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All good things must come to an end, but memories of this town will never be forgotten.

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I am experiencing another culture, learning a new language, making new friends, and in the process, learning about myself.

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I am thankful that the host family shared their comfortable home with me. I enjoyed my stay very much and plan on visiting again soon.

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I enjoyed studying at Simon Bolivar a great deal. The school was well-organized. The building was great, classrooms pleasant. Free email was great. My homestay was very pleasant with Conchi and Alejo, though the house was a bit of a long walk into town. The tours, cooking classes, music classes, etc. are wonderful additions that create a well-rounded experience. Classes cost more that at some other schools in Quito but the benefits made the cost worth it.

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The staff at this school is excellent. I rate it down a bit overall due to the administration. The office personnel are neither warm nor genuine and are inclined to give somewhat misleading info whe it serves them financially. I recommend this school for great teachers and a fun, teacher organized weekday extra curricular program - just be advised to pay close attention to all financial transactions with the office and look for alternative, less expensive, weekend outing opportunities even when they try to discourage you from doing so.

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I really enjoyed the activities provided by the school and my host family was wonderful! Private language tutoring was very effective and creative.

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Me encanta Simon Bolivar y Cuenca. Gracias por todo especialmente a Marta y Pamela!!!

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I spent a very enjoyable week at Academia Simon Bolivar in Cuenca. The staff were very friendly and the quality of teaching was excellent.

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The school in Cuenca is in a great location which makes it easy for students to attend the excellent optional classes (especially Salsa) and to socialise. They admin and support staff were brilliant. Cuenca is the BEST city to study in!

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I really hat a great time on this school! I really liked my spanish lessons and I used the language a lot during my travel through South America! The lessons were good and the excursions, the salsalessons and the party's were also great. And besides that I stayed with a lovely family! So don't hesitate, go to Cuenca and visit Simon Bolivar Spanish School!

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The teacher makes or breaks a school. Unfortunately, I didn't have a good teacher. She was bored and unorganized. Four hours of one-to-one instruction with a bored and unorganized teacher was like having root canal dental surgery. It was painful. I don't totally blame the teacher. I mostly blame the school. It takes skill and continuing education of a teacher to know how to engage a student for one-to-one lessons for four hours a day. The school should have done a better job training the teacher or at least rotated the teacher so that the student is exposed to a different teacher. When the school told me after two weeks that I would continue with the same teacher, I changed school. Luckily, I only paid one-week in advance so I could change to a different school. That's the key tip that I want everyone to remember. NEVER EVER PAY FOR MORE THAN ONE WEEK IN ADVANCE FOR LESSONS! There's no refund if you're unsatisfied and decide to change schools. I've attended 5 other schools in 5 different countries. This was my worest experience. You can tell that this is a for-profit school and their aim is to attract students and make money. I have no argument with that. I just believe that if they are going to advertise themself as a language school, they need to hire and continually train their teachers so that their student customer isn't sitting for four hours a day wasting away and learning nothing.

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My teacher, Graciela "Chela" Quinde, seemed very nice and definitely was a good teacher. However, I noticed that my husband, whom she also was teaching, was not learning much Spanish. Well, guess what! She pretended to be my friend and then began an affair with my husband of 28 years. He, being in the mid-life crisis mode, left me and his kids and is still with her so far as I know. I may have a broken heart, but thanks to Chela, I can now say "I love and miss my husband so very much" and "my kids miss him, too" in Spanish as well as English. My husband and I still are married but, according to her, they are in a "serious" relationship. Go figure. I guess she's satisfied being "always the bridesmaid and never the bride."

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The school was great! I attended the full program for a few weeks and I have to admit that my Spanish skills started to improve pretty quick. The administration staff and the teachers are very kind and friendly. Overall, it's a very organized school.

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The best part of my experience with Simor Bolivar was my host family - they were some of the kindest people I´ve met, the food was delicious and they were extremely hospitable and friendly. However, my classes were on the boring side - I had two different teachers and they both just stuck strictly to the book and the exercised and didn´t use their imagination for hands-on activities. Also, conversation is not emphasized enough, solo grammar. The school charges a lot for their social activities as well, although salsa lessons are usually included. I felt that the school was overpriced.

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I studied at a total of 4 different schools, plus had 2 separate private teachers, in 3 countries in Central and South America. I thought Simon Bolivar was by far the best. In addition to having more activities than a lot of the other schools (during the week, for free), the quality of the instruction was a lot higher. My private tutor in Bolivia saw the textbook that I had from Simon Bolivar and couldn't believe it was from another school in South America. He had only seen published textbooks from places in Spain. My family was also phenomenal. I literally was a part of the family, which meant I went to weddings and birthday parties with them. I had 2 professors - Nancy and Maria Augusta (I think that was her name) and they were both great. I did have another teacher one day I didn't like as much, but I feel confident that if I had been assigned to her for more than one day and complained, they would have changed teachers. Marta is also fantastic, and I would have felt comfortable chatting with most of the teachers during the break. Also, Cuenca was a great place to be studying. I walked all over the place and felt safe.

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I liked everything about this school, especially the teacher quality, but was forced to leave all too quickly because they changed my teacher every week. It´s very hard to learn when the first day of every week is wasted because the new teacher has to learn your level. I would highly recommend this school if you are planning to take a full course load (4 hours a day 5 days a week), but not if you plan on taking any less. Full time students will get priority over you, and you will get whatever teacher is leftover with holes in their schedule for your week. Noone will tell you this when you sign up- you will just be surprised to find a new teacher in your classroom every Monday. Also, if you aren´t taking ¨enough hours then you will not be provided with materials.