Study Abroad

[Z.Black]

So… who’s done it? The school I’m transferring into has a TON of programs, and I have a short-list… but it’s just that, a list.

So who here’s studied abroad?
Where?
And what did you think of it?

Anything would be helpful right about now. Besides, stories are fun!

 

[DisneyGirl421]

*raises hand* me!

I studied in Florence, Italy this past fall through Syracuse Universtiy Abroad-Florence. It was an AMAZING experience.
I stayed with a host family. If you have an opportunity to stay with a host family, do it. I learned so much about the Florentine culture just by living with a real Italian family. Plus, home-cooked Italian meals every night... yummmmy. I miss my host mother's pesto sauce sooooo much, haha.
I was also able to travel almost every single weekend. SUF didn't have classes on Fridays, so we either left Thursday night or early Friday morning, and came home on Sunday early-to-late evening. Throughout the semester, I traveled to: Greece, England, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and all over Italy. Flights and trains are relatively cheap (if you look in the right places... Ryan Air, Click Air, and Easy Jet have really cheap flights... My flight from Barcelona to Lisbon was literally 10 Euros, lol).

ok, I've rambled enough. If you have any other questions feel free to ask! I love talking about my abroad experience, as it was the best four months in my entire life

 

[Lost_1n_oz]

I did! From February to July last year! I went to Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and honestly it was the absolute best 6 months of my life! I have absolutely nothing bad to say about it at all! I go to Arizona State University, but I went through Institute for Study Abroad with Butler University and they were amazing! There was a little orientation weekend at the beach for the first few days and we got to get to know everyone who was going to the same school! It helped a lot because by the time we actually got to the school everything was already a lot less scary. The school has apartments for international kids that house 5 and everyone has their own bedroom and bathroom and I got to live with 2 kids from my IFSA Butler group and 2 others from Indonesia and Hong Kong. Butler also took us on a bunch of different outtings throughout the time we were there. . .we learned to surf and spent a day on this pretty island the first weekend, we got to see a performance at the Sydney Opera House, they took us to the mountains and we had a fun adventure weekends where we got to hike and rock climb, and every school had an advisor type person so we always had someone to contact if we had problems. And she was on the school campus about once a week so we could actually go see her as well! The only thing I might have done differently is choose a different school. . .I loved the school but it was in the Sydney suburbs. There are 2 universities in the main city that might have been more convenient, but the buses were easy and we were in the city all the time! (haha I have no idea if you're thinking Australia, but I think a lot of these points could go for anywhere!) I also got to travel around a ton! I saw the whole east coast of Australia as well as New Zealand and Thailand! It was amazing!

No matter where you are thinking of going, I would definitely recommend Institute for Study Abroad - Butler University if it's available through your school. They have programs in lots of different countries and they were so helpful and amazing throughout my entire time there! I also really liked that it was not as scary as just throwing myself into this new place thousands of miles away from home. They eased my fears a lot and that definitely made a difference in my first few weeks there!

Haha sorry that was a lot, I'm just super excited about it!

 

[Z.Black]

DisneyGirl421 – That sounds like so much FUN! Italy was on my short list, but seeing as I don’t speak Italian I’m not sure how that’ll go.
Which brings me to a question, how much Italian did you have to know to go? I’m going to assume you probably picked up more Italian while you were there yes?
I think a few of the programs I’m looking at have host families, my worry, I’ve heard both good things and bad things about them. Hmm… I will have to think on it.
The travel aspect is why most of my list is in Europe. I’d love to be able to travel around and visit all of those countries. Did you go with your host family, a group from your college, with a group of friends, or all the above?

Lost 1n oz - ISU is the group my school uses, I’m glad to hear so many good things about it! New Zealand’s also on my list, so it’s actually really nice to hear about that part of the world. But it is good to know that your program (and hopefully mine) is so supportive of the students, and takes so much care of them. That’s useful and comforting to know. And it’s good to be excited! That’s what I’m looking for! I can’t be the only one on this board that’s looking at such a program. It’s nice to hear all the good stuff!

Now, a question for both of you (and anyone else who chooses to chime in), how did you decide a time length? 4 months, 6 months, was it set through your school or… how did it work for you, if it wasn’t set, how’d you decide?

