Report - Study Abroad in Florence

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
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<p>We're back!</p>

<p>I'm sure my wife will chime in to talk about our trip to Florence, so I think now I'll just post about my d's study abroad experience thus far.</p>

<p>She's half-way through. It seems her Italian really is pretty fluent now. I used her as a translator with friends at a meeting we had in Spilamberto, and they all complimented her on her language skills, and asked them to translate a quarterly newsletter from English into Italian. Her host family really speaks very, very little English, and so she has to speak Italian to survive. All her classes are in Italian, all her papers are written in Italian, and she can now really get around most everywhere. Plays in the university orchestra - there are two other "foreign" students, from Austria. Didn't like our fractured attempts at pronunciation, and seemed pretty upset with our ordering of "calzone" to rhyme with "Malzone", as in Frank Malzone of the Boston Red Sox 1955-1965.</p>

<p>Classes are all good, though her university class in Medieval/Renaissance Theater was held in a building under construction, so between the noise level and speed of the professor's rattling on, she said she had to sit on the edge of her seat the entire time.</p>

<p>The location of the program can't be beat. It is literally on the Piazza de Signoria, 50 feet away from where the Bonfire of the Vanities was held, and where Savanarola was burnt at the stake, and about 150 feet from where the copy of Michelangelo's David now stands (the original was moved to the Academica in the 1880s.) While she knows the bus system pretty well, she lives across the Arno on the Oltrarno side, within 15 minutes walk of everywhere she needs to be. In October, the program celebrated its 75th anniversary in Florence, with alums from all over the world attending - she met a few from the class of 1948, who were there the first year the program reopened after WWII.</p>

<p>The program people have been great, from setting up a meeting with the orchestra conductor, to helping us with hotel reservations when my wife became ill. Both of the main folks came to the office to meet us when we were in town, even though they are on break. When we left, d. went off by boat to Athens, and then will spend a week in Crete, before returning.</p>

<p>The College has a program of fellowships for students who wish to remain in Italy for 6-8 weeks after their final exams. D. is planning to apply for one, related to 12th Century pilgrimage songs in northern Italy (I think she is planning to walk some of the routes, and write about the experience, while learning the music.) Upon her return, she is planning to apply for a paid scholarship which is actually a student-faculty research position where together they participate in a year-long series of seminars:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.smith.edu/kahninstitute/fellowships.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.smith.edu/kahninstitute/fellowships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Her spring is going to be packed. I know the program has a trip to Sicily planned; she has a good friend in Prague (they hope to go off together to Vienna), and we have mutual friends at a research institute at Oxford whom she hopes to go visit.</p>

<p>If I sound a little jealous, it is because I am - oh,to be young again! (and to be given the financial support to do what she is doing.) We (and she) will be grateful for a very long time.</p>

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<p>Mini,</p>

<p>Posts like yours makes me pine for the days when I was a student! The Italy program sounds wonderful - and perfect for your daughter. I hope you and your wife had a fabulous time visiting her.</p>

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<p>My daughter is a sophomore at Smith and is visiting a friend this week in Florence. She is spending time with other students at the Smith program there as well as traveling locally. It seems like an incredible experience for all of them! </p>

<p>Like many parents on this board, I have enjoyed seeing my daughter blossom and mature at Smith. The College has opened up many unique opportunities and fostered close friendships. I am amazed at some of the essays she wrote last semester c/w with the h.s. student I knew two years ago. She also has a certain confidence in herself and ability to function in the adult world through her volunteeer/work (teaching in an elementary school and prison; analyzing grant proposals for a non-profit organization located in Amherst and D.C.) and social experiences there. She also has enjoyed her particular sports team experience as her teamates have been very supportive and close. It has been a transformative experience for her.</p>

<p>I attended a Christmas party recently where a friend of mine talked about his niece at Smith who spent her junior year in France, worked with the French tourist bureau while a student, and is now an intern for a newspaper in Chile. She wants to be an international journalist. He said that Smith transformed her dramatically and helped her to see her full potential. Of note, she grew up in a small rural town in the midwest with a population of less than 10,000 so Smith literally opened up the world to her.</p>

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<p>I had missed this post earlier (no internet where I was in Mexico and therefore no CC). I am jealous also of your daughter and your chance to visit her in Florence. What an amazing city and opportunity for you DD! </p>

<p>Best of luck with the rest of her stay...The memories of this experience will stay with her forever!</p>

