally very inexpensive (like round trip to Italy for 30 euros).

I always felt safe in Sevilla. I would walk to and from my house very late a night with my roommate, and although we were on guard just in case, I never felt like I needed to be. Sevilla has more petty crime, like stealing bike tires, as opposed to violent crime. API was also so helpful when it came to safety and health. I was sick for about a week and needed to go to the doctor when I was there. My host mom called API and they arranged for a translator to be on the phone with me at the hospital. My host mom held my hand the whole time and I felt at peace because of the support around me provided by API.

Sevilla became my home, and it will always have a special place in my heart.