French Fromage and Wisdom Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The workload was comparable to any UNI course. We did research on our individual research topics and shared key pieces with each other before leaving for France. In France we were always taking note as to how what we observed that day related to our topics and the overall course. Now we have to put our research and observations together into individual presentations, papers, and journals.

On-site administration of your program

I think we all learned a lot on this trip thanks to Dr. Bumpus and his guidance. He made if possible for us to individually explore our interests within the broad scope if the course. My expectations for this course were exceeded in almost every way. Overall, I think Dr. Bumpus did a wonderful job and we really enjoyed having him and his wife along with us.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Living with the host family was great. They lived about ten minutes by bus from downtown Rennes so if we wanted to meet the group downtown to go the the bars or where ever it was pretty simple to do. St. Christopher's hostel in paris we really liked too. It was a ways from downtown Paris but we still really enjoyed our time at the hostel and it was a really clean and respectable place with a nice bar downstairs. If we did want to go out late the metro runs all the time. If you wanted to lock your stuff up in the hostel you had to bring your own lock but it really wasn't necessary because it was only people from our group in our rooms. Overall both experiences were very nice and I would recommend them.

The food was really great. We enjoyed going out as a group to dinners but I don't remember the names of the restaurants we went to.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I really enjoyed getting to know my host family in Rennes and I plan on keeping in contact with them. It was also nice to meet the students at ENSCR even though they were kind of shy. I think all of the events that we went on were interesting and definitely relevant to our course. I liked the variety of activities we did including everything from the planetarium and museum at Rennes to touring around the Louvre.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

There were no health and safety issues on our trip. Rennes was a very safe place and paris was too and we looked out for each other in our group because we were a family. Living with host families in Rennes was really nice and I think we all felt very safe at their houses. In Paris the hostel also felt very safe and we were very grateful that the study abroad program bought out the whole room so we didn't have other people in our room.

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

Select all that apply

• Host Family
• Hostel

Select all that apply

• Americans
• Host Family