And, how did you decide on the places you went? Distance, classes offered at the school, culture, no reason at all?

Anyone else out there travel to new and exciting places? I wish there was an International College Program where us American’s could go to Paris or Hong Kong, or Tokyo. That would be really cool!

 

[DisneyGirl421]

Yay, I love answering questions

My college has a 4 semester foreign language requirement, so I went to Italy after doing those four semesters. I was fairly decent at understanding and reading the language, but I was crap at speaking it. But yes, I picked up the speaking part rather quickly while over there. But don't worry if you don't speak any... I believe the majority of people on my program either had one or no semesters of Italian, and by the end could converse rather well with locals! By being emerged in the culture, you pick it up fast.

Traveling: Most of it was indepently with friends. We planned where we wanted to go
and when, and worked it out by ourselves. As to how we decided where, I knew I wanted to go to London and Spain, so I talked with my friends and figured out who wanted to go with me. As for others, some were spur of the moment trips of going to the train station on the weekend, picking a random Italian town, and going. The first weekend we were there, my host family took me and my roommate to their summer home in Viareggio (Mediterrean Coast), but other than that, I didn't travel with my host family. Other trips were school field trips. I had a class trip to Parma, and then all-school trips to Rome, Ravenna, and Assisi. SUF offers these all-school trips for no cost (besides food), and they provided art historian tour guides to tell us all about the art. It was awesome.

The time part: I went on a semester-long program, end of August through mid-December. I knew I was going to go abroad for an entire semester so thats the programs I looked at. But I know others who did summer programs, year-long programs, or just one month abroad, so there are many to chose from

 

[SweaterInJune]

I didn't study abroad, but I did live abroad as an au pair for a year in Germany. I lived in Bavaria, about half an hour southwest of Munich right in the heart of the Alps. It was the most incredible thing I've ever done. Munich is an incredibly home-y city and I heard more English than German most times...haha. My host family was amazing and wonderful...

I also go to do a lot of traveling while there (traveling is my passion, so to add more to my list of locations, was perfect!): Germany, Greece, Austria, Italy, Vatican, and France. It was AWESOME!

If you have the opportunity to study/work abroad, DO IT!!!

 

[Lost_1n_oz]

My program lengths were set through my school. I got to choose how long I wanted to go for though. . .I had the option of either 1 semester or 2. Through my school we also have summer programs and even winter session programs just for a few weeks from around New Years until when we go back at the end of January. I knew I wanted to go for at least a semester though. As far as the exact time within my college career, it actually worked out really well because my roommate also wanted to study abroad so we coordinated so we would be gone at the same time and then we got another apartment together when we got back so neither of us would get stuck paying the whole rent or trying to have to find someone else to live with for a semester. I honestly wish I could have stayed longer, I know some people who extended their programs while I was abroad, but I only had one semester of school left when I got back and I knew I wanted to do the WDWCP so I had to be back to apply for that as well.

Depending on where you ultimately decide to study there may be a lot of flexibility in time frame within different locations also. My roommate studied in London and she was there from January to the beginning of May. So only about 4 months. I went to Australia and was there from February to the end of July. My program ended up being 2 whole months longer than hers and both of ours were considered 1 semester through our school, so it all depends.

As far as choosing Australia, that was never really a decision for me. I remember the day my roommate and I first started throwing around the idea of studying abroad. And I already knew exactly that day I would go to Australia. I have just always wanted to go there and I just found it fascinating since it seemed so far away and so backwards. And I specifically chose Sydney because I thought being in the biggest city would be the way to go, and I did enjoy it very much. Even at the end of July driving across the bridge getting the first glimpse of the Opera House never ceased to amaze me that I was actually in Australia. Choosing my specific school wasn't hard either actually. A girl who had graduated from my high school a year before me also went to the same college as I did and she studied at the school I went to a year before I did. I facebook stalked her pictures a bit and talked to her about it and she said she loved it so I never even really investigated other schools in Sydney. I know I'm probably not the norm, but it really was all very easy for me. It did help that I didn't really need the school credits. I was almost done with my degree when I went and I had another semester back at home here where I had more than enough space in my schedule to get my requirements done, so I was able to really take classes I was interested in while I was there instead of stressing about what absolutely needed to be done like a lot of my friends.