India: the land of contradition and confusion and sexually frustrated boys and men Past Review
By Katrina L (Public and Community service, Women's Studies, Providence College) for
SIT Study Abroad: India: Public Health, Policy Advocacy, and Community
Yeah, read everything I just wrote above.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
I learned so much from the intensive experiences I had while on excursions and while conducting my Independent Study Project (ISP). The teachers were very caring and accessible. But work was not given back in a timely manner and therefore could not be used to improve further assignments, and guidelines for assignments were never given clearly, which resulted in a fair amount of confusion and frustration. This was also the first semester of this particular program and so not everything always ran as smoothly as planned (characteristic of Indian experiences, also, i.e. unpredictability). Taking this into consideration, my overall experience was really excellent. I couldn't really have expected better. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
My epectations were met because I didn't have many. As I stated above, work was not given back in a timely manner, and because of the intrinsic nature of India sometimes a lecture was rescheduled or we didn't make it to a site visit or something else went wrong. All the participants in the program were young women. This was ok. The dynamic certainly would have been different had there also been young men on our trip. The program size was 18, and that was fine. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Wonderful family. Spoke Hindi with each other and mostly English with us. I lived with one other American student from my program. |
| * Food: |
Indian food is amazing, and home cooked Indian food is incredible!!! |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Everything, I couldn't list them here...village visits, visiting the public hospitals and health centers, etc. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
Delhi is not safe. I never felt unsafe, but I was good about not being out at night or walking/taking a cab alone. I didn't get sick but if I did there was a good clinic accessible to us. I needed a TB test for the program, a typhoid update, made sure tetanus was up to date, and I could have opted to take malaria pills but I didn't, and I didn't get malaria. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* 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) |
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| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | It's India, who knows when I'll be back. I bought a lot of gift items. There weren't any unexpected expenses. Our program took good care of most of our expenses, i.e. housing, food, transportation, mobile internet device, etc. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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| Language acquisition improvement? |
I practiced my Hindi with the teachers and staff and sometimes with my homestay family. It proved to be extremely useful when communicating with taxi drivers and shopkeepers. I did use some Hindi every day, but most people in Delhi do speak English and my vocabulary and skills was quite limited, despite the intensity of the course. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | You gotta be adventurous and have an interest in public health and people. You have to be extremely patient and understanding, and you have to be able to accept things you realize you can't change. |
