Nic Trips

In 2012, after completing my sophomore year of college, I traveled to Spain to study abroad for a summer semester. My total stay in Spain lasted 7 weeks, and I took 3 classes at the University of Salamanca: Spanish Art, Contemporary Spanish History, and Advanced Spanish Language. All of the classes were taught completely in Spanish, as there were students from all over the world at this University and not everyone spoke English. (flying into Madrid) I booked the study abroad program through AIFS (American Institute for Foreign Study). They made the trip as easy as can be, arranging every little thing to make it as stress-less as possible. There were even several excursions included where they brought us on tours around Spain and some other countries on weekends. This began with a weekend in London on our way into Europe. From there, the group flew together to Madrid, where we got to spend a day and a night touring the capital city. (Playa Mayor, Madrid) Salamanca is one of ...

In the fall of 2008, I had a foreign exchange student from Colombia in my 11th grade history class. At the end of class one day, our teacher asked the student to sit at the front of the room so we could ask him questions about his home country and his opinions of the United States. I became inspired by his experiences and decided that I wanted to study abroad myself. One of my friends and I decided that we would go abroad together. We were both taking Spanish in school and decided to go to a Spanish speaking country. We spent hours of free time after school doing research, but were never able to find a program within our price range. Soon enough, my friend dropped out of the search because decided she was too afraid of traveling to another country alone, but I was determined. Eventually, I was introduced to a summer study abroad program to Japan. It was still too expensive for me to afford, but I hoped I might have a chance at winning a scholarship and I was ecstatic when I dis...