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<p>I'll shanghai this thread into a general "Smith Abroad" thread if Mini doesn't mind.
We sent D off to Hungary last week for a semester in mathematics. Unlike the Florence program, this is a program--one of dozens--that Smith participates in but does not control. </p>

<p>We tracked D's flight--one of the blessings of the internet--on British airways and then watched with concern as her layover at Heathrow kept growing...dug around on the website and determined that it was for "high winds across the U.K." D later said that the take-off was the most unpleasant airplane experience she's ever had. Instead of getting into Budapest airport at 5:20pm, the delay put her on the ground at about 9:30pm. I might have completely blanked but the program gives students a handout for dealing with various emergencies and D called from Heathrow and gave them the actual time, so somebody was actually there to meet her.</p>

<p>At which point she for the first time learns what her housing arrangements actually are. Her host family is essentially a house mother who has a flat that consists of two two-bedroom/one-bath units consolidated into one. She has two adult daughters who live elsewhere but come by occasionally...D has found this helpful as the host mother has about three words of English to go with D's dozen or so words of Hungarian in possession upon touchdown.</p>

<p>[Digression: Hungarian is off the beaten track as a language, related only to Finnish, though it's borrowed words from Russian, French, English, etc. D was tickled to recognize an almost perfect French-Hungarian cognate for "pineapple." But in general, there are almost no cues from any European language that most Americans might have a smattering of...the Romance lanugages, German, or even Russian. The Hungarian words for the numbers one through ten are as follows: egy, ketto, harom, negy, ot, hat, het, nyolc, kilenc, tiz. Ummmm...yeah.]</p>

<p>D was among the first arrivals for the program and as a result felt pretty isolated for the first 3-4 days with nobody around to speak English with and no internet connection. She eventually tracked down an internet cafe, which she's managed to get to once. She also got pointers to a place where she could buy a Hungarian SIM card for the European cell phone left by a previous student and which would likely have someone who speaks English...according to D, the penetration of English as a language is much less than in Prague and virtually absent in anyone older than 35.</p>

<p>Her house mother did take her on a couple of walks, pointing out sights of interest that D was able to reconcile with her various Budapest guides. She's living on the Buda side of the Duna (Danube) in the castle district, about a block from the steps up the hill to the castle. </p>

<p>D had flown out on Wednesday, finally was able to call on Saturday, giving us her home phone number, which I then called back. (I also called MCI to get us on an International calling plan so that calls to Hungary will be only 44 cents per minute instead of $4.00+. I've got to see if there are pre-paid calling cards with substantially different rates. I don't have much experience with international calls and am bemused that with MCI I can call London for 6 cents a minute but Budapest is 44.) </p>

<p>TheMom wasn't home when D called so we had another call on Sunday and then a brief update on Monday...D was feeling pretty isolated and lonely until her fellow student sharing the flat came in on Tuesday, which is when we got our one e-mail. Everything I've read about the Budapest Semester in Mathematics (BSM) says that the first few days of orientation are the roughest part.</p>

<p>The 10-day intensive language classes began yesterday and the actual math classes, taught in English, begin a week from Monday. </p>

<p>Financial logistics: the payment of the tuition and housing deposit by Smith went flawlessly. For her dining/food allowance, Smith made a direct deposit into her NoHo account. After nosing around the FAQ's, it was determined that an American check in Hungary is virtually no good because it can take weeks to clear. Setting up a Hungarian checking account also did not seem to be worthwhile (even if it's possible) because of the difficulty of getting funds into it. </p>

<p>After looking at some info sent by the BSM program, we set up an American Express travel card for D. The travel card, which is like a pre-paid debit card, is not widely advertised but it has the big advantage that it can be used at ATM's to withdraw cash while traveling but can be "reloaded" by telephone from an authorized user here in the states who has either an AmEx card or a VISA/Mastercard debit card. Thus we loaded the food allowance and a portion of our miscellaneous living expenses allowance (much lower than D.C., thankfully) onto the card. D wrote a check from her NoHo bank account to her Citibank account to transfer the food allowance over and then wrote me a check from the Citi account so that I can reimburse myself when the AmEx bill comes in.</p>

<p>The wrinkle so far has been Housing. Students elect to either stay in apartments or with host families. D chose the latter, though apparently most choose the former. But while she had mailing addresses for both letters and packages in care of the program in advance, she had no idea where she actually was staying until she landed.</p>

<p>Her host family is a mother with two adult daughters who are seldom around. The host mother speaks about three words of English; one of the daughters speaks tolerable if not fluent English but is not around very often.</p>

<p>whups, have to run. The short of it is: both parent and student need to be flexible but there's a great experience waiting.</p>

