Vienna, the most Beautiful, Fun and Friendly city in the World! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The workload was quite a bit however we were in a shorter summer program taking the same classes offered in a regular semester, so with that in mind it was reasonable. It wasn't too much and we had lots of fun taking field trips to historical sites that we had just read about. The performance class was excellent, I had a lot of fun studying with my classmates. Every day someone would perform in front of the class and the rest of us would give feedback, it was great seeing everyone improve daily especially since none of us played the same instrument!

On-site administration of your program

It was great, the only problem was the jet lag made it difficult to pay attention. They repeated everything of course when we asked over the next 6 weeks. Very helpful, very informative.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Two sets of clean sheets were provided for us, as well as a full kitchen with appliances and cookware. We had I believe four refrigerators and two freezers so there was plenty of space for all our food. We had to buy our food ourselves which was a lot of fun since my roommates and I enjoyed going to the market to buy fresh fruits and veggies and our favorite, hummus! We had a sort of RA living with us, basically just to give us the introduction to our house and give us keys and show us how the recycling works. She also helped us with basic information such as how the public transportation worked and where nearby stores were for whatever needs we had. She was lovely and all of us that lived in apartments with RAs became friends with them.

We could never eat enough, they kept trying to give us more food! I have food allergies and a friend was Vegetarian and neither of us had any trouble with the food.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I took a personal trip to Melk, and went to a Brass Festival which was amazing. The others went to the Vienna Phil concert that is held every summer. I still see it broadcast on television from time to time. We went to the Opera House every weekend for only 3euros. We went to the famous bath houses in Baden, we saw Prague on a field trip. We visited countless historical sites. It was an incredible experience to say the least. Oh, and of course, some of us took a weekend trip to Salzburg and went on the Sound of Music tour which included summer tobogganing down the Austrian Alps! Then our last week in Vienna us Americans had a BBQ on the Danube River.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I fell ill the last week we were there and couldn't walk so a doctor came to my apartment to see me. I missed one of my finals and was given an extension of 6 months to complete the course. We were all given healthcare which covered everything, for me at least. I was given prescriptions which were easy to find with the help of locals and the staff. Another friend had to go to the hospital due to an injury and he was well taken care of, again with the help of locals and our staff.

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

Go out and meet the locals. It forces you to communicate. Start off buy just buying some fruits or something from the same stand or shop on your way to school, you'll get to know the seller and they will recognize you and be nice about your lack of language skills and will help you with words and expressions. The repetition of vocabulary and familiarization with the seller will give you confidence and then you can go out and try out what you've learned on other people! Everyone is nice and is excited to communicate with someone who speaks English so even if you can't get it right the first time they will be able to help you and probably are close to fluent in English (don't let them only speak to you in English though, you need to learn the language don't let them practice English on you, you paid the plane ticket not them!) And of course, practice with your classmates, eventually you'll all develop a mixed language that is filled with inside jokes (which of course help you remember more vocab)!

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• Apartment
• Host Family

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• Americans

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• Americans

• The opportunities given to the students.
• Going out in the city of Vienna and the faculty constantly informing us of local events
• Meeting so many different musicians to help me learn to perform better. The students, the teachers, our accompanist sessions and private lessons.

• Sometimes field trips did not seem very organized but we made the best of it and still had wonderful experiences.
• Please continue doing this, we may have missed out on so much if we had not been informed by the faculty!
• This was perfect.