Type of housing: Student Hotel (Medici)

Arranged by: Independently - My choice

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? Although I love the hotel accoms, I did not connect with the other 10 American exchange students living there; so at first, I was really lonely and depressed. But, I met my friends through classes and my classmates. My friends lived in the program-arranged apartments and it was just a better arrangement. They were cheaper, closer to the classes, and easier to meet people and connect with roomates. Plus, there were no laundry facilities at the hotel, and it's not fun dragging bags of laundry on 2 bus trips and through Florence as creepy men leer at you because your bra has trailed out of the laundry bag....

Personal comments:
Apartments were varied in appearance and size, but all the ones I saw were privately owned and all over the city. People were generally happy with their roommate circumstances and facilities.

Describe host city: Students interact with the local community without much university involvement

Activities, Nightlife, Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Personal comments:
I'm not a big clubber or bar hopper, but there are a ton of bars in which to get drunk and blow all your cash (that was almost double b/c of the exchange rate) on and go home with an either good looking or skeevy foreign guy! Go to all the muesuems- it's Florence- they're amazing! So much art and history, it;s mind blowing! Also, travel, travel, travel! All over Italy and Europe! The train is really easy to use in Italy and not so expensive, you can go to almost any Italian city! But, trains are notoriously always late arriving and departing in Italy, and staff at the stations are not usually helpful in my opinion. Also, the people who hang around the stations (especially in Florence and Bologna) are really, really creepy and dangerous. Ladies: be really careful and don't go alone, and be careful of the underground areas....

Course recommendations:
I enjoyed art history - every week there were walking trips to see the places and artistic pieces covered in the course. I also learned a lot from the extensive in-class work in my drawing and painting fine-art courses. Video production was good, too - each student group had the opportunity to produce two video shorts.

Personal comments:
Improvements could first be made in two specific areas: 1) my History of Italian Literature course was perhaps the only one I felt was lacking, because it did not make use of engaging material or instruction either inside or outside the class. 2) my Italian language courses would have been much more effective if we had had textbooks to work with. Instead, instruction was mostly vocal - and in one class, half the time in English - which did not prove to be the most useful strategy for the majority of the class. In general, the courses weren't extremely rigorous, and there was hardly any homework - but this I deemed appropriate for a study abroad program, since students have so many other things to do while they are studying abroad as well - such as seeing the sights, trying to meet people and make friends, learn the language, and figure out everyday practical things such as grocery shopping, transportation, and communicating with a landlord! My most intensive courses were those of the fine arts - painting and drawing, in my case - which consisted of 9-hour labs with live models. This was a necessary amount of time to spend in order to get involved in the piece you were working on, so I appreciated it. These long classes also only met once a week - which allowed plenty of time to work on outside projects.

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Personal savings

Other sources of funding:
Family
Government assistance

Work opportunities:
It was not legal for me to work

Personal spending habits:
I hardly ever used the telephone; everyone I wanted to contact was either within walking distance, I would see daily at school, or lived in my building. Food was cheaper than at home, since I mostly cooked for myself and rarely went out to eat, except for small, inexpensive meals. Housing was just a bit more expensive than where my home university was - but in general, the rent I paid in Florence was much less than I would pay in a large American city. Nightlife was inexpensive as well, since I mostly visited inexpensive pubs and cafes, and not clubs. Travel was definitely the most expensive thing on my agenda - but I only traveled during breaks, so this probably broke even with the amount that I spend on gas money every day in the United States. Train tickets at the time were not very expensive - what gets expensive while traveling is eating in restaurants, hotels or hostels per night, and entrance fees at any public or private point of interest that you may visit.

Travel, Housing: was more expensive than at home.

Overall: was the same price as at home.

Food, Nightlife, Telephone: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
1) Everyone in Italy wears black, grey and white! I happened to bring lots of artistic, second-hand, retro-grungy sorts of american-college student colorful clothes that seemed a bit strange. 2)Learning a foreign language takes more effort than you might think - and everything goes so much more smoothly when you can communicate to some degree in the language of your host country. 3)Have very few expectations about your host country and host people - because they will be sure to change. 4) Know how to get over disappointments and frustrations. Living abroad can be tricky, but you'll always have a good story of it if you know emotionally how to stay flexible, patient and open-minded. 5) Don't go out alone at night in the dark in a foreign country. You're an easy target for any sort of danger or abuse, which is made all the more exaggerated when you don't speak the native language well. Therefore, know how to say a few phrases very well that let people know they shouldn't bother you - and be VERY firm when you don't want their company. 6) It's good to be friendly - but be wary of strangers. 7) Keep a good, communicative relationship with your roommate(s) and other students in the school. This is your support network! 8) If you get homesick, don't worry about it too much. It's natural, and if you don't dwell on it too much, the feeling will pass. It's easy to soothe this feeling by staying in good touch with your family and friends at home. I found email the best solution, because it's cheap and I love to write, anyway.

In my opinion:
I loved it but I'm not sure everybody would.