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<p>TD, I’m very sorry your daughter had issues in Britain. If it’s any consolation, Heathrow is better than Gatwick or Geneva to be temporarily stranded.</p>

<p>You can get a calling card at Costco with great rates. I called for you, and here’s what I’d pay with my card. .30 connect charge (Yup, annoys me too)—U.S. to Hungary, .34/min to a landline—.48/min to cell…….Hungary to U.S—.26 /min. Love the consistency.</p>

<p>One advantage of a calling card, besides cost, is when traveling between counties and the phone dies, there’s no cell service, or you fail to bring the charger or proper electrical plug adaptor (they vary among countries) you can still make calls from any landline. </p>

<p>Another trick: if you need your cell charged—abroad or U.S.—and don’t have the adaptor, etc, usually a cell phone store will charge it for you. It takes time, but it’s a great excuse to hang out at the local Pub/ Bistro.</p>

<p>It’s also required of all students to call from a gorgeous, exotic location (e.g.-dinning in Paris on the bank of Seine) to remind their parents how their tuition is being spent.</p>

<p>Any U.S. bank ATM card works in Europe—but your AmEx suggestion is a great idea b/c of their expedited replacement service, should it get lost or stolen. AmEx charges ~1% more over Visa/MasterCard for the exchange fee, but the benefits are worth the small addition cost.</p>

<p>I see black helicopters, blinking lights darting in the night sky, and once glimpsed CHAMP (Lk. Champlain’s version of Nessie) so accept my paranoid suggestions accordingly. When your daughter visits other countries during break, here’s something to consider.
Should I lose or have my wallet stolen (pickpockets are ubiquitous in some countries), I leave an additional credit/ATM card and my passport in the hotel room safe, or if staying with friends, at their home. I also travel with a photocopy of my passport to facilitate replacement.</p>

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<p>Look into USA Datanet. Phone calls to Hungary are USD $0.169 (landline rate.)</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usadatanet.com/international.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usadatanet.com/international.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I don't work for them, however I have been very successful using them for a few years for international calling (haven't tried Hungary, though.)</p>

<p>For those of us who took a semester abroad a few years ago (OK...a generation or two ago) and only spoke to home once...if that....it's amazing to think about keeping in touch so regularly...and in "real time" via phone and internet (versus airograms...that took a week or two to get delivered.)</p>

<p>Sounds like your daughter has an opportunity for a wonderful experience.</p>

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<p>We use Skype. It's free.</p>

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<p>Skype is not likely to be viable for us because it requires D having internet access at the same time and in circumstances where she wants to talk. There is no internet connection where she lives, the pizza place with Wi/Fi connection is too loud, smokey, and not at all private, and the internet cafe requires her to schlep her computer a couple of subway stops and people she wants to talk to happening to be available when she gets there. [N.B., the biggest negative for D so far is that Hungary has apparently never heard of a "No Smoking" anything, much to D's distress.]</p>

<p>RLT, D said the food at Heathrow was the best she's had in any airport, thus beating out Logan/Boston, where the clam chowder took the prize. She had some sort of carrot and coriander soup with a raspberry-orange drink...neither of which had she encountered in this country (me neither).</p>

<p>As for the calling card, thanks for the info. If I get near a Costco--we never shop there and the parking is an impediment to the meeting of true buyer and seller in my mind--I'll pick one up as a back-up. The difference of ten cents a minute isn't quite enough to make me want to brave the mess of that check-out...and did I mention the parking?</p>

<p>
[quote]
I see black helicopters, blinking lights darting in the night sky, and once glimpsed CHAMP (Lk. Champlain</p>

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<p>“D said the food at Heathrow was the best she's had in any airport, thus beating out Logan/Boston, where the clam chowder took the prize.”</p>

<p>LOL—My mother (a Yankee) said the best New England clam chowder she ever had was at a restaurant I took her to in your area, Newport Beach.</p>

<p>I could say let the wife hassle with the parking and check-out lines at Costco, but this probably isn’t the board to make such comments. ;)</p>

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<p>"We use Skype. It's free"</p>

<p>There’s no such thing as a free lunch. ;) Skype requires broadband—about $300.00/yr vs $120.00 dialup. I hesitate to recommend a VoIp that allows concurrent logins (read hackers) has an uncontrolled registration system, and, most importantly imo, due to the fact Skype uses a peer-to-peer business model, unless the user has NAT (IP masquerading software) on their computer, it can be accessed and used as a server to rout other members calls.</p>

