Unorganized and Inattentive Housing Company Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Most everything here was as you would see in the States. The workload was much less than at home, probably to encourage travel and exploration around the country, but at some times was incredibly overbearing. The grading system was fair for the most part; I never once had a professor let me know how I was doing or give back any papers, so my grade was pretty much a mystery the entire time.

On-site administration of your program

There are several things that could be improved upon here. The support is good for the most part, but with the plethora of housing issues we ran into, all they ever did was call the landlord and yell at them. The landlord would then take a few days to a week to complete whatever the task was. At one point near the end of the trip, I ran into a major issue where I needed a response immediately regarding my flight plans and it took nearly four days for the administration to get back to me either by e-mail or phone.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Housing through "The Agency" was unlivable. Not only were we put so far away from campus that it was a 45 minute walk to get into town, but we were all but forgotten about. We were promised internet within two weeks of being there and two and a half months later, we finally got it. About two weeks ago, our water went out and it took them nearly a week to finally fix it. We were without water, showers, or bathrooms for a week in our own apartment. When they replaced the pipes, they did all their construction in our common room, rendering the room unusable and coating the entire apartment in a thick layer of dust. Every morning starting at 8AM and ending at around 6PM at night, there is construction going on on the floor above us. The loud banging and sounds of power tools pretty much force us to leave the apartment between those hours. Recently, we found out that the big scuff on the wall that we though was just a mark was a 3' by 5' splotch of black mold. Lovely living here.

We usually cooked our own food, but when we didn't, we made a general rule to stay at least a block away from any major tourist spots.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Everything that was arranged by the program was filled up by the second day, so I never was able to participate in anything. Fortunately, I heard most of the programs were a waste of money and time.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

We had black mold in our apartment that made all of us sick. We also had no smoke alarms in our entire building. Florence is an abundantly safe city, with the exception of a wandering drunk or two. I never ran into any issues walking home alone late at night.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

My Italian professor was awesome. I learned more in that class than I did in all of the others combined. Unfortunately, most people here speak decent English, so I didn't really have to use the skills I learned.

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• Apartment

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• Americans

• Freedom with classes.
• My Italian teacher was great.
• Florence is a great "hub" city.

• Administration is unorganized and doesn't seem to care.
• Most professors seem like they'd rather be hitting their heads on cobblestones than teaching.
• Housing is unlivable and puts you in buildings that should be condemned.