Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

Loved the Cafe Valenciana just in front of the Universitat - also the Bar Estudiantil...We also went to the local Subway on the Ramblas quite a bit when we felt like a taste of home. The Festival de la Merce in the fall is not to be missed. The whole city participates and comes alive - there are costumes, fireworks, parties, no one sleeps..it is amazing to see.

The accomodations in Barcelona were varied...we were given help from our program coordinator - (Pilar) - but it was up to us to choose where we wanted to go. We were also able to change residences if the accomodations were not to our liking and Pilar also assisted with this. Overall I have no complaints. Looking for the apartment myself was a learning experience.

In some of these questions there is no oppportunity for me to distinguish between local/language of instruction. Barcelona is a special case because the national language of Spain, Castellano, is spoken, but the regional dialect (which is pretty much a completely different language), Catalan, is also spoken as it is Cataluna. I did not learn Catalan and concentrated all my efforts on Castellano. So I consider the local language the same as the language of instruction - Castellano. The opportunity to learn either was great and I loved practicing my Spanish every day in Barcelona.

No real surprises as I already had lived abroad - I knew what to expect. The ebst way to save money is to find people to stay with in other cities when traveling....also skimping on going out to restaurants would be a good move if you are trying to save money - but that takes discipline.

Study abroad is truly an amazing experience. Everyone should be able to do it. You come back feeling like you can do anything after livinga year in someone else's culture and flourishing in it. I feel like Americans especially should partake in such programs as we tend to be a very egocentric society. It is good to see how other people live and what the possibilities are in life.