Verto was a horrible experience

My experience at Verto in Seville was horrible. The first month and a half of the semester was nice, being able to experience a new country by living in it is an amazing opportunity, but soon started some problems with my roommate (I had a roommate already assigned to me but the staff messed it up at the last second so the girl that became my roommate was not known to me until 3 days before move in). It got to the point where I had to leave the student residency and live with a host family for the rest of the time I was there. I had received nonstop harassment from 2 girls with texts threatening me and my family as well as them trashing my room and stealing clothes and my dishes that I had bought to share but while in the process of moving to the host family my things were stolen. I had begged the verto staff for help and no one was able to help except two staff members who had helped me go to a host family. I felt completely helpless and the verto staff did basically nothing. I had a few classes with these girls and I had asked for weeks for the verto staff if it was possible to adjust my schedule (switching two classes for different hours which would have been a simple switch based on how my class schedule was set.) I understand there are rules that have to be followed in terms of scheduling and classes, but based on the circumstances I was i felt that it was just that I could have help with this. Instead I was faced with ridicule. As for the academics, the teachers were very good especially Professor Carlos, he really wanted to see every student succeed and he showed me a kindness that I could not find in other staff members during the things that were happening to me in the second half of the semester. Another problem with this program is that if you do not go to one of their partner universities it can be hard to make a solid group of friends. I now study in Portugal full time and I’ve realized a huge difference between European students and American students. The difference I saw was that with the American students it was very cliquey, if you didn’t go to their school then they wouldn’t want to talk to you, with Europeans they are normally with open arms to welcome new people. It was similar with the staff, the Spanish staff were very helpful with everything and made an effort to put themselves out there for us to be comfortable but I cannot say the same for the American staff.