<p>Hi...this may seem rather picky but I need something that my parents would actually go for...</p>
<p>I really really want to go somewhere new this summer..travel, volunteer, meet new people, stay in a dorm, or boost my french-speaking skills</p>
<p>But I can't seem to find a program that would fit my needs. I need it to be at least somewhat affordable and 1-2 weeks at most because my parents wont allow me to stay away that long....</p>
<p>Any ideas or suggestions? Please help!</p>
<p>as another kid who did a summer abroad, I’m sorry to tell you but after extensive research I and many acquaintances found that there are no short programs. It doesn’t make sense to go somewhere for a week - that’s not study abroad, it’s vacation.
The programs all tend to be one month plus - four weeks is probably the shortest you’ll find. and although they can be valuable experiences, they are also money-makers for many companies or universities abroad, and will cost you, usually 1k+ per week.
For example, Oxford or Cambridge Tradition, Rassias in France or Overland in France/Spain, University of St Andrews Creative Writing - all are programs I know people who have gone to.</p>
<p>hmm well i guess im sort of looking for more of a cultural immersion program then…not so much study abroad but with that type of set-up</p>
<p>I would look at your church. We have 1-2 week trips to help people in Guatemala and have exchanges with a church in Russia.</p>
<p>Try Concordia College’s summer language programs that include immersion programs in French. One-week voyageurs program: $660.</p>
<p>[Concordia</a> Language Villages - French: Lac du Bois](<a href=“http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/Programs/Youth/Summer_villages/french_lacdubois1.php]Concordia”>http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/Programs/Youth/Summer_villages/french_lacdubois1.php)</p>
<p>TASIS (the american school in switzerland) has a wonderful french immersion program in the Swiss alps that I believe is 3 weeks.</p>
<p>i don’t know if you’d consider it affordable, but check out Rustic Pathways…they have many cultural/community service programs and schedule them in 10 day to two week intervals, so you can go for the length of time you want.</p>
<p>I don’t know about affordable, but I spent a school year here and thought the course was very good: [1-week</a> intensive course](<a href=“http://www.institutdetouraine.com/article/1_week_intensive_course-AGB.html?form=51&LANG=ANG]1-week”>http://www.institutdetouraine.com/article/1_week_intensive_course-AGB.html?form=51&LANG=ANG) They have one and two week courses in the summer.</p>
<p>How does this look:</p>
<p>[Are</a> you a native English speaker? Come to Spain in Summer](<a href=“http://www.morethanenglish.com/kidsandteensen/index.asp]Are”>http://www.morethanenglish.com/kidsandteensen/index.asp)</p>
<p>It’s not french obviously…but it’s free! One week long, but is this legit?</p>
<p>I think basicallly they need people to go teach english to these kids in Spain…has anyone done this?
Looks really cool to me!</p>
<p>We investigated Rustic Pathways a couple of years ago and they were very expensive considering just how “rustic” the experience was compared to some of the mission trips that a lot of churches do all over the world. I actually started a thread on this last year and a poster told a scary story of how his group lost him in the middle of nowhere in southeast Asia and he or she thought they would never get back home due to the language barriers,etc.
I would also caution parents against these high school “discount” tour operators. We just had an awful experience with Explorica in March in Ireland and I think for about the same amount of money as they charged you would be better going with a really reputable company like Globus or Trafalgar.
If they say they are cheap, believe me they cut corners and cheat you evey chance they get. We were guaranteed full Irish breakfast daily, all we got was stale cold cereal,milk,juice and coffee. Our “Irish” tour guide was a Polish taxi driver doing this as a part time gig-don’t know if they do background checks and I did not like how he looked at the girls on our trip. Needless to say his knowledge of English was poor as was his knowledge of Ireland. So much for this being an educational trip.
They put us up in a hotel in the most dangerous part of Dublin-we could not dare walk across the street for fear of being mugged or robbed-we were told not to do it. Our other hotel in western Ireland was supposed to be in Galway. We were lodged an hour and half from the city in a hotel that was still closed for the winter-we were the only occupants and they refused to turn on the heat, served us rotten food (of course our guide couldn’t be bothered to warn us of this when he saw his food was bad, he just let us all risk getting food poisoning in a foreign country). The phones in the rooms did not work and there were not hotel staff on the premises at any time-so no security,no way to call for help if there was an emergency. My travel alarm clock displayed a temp reading of 59 degrees! The water in the bathroom faucet was brown and stayed that way. I could go on and on, but really be careful about doing these kind of trips on the cheap. I have traveled extensively to England, France, Italy, Greece and could not wait for this trip to be over it was so bad.</p>
<p>I forgot to add that these companies often contact middle school and high school teachers and offer them a free trip if they can get enough students/parents,etc to sign up. You can probably ask just about any high school teacher about this and they will most likely confirm it. The problem this created for us is that our teacher was put in a compromising position and he would not stand up for us when we were complaining about the breakfast and no heat, and neither would our Polish guy. They both were more concerned about making Explorica happy than our health or safety.
Our school did a tour several years ago with EF, and it is interesting that Explorica was started by former EF employees and they compete directly with them. I did not hear good things about EF either. Lousy hotels, hardly any food. Some of the kids were on limited budgets and all of them told me they just went hungry as they had very little money or availability to buy any food on their own.
I am waiting until my D graduates in a couple of weeks and then plan on meeting with our headmaster about these practices by these companies and how our children’s safety and health were compromised over and over again. It will do no good to complain to the disreputable company, but if I can prevent other families from being treated this badly in the future at our school then I will be very happy.</p>
<p>I’d tried to do something this summer and couldn’t find something, so maybe next year.</p>
<p>I’d like go over the summer, but the longest I can go will probably be a month.</p>
<p>I did this program about 30 years ago. Didn’t do the short stay, and I don’t know what you would consider affordable, but something to look at:</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to French American Study Center](<a href=“http://pagesperso-orange.fr/centre.normandie/index.htm]Welcome”>http://pagesperso-orange.fr/centre.normandie/index.htm)</p>
<p>How about going to Quebec?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.learn4good.com/great_schools/summer_french_language_camps2.htm[/url]”>http://www.learn4good.com/great_schools/summer_french_language_camps2.htm</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.learningtraveller.com/teenprograms_quebec.asp[/url]”>http://www.learningtraveller.com/teenprograms_quebec.asp</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.learningtraveller.com/teenprograms_montreal.asp[/url]”>http://www.learningtraveller.com/teenprograms_montreal.asp</a></p>