Cuba: Get it while it lasts. Past Review
By Tara B (Community and International Development, SUNY - College at Oswego) for
SUNY Oswego: Havana - Universidad de La Habana
Yes but not at all in the way I anticipated.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 0-2 weeks |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
It seems foriegners got and A or B as long as they didnt their work. The work wsn't terribly stimulating. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
It was very much an emersion based program. Our contact person in Cuba didn't have that much interactionwith us and the activities we did do together didn't have as much as a focus/guidence as I would've liked. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The location of the residence was wonderful. The heart of a lovely and safe neighborhood close to the university. The food wasn't great. The staff was nice but still felt like a guest in a hotel and didn't get as close with them as we would have with a host family. Would've preferred staying in a Casa Particular. |
| * Food: |
Breakfast is always eggs and stale bread with some fruit and juice. Dinner was generally monotonous and bland. A lot of new food vendors have been popping up in the area which makes lunch a little easier. Cuba is a hard place for vegetarians. The residence we stayed in seemed to have relatively bad food. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
Healthcare for tourists was great and free. You don't need any vaccines to go to cuba. My biggest health concern was the food there wasn't the best and digestion could be rough at times. Otherwise an extremely safe country, very very low violence. |
| 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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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | You can live extremely cheaply in Cuba if you want but can also pay to live closer to your lifestyle at home. Lunch was generally less than $1.50 but you couuld pay $10-20 for a nicer dinner. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | We were told that our exit fee would be paid for by the program before our visit and when we got there they told us no. Four months later half of the students had forgotten and didn't really that that into consideration when making their final money plans. At the end of the day no one had any huge problem. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Beginner |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | 109- Intermediate |
| Language acquisition improvement? |
I had to use Spanish with the majority of the people I met there. The only times I was able to speak English was with the people in my program and the other American students in our residence. |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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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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