EF Stories: Laura from Brazil at EF Santa Bárbara

My name is Laura Mattar, I went on exchange to Santa Barbara with EF in July 2018 and I'm here to tell you a little about the incredible experience I had.

We were in a group of 35 people, and we had EF's full support from the moment we left São Paulo airport, so if you had any questions you could just speak to one of the leaders who accompanied the group. When we arrived in Los Angeles, there was already a transfer waiting to take us to Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is a very charming place. I loved walking around all day and getting to know every little corner. The residence is huge, has an incredible structure, excellent rooms and best of all, a very good cafeteria with excellent food - I even learnt that it has been refurbished and is even better. The EF school is also very beautiful and cosy. My teacher was very kind and the classes were very interactive, I loved it!

My program was a three-week course and on one of the weekends I also went to Las Vegas. It was really cool, it's a magical city! On the fourth week we went to Los Angeles just to explore the city. It was also super fun. I went to Universal Studios, Hollywood, Disneyland, Six Flags, the Walk of Fame, Madame Tussauds, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills, among many other famous places - and it was all included in my travel package.

Now there's something I couldn't possibly fail to mention: the friendships I've made during this month. I've made so many friends that I couldn't possibly mention them one by one right now. True friendships that I'm still in touch today and never intend to lose. This trip was made to be great, with them it was five times better. So, my tip to you is make friends and have as much fun as you can. Oh, and take lots of photos too. I regret not having taken more to look at and remember. I thank the whole EF team for the experience!