"Study" Abroad Past Review

By A student (Middlebury College) - abroad from 09/01/2016 to 01/19/2017 with

Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury in Niterói

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?

I learned how to live on my own in a foreign country. I improved my portuguese a lot. I got to see a whole different part of the world and my perspective on many things shifted because of my time there.

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program?	2 weeks - 1 month

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.	Classes stopped after a month and a half because of protests. Before they stopped they were not very good.
* Host Country Program Administration On-site administration of your program
* Housing: How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?	Was very far from the university and paying over 2x what other int'l students were paying (granted I was paying for a homestay in a nice neighborhood and food at the house). Ended up moving after a month and a half to an apartment with grad students next to the uni.
* Food:	Cafeteria closed after three weeks due to protests. Had to cook for myself for basically the whole semester. The food in Rio is not much beyond rice, beans and meat. To be clear, this is in no way an assessment of the food I cooked (which was amazing).
* Social & Cultural Integration: How integrated did you feel with the local culture?
* Health Care: How well were health issues addressed during the program?	I didn't need any healthcare luckily.
* Safety:	Knew lots of people who were robbed both in Rio and Niteroi. Nobody got hurt, just lost phones and wallets. Be careful and smart. Don't go out at night alone, especially if you're a woman. Listen to the Brazilians when they tell you not to do things related to safety.
If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program?	Yes

Finances

* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget? (1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants?	Move out of your homestay. Apartments with other students or republicas are much cheaper and can be closer to the university. Plus, the bandejão (cafeteria) is very cheap and good so if you can eat there twice a day (lunch and dinner) you should. Even when the cafeteria shut down, it was cheaper to live in an apt and cook for myself than it was to live with the family and have food included in the rent.

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component?	Yes
How much did the program encourage you to use the language? 0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language	Whenever we met it was all Portuguese. But we didn't meet very often
How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program?	Intermediate
How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program?	Advanced
What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure?	Portuguese 215 (Advanced portuguese)
How many hours per day did you use the language?
Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants?	Make brazilian friends! But before you go, get addicted to a brazilian soap opera (there are plenty free to choose from on globo's website). Really helped with my speaking and listening.

Other Program Information

* Where did you live? Select all that apply	Host Family Apartment
* Who did you live with? Select all that apply	Local Students Host Family
* Who did you take classes with? Select all that apply	Local Students Americans International Students
About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with?

A Look Back

* What did you like most about the program?	Brazilians Lack of supervision Rio
* What could be improved?	preparedness for strikes better information about homestay (distance from uni and price) before leaving don't have the director of brazil study abroad teach a class, she was great but very busy and often cancelled class because of problems in other cities
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program?	I wish I knew that school would stop and how much free time I would have

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:	Oceanografia da Pesca
Course Department:	Biologia marinha
Instructor:
Instruction Language:	Portuguese
Comments:	As an american the expectations were not very clear. 4h lectures and tests. Again, class stopped after a month due to protests.
Credit Transfer Issues:

Course Name/Rating:	Inteligência Artificial
Course Department:	Computação
Instructor:
Instruction Language:	Portugues
Comments:	I downloaded the textbook and stayed home, lectures were not very extensive and left many confused. I think the reason I did well was because I didn't go to class and did group projects by myself.
Credit Transfer Issues:

Course Name/Rating:	Introdução a filosofia
Course Department:	Filosofia
Instructor:
Instruction Language:	Portuguese
Comments:	Professor was great, unfortunately class stopped after a month. Was sad to see this one go. I think I liked it more because it was an intro class and therefore was easier for me to follow as an exchange student.
Credit Transfer Issues:

Course Name/Rating:	Antropologia da Musica
Course Department:	Antropologia
Instructor:
Instruction Language:	Portuguese
Comments:	Difficult and hard to follow, both the texts, in class discussions and tests. I was glad this one stopped. I did not participate much because I didn't understand much.
Credit Transfer Issues: