Amazing artistic, cultural, and traveling experiences; easy semester September 19, 2022

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

It was my easiest college semester yet. I had a lot of really interesting hands-on, real-life experiences though. There was a lot of making and studying art (obviously) which I wouldn't really consider rigorous, but it was very informative.

On-site administration of your program

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

My apartment was nice and in a great location. My host family was polite and welcoming but they didn't talk to me much so we never became close. I can communicate in Italian, so I'm not sure why they didn't talk to me more. I am also pretty shy so that definitely contributed to the closed off atmosphere.

The Italian food was generally really good, but there weren't many options for non-Italian cuisine in Siena. There were a couple of good Asian restaurants, a burger restaurant, and a kebab place. I found a much better selection of restaurants in the bigger or more diverse cities in Italy that I visited. The Italian grocery stores had a different selection than a typical American one, but it wasn't hard to find everything I needed. The gelato, pastries, and cafes were good! The only bummer was that my host mom was not a good cook, so we ended up eating mediocre, bland pasta almost every night.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I made some Italian friends, but I would have liked to have made more. I didn't realize beforehand that the program was mostly Americans who didn't know any Italian. I ended up spending most of the time speaking English which was not my goal.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Luckily I didn't really have any health issues during the program. I had to pay 20 euros for a covid test at one point, but they also had cheaper at-home tests available. I already had all of the required vaccines.

Siena seemed really safe, especially inside the main walled city. I never felt unsafe, even at night, but I'm also generally a bit less cautious than maybe I should be. I definitely needed to be a little more careful in bigger cities. I tried not to look too much like a tourist.

I thought that I really wanted to study in a smaller city so I could experience a more authentic Italian experience, but it wasn't worth losing the academic benefits of a more rigorous program in a bigger city. I thought that I would speak more Italian in a smaller city with fewer tourists, but the program was mostly in English and all of my classmates were Americans with limited or no Italian experience. I should have chosen a program that was much more language focused. What sort of made up for the lack of Italian language instruction was the uniqueness of my classes. I'm sure that I could have taken an art history class with a different program, but probably not a book arts or silversmithing class. Also, the fact that I didn't have much homework left me available to travel around Italy a lot which was amazing.

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

I spent A LOT of money, almost $1000 a month, but a lot of that was money that I chose to spend on traveling around Italy (trains/busses, housing, dining out, tickets, and souvenirs, it adds up quickly). I traveled about every other weekend (sometimes the whole weekend, sometimes just one day)

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• Host Family
• Apartment

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• Host Family

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• Americans

• Traveling around Italy
• Studying art history and then seeing the actual artworks in person
• Unique classes

• needs better Italian class(es)
• needs more diverse perspectives (Especially from students. We were all upper-middle class, American, liberal, women)
• could use more interaction with Italian people and culture

The Nearly Native or Trail Blazer