Change is powerful a teacher Past Review
By Ashley Viteri (Knox College) - abroad from 01/25/2019 to 05/17/2019 with
SIT Study Abroad: Morocco - Migration and Transnational Identity
I learned that it’s important to appreciate the place where you are. Sometimes we don’t realize that maybe we won’t be back to the place we grew so much, so we have to live every moment as it were the last. I also learn that every culture has its own flavor, and even though some practices aren’t understood, we have to respect the culture and its people. The experience in Morocco was worthwhile and I am so happy I was able to see another side of the world. I also gained more value towards myself. Doing everything on my own made me appreciate my own presence and also made me more aware of the people around me.
Review Photos
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. |
Even though we had a lot of projects to do, we got enough time to do them, and got the chance to travel while studying. Being taught Arabic for the first time was a struggle, but my classmates and I had an amazing Arabic teacher. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Overall I think that the homestay administration was well organized. Many people, including me had a wonderful experience with our host family. At the same time many people had strugles and had to move somewhere else. Even though I think this is normal, I think that the administration could have done a deeper visit when looking for host familys. Some friends arrieved to dirty places were they got sick and others experienced inapropriate interactions with the family. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
I got to live in a small, lovely home in the center of the old city. Even though I lived in a tight building, my family gave me so much love that I was so happy to be living there. I had my own room and would have most meals with my family. |
| * Food: |
Referring to food I had never been so well fed. I had two meals a day in my host family’s home during the week. I loved tasting new flavors and learning about eating costumes. As a way to welcome me to their house, as soon as I finished my food from my plate, my host grandma would fill my plate again. I really appreciated how they were worried that I was always well fed. The food in Morocco was very good and I enjoyed having bread in every meal. Having tea was also a very nice time a day to share with my family. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Although I did make many Moroccan friends, my biggest struggle was not being fluent in Arabic. After being a few months in Morocco I was able to get around more easily but I never had to have deep conversations in Arabic. At the same time Moroccans integrated me to their home apart from knowing little of their language. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
It’s important to be careful everywhere you go but gladly I never experienced a dangerous scene. The only thing that I had to adapt myself to was the cat calling. Many men stared at me, called me names and in some cases followed me. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
Even though I had a wide opening experience in Morocco, I am always eager to see new places. I am very happy with the program I chose but I didn’t like the academics as much as I thought I was going to. I wouldn’t change the experience I had in Morocco for anything but I would want to see the rest of the world. |
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) |
Surprisingly I was able to live on a minimal student Budget. Since all my meals were covered I would just spend a few dollars in a snack here and there. If your national currency is dollars Morocco will be a very cheap country to live in. I would say that were I spent the most was when I traveled on my own and when we went for a week to the Netherlands. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | In a normal week I would say that I spended 50 dollars per week. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | I would say it’s important to take advantage of the meals that are covered. Many students would go out for lunch even though the program gave us lunch. I would say that it’s important to have money saved for traveling. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
From the moment we arrieved the program cared about us understanding Arabic as much as we can. |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Beginner |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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| 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? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | From my experience I learned that it’s very important to put effort and learn the most you can of the native language of the country your visiting. One of the biggest struggles I had was not being able to communicate. Something else that is important is to save enough money so you can travel all you want. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Migration and Transnational Identity |
| Course Department: | History |
| Instructor: | Tibari Bouasla |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | Even though the teacher was very knowledgeable and well-prepared, he expressed himself in a way that was hard to understand and at the same time very confusing. I really appreciated the field trips we had around Morocco. They were very relevant to what we were studying and I loved to see how different Morocco was as we traveled a few hours. I am not proud about this but I didn’t participate as much as I would of wanted to. I felt very intimidated by the rest of my classmates. Most of the projects in this class consisted of papers. I liked how we got to choose our topics so It inspired you to write about something you were very interested of. As homework we had to do a lot of readings. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | I was concern in a beginning but later I found out that SIT registrar sends all the information need to Knox directly. |