<p>As long as one understands the aforementioned issues, Skype is a great and very cost effective form of voice communication</p>

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<p>There are some good clam chowders around here...down around Newport I'd head to the Five Crowns in Laguna...but right within blocks of us is a lobster bisque that a friend swears is the best this side of Paris.</p>

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<p>O.K., O.K......I've been quiet long enough! When you start to talk about good "chowda", now you're on my turf. What's better than a chowda in new england? Legal Sea Food fish chowder is glorious, and there are many Newport (RI) establishments that offer an array of "chowdas." Why, I can get good chowda almost anywhere around heyah!</p>

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<p>A trip to Costco isn't worth braving traffic and crowds?? Oh come on! It's an adventure, a treasure hunt and the highlight of the week. Seriously, one of my very favorite indoor places.</p>

<p>But.... you can always purchase the calling card at costco.com and skip the crowds and miss out on the fun.</p>

<p>However, though I hate to admit that Costco doesn't have the best value on something, you can get several varieties of calling cards for US-Hungary for between 1 and 2 cents per minute, while the one that Costco has is about 35cents/min. This site lists many options and allows you to buy them online if you want to.</p>

<p>dohttp://speedypin.com/phone/cards/Hungary?aff=9321&gclid=CJ<em>Dye</em>E-IkCFRzkYAodrGueQg</p>

<p>RLT, I'm not a big Skype fan either because of their refusal to use VoIP standards such as SIP or H.323 and their use of closed source code that leaves the security community blind to potential vulnerabilities (not unlike Microsoft, of course). But IMHO the the whole "supernode" call routing issue is pretty moot for most home users because they don't have a routable IP address on their PC running the Skype client anyway and therefore their PC cannot be used for call routing by Skype. If they're running a sophisticated enough application to need (and pay for) a dedicated routable IP address for a specific client, then they are usually savvy enough to know that the router should be configured for NAT -- one would hope anyway.</p>

<p>I still use it and consider it free though because Skype or no Skype, I'm not ever going back to dial without some major kicking and screaming. :-)</p>

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<p>"But IMHO the the whole "supernode" call routing issue is pretty moot for most home users because they don't have a routable IP address"</p>

<p>True, but I wasn’t thinking of home computers, exactly. Due to the time differences, many individuals use their office or college networks to call Europe.
Schools such as the U of Minnesota highly discourage the use of Skype b/c of the supernode issue. <a href="http://safecomputing.umn.edu/safepractices/skype.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://safecomputing.umn.edu/safepractices/skype.html&lt;/a>
There are small businesses in the same predicament, which is why I’m hesitant to recommend it. ;)</p>

<p>About 25% of computer users still connect via dialup. One is a very prominent CC poster. :) It was those individuals I had in mind when I referred to the additional cost burden.</p>

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<p>BMJ, Boston Legal is a good baseline for a good chowder, I agree. The best clam chowder I've ever had was at the Atlantic Fish Company on Boylston St. in the Back Bay. My memory is being tricksy, I can't recall whether I thought the chowder at the Eastside Grill in Northampton was particularly good or disappointing...I just know for sure that I didn't think it was average.
The good thing about chowders is that you don't have to worry about firewalls, NTP protocols, multivariant line-synching and other such technical issues.</p>

<p>All this talk of chowder and restaurants is a bit aggravating in that I'm in the second week of Atkins induction and my diet is limited to things like water, meat, cheese, and potholders if made from certain approved materials.</p>

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<p>"potholders if made from certain approved materials."</p>

<p>Asbestos works well as an appetite suppressant. I understand it takes the body a long time to break it down, and has the added benefit of having zero calories. </p>

<p>(goes out to develop a chocolate coated asbestos bar . . .)</p>

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<p>LOL TD LOL</p>

<p>I hear you! I just lost 36 pounds following the weight watchers diet. Took me 6 months, but I feel so much better. Potholders were too many points on my diet ;) BTW, want a good recipe for chowder? Go to food network.com and look up Emeril's recipe for manhatten chowder.</p>

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<p>"look up Emeril's recipe for manhatten chowder."</p>

<p>Manhattan chowder?? Insulting! Imposture and wannabe! No self-respecting New Englander would ever call anything that didn’t contain at least 10,000 grams of butterfat, and other assorted fats, (oyster crackers included) chowda. ;)</p>

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<p>Now, now, now...don't be a chowda snob! Some like it red, while others like it white. I made both for new year's eve and the white won big time. Interesting note...five college kids can eat you out of house and home; red or white! ;)</p>