An incredible summer spent in precious little Salamanca. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Overall, this trip was amazing. I had never been overseas before and it was incredible to live in a Spanish-speaking country for two months. We went on excursions to other cities in Spain and Portugal every weekend, visited many cathedrals, museums and got to explore on our own. The classes themselves were actually more of a challenge than my Spanish classes that I have taken at Western. I loved the teachers, the style of the teaching and just how much more I was being challenged. I feel that I have learned a lot through my classes, living there for a long period of time, cultural events, and relying mostly on Spanish to communicate with new friends.

On-site administration of your program

I had two professors from Western living in the same dorm as me and one professor from Seattle Pacific living nearby. We met up at least a couple times a week for events and they were always available for help.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I stayed in a residence that belongs to the University of Salamanca. It was just like most dorm experiences, but we had our own private bathrooms, maids cleaned up after us and the dinner was prepared by a Spanish lady. It was pretty nice. The directors of the residence were always available for help and were very friendly.

I'm a vegetarian and that posed some problems for me on the trip. A majority of the food was ham. In the dorms, I just ate mostly salad, bread and whatever food was offered that wasn't meat. It was a buffet style thing, so that was pretty nice.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I met a lot of new international friends in my classes and even before that. I met some in the residence, some during the Eurocup and some around town. I became a usual at certain bars or restaurants, so I made friends with the people that worked there too. We had an opportunity to take Spanish cooking classes, salsa classes, go to events in the plaza, see a flamenco show. I went into the plaza almost every night and watched ''la tuna'', a group of men dressed up in medieval costumes playing Latin American and Spanish songs. I felt very much a part of the local culture just because I put myself out there and tried new things every chance I had.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

There was a requirement to get a Hepatitis B vaccine before going to Spain, which I had done. Right when I got there, I got sick immediately with some sort of throat infection. We took care of the problem immediately, but the appointment was very different from what I was used to. They didn't take any cultures from my throat, just looked in and prescribed me antibiotics. I went to the pharmacy and bought my antibiotics and took those for ten days, and I was all better. I had horrible migraines partway through the trip also, and I just went to the pharmacist and told them my problem. The pharmacist just asked me some questions and then found something for me that actually worked.

The city is pretty small, so there weren't as many problems as there would be in a city like Barcelona. I was just extra cautious of my stuff and made sure to always walk with someone late at night. There were a lot of poor people who asked for money and tried to trick others into doing something for them, but I just steered clear of them.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Most of the things that I needed the most were already covered by the program's cost. I was served food three times a day, so food wasn't a problem. My only issue was trying to not spend too much on shopping, eating out, or going out at night. I bought a lot of souvenirs as well. I would say, it was a 5 for the most part, but if you want the extra stuff, you might want to budget a little more.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

The whole point of the trip was to learn Spanish. I am a Spanish major, so that was my purpose of going on this trip. I was taking Spanish language, culture, history and conversation classes.

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• Dorm

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• Local Students
• Americans

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• Americans
• International Students

• traveling around
• making international friends
• learning more about the language, culture and history

• The weekly program excursions were overwhelming sometimes
• Housing placement would be better with international students rather than Americans

The Outright Urbanite