<p>My daughter who's a junior is spending this semester in Madrid. She just got her schedule of classes and she's in class Monday through Wednesday afternoon. So every week she has a 4-day weekend.</p>
<p>My friend's daughter is doing a whole year abroad. Last semester she travelled almost every weekend spending about 70 Euros for transportation and I don't remember how much on hotel, etc. These people have only one child and are pretty comfortable.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with this? My daughter is staying with a family. She's the only student in the apartment so I'm also a little worried about her travelling alone at nite but I don't want her to spend 4 days alone in her room either.</p>
<p>What did your kids do? Travel every weekend? Take the metro alone at nite to meet friends?</p>
<p>I would be surprised if her school’s study abroad program didn’t have suggestions for students since the whole idea is to get knowledge that can’t be gotten by staying on the home campus. She should have a way of learning what others did in her situation- from former students there as well as official guidelines.</p>
<p>I think they travelled a lot. Someone posted something on facebook saying something like “spend a few weekends in Madrid. It’s a great city too”.</p>
<p>Just want to hear from other parents about how much travel their kids did and how much it cost.</p>
<p>I can’t comment on costs - but my daughter traveled extensively throughout Argentina when she did study abroad – as a 17-year old in high school! She traveled with an American friend (18) who also spoke Spanish well. They discussed their itinerary with their host families and, because of their ages, both girls promised to email home every day (internet cafes.) They loved the experience.</p>
<p>My S is in Barcelona right now. He has plans to travel almost every weekend. He’d be quite jealous of your D’s 4 day weekends - his biggest complaint is that he has a class on Fridays, and he’s only allowed 3 “skips” so he’s limited in how much traveling he can do.</p>
<p>There are companies in Europe that specialize in planning weekend trips for students studying abroad. S has already signed up for a couple of these. </p>
<p>S is in a dorm, so I can’t speak to your question about getting home by himself at night. There are 11 other kids from his program on his floor. The first night he arrived, they all went out to a club, but he was so tired from traveling that he came home an hour ahead of the others, by himself. He said he got a cab. I said, “You got a cab home to a dorm you’d only been to once, in a foreign city, by yourself, at 1:45 am? Weren’t you scared?” He said, “No” like I was crazy for asking!</p>
<p>But your d is by herself in a home? S’s program only houses kids in groups of 2s or 3s.</p>
<p>Both of my daughters studied abroad and did travel, although not extensively. One in Italy had several trips built into her program that we paid in advance for, although did some travel beyond that including long day trips to Pompeii and Pisa. She traveled 2xs out of Italy-once for her mid-semester break to Prague and Vienna and for long Thanksgiving weekend to Paris. We had booked a return flight through London so she had a few days on the end of her trip. She lived in student housing, 3 to an dorm-like apt. with kitchen. She graduated in 2007 and euro was more reasonable to the dollar than today. Younger d was in Vienna last year-her program had several trips you could sing up for and pay extra but it was first come, first served and she only managed to get on the ski trip to the Alps on Thanksgiving weekend. She traveled to Paris and Prague on her fall break, weekend trips to Salzburg and Budapest, long day trips in and around Vienna including Bratislava. You will find that there are students with unlimited funds and some undemanding programs. Both of my girls had demanding schedules for art/music and frequently for the music program, had weekend rehersals, lessons and recitals. There is also so much to see and do in the city where you are located to really get to know it. Younger d had already done a january class in London so that was not a priority. Her orientation was a three-day trip to a hostal in the Alps, right from the airport, so that was sort of a plus.</p>
<p>Wow! amazon, 4 day weekends! My D is in Madrid, too, but has classes M-F until mid-February, then, she found out, M-R. I believe she will be gone lots of weekends, some in Spain, some outside, but several are included in her program, including one to Rome. She also has many friends from other schools in Madrid, Sevilla, Budapest and Prague, so they plan to visit each other and that will be cheaper. I’m sure before long your D will find friends to travel with on the cheap (well, sort of).</p>
<p>BTW, Madrid has been having unusualy cold/wet weather. Not the norm at all.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school places one kid per family. I think they supposedly will learn more Spanish but it could be lonely and dangerous. Do you know the name of the agency that arranges trips for kids studying abroad? It sounds like a very lucrative business.</p>
<p>Amazon - European kids travel a lot by themselves, more than in the US, because they have access to excellent and inexpensive public transportation options. Between buses, economy airlines and trains, they can cover a lot of ground in a 4-day weekend. It’d be a shame to miss out on such an opportunity. If your daughter uses common sense, and gets advice from her host family, she should be fine, especially if during her travels she partners up with someone from her program. Encourage her to look into it - I’m sure there are other kids in the program looking for travel buddies. </p>
<p>And by the way, it’s smart for the school to place kids individually with host families: they’re right - you learn a lot more language that way because there isnt’ anyone to speak for you.</p>
<p>My D spent a semester and a summer in Madrid. She traveled both with a college group and also with kids in the same program. Also traveled to Moscow to see her boyfriend (now husband). IIRC, she went to Paris, Amsterdam, Heidelberg, Geneva, and Edinborough and all over Spain with a group from the study abroad program. She also went with boyfriend to Italy for the spring break. I was really quite pleased to see how confidant she became getting around Madrid. H and I went to visit her and she was quite pleased to show us all around the city and take us sight-seeing. We went to a Michelin star (can’t remember how many) restaurant one evening and the waiters would all speak to D1 once the realized she spoke Spanish. I really didn’t worry about her after that because I felt that she had figured out what was safe and what wasn’t. I was really pleased watching D2 negotiate with 3 different cab drives in Moscow (where she studied last semester). To me, that kind of confidence is one of the real benefits of foreign study.</p>
<p>One of the companies that arranges weekend and spring break trips for students in Europe is EuroAdventures. My son has booked a few trips thru them.</p>
<p><strong>WARNING</strong> Just got an email from S. He was pickpocketed today at an ATM. He was taking out 200 Euros ($280), which he’s now kicking himself for. He said he looks around him before putting in his card, but today literally as he hit the button to “receive cash”, 2 teenage girls came up to him, one on either side, and shoved a clipboard in his face to sign something about disabled children. He recognized immediately that something was up and knocked the clipboard away, and they left. It took him a few seconds to realize that this machine doesn’t have a delay before the money comes out, like the machines in the US do - and the girls had grabbed his money directly out of the machine. His receipt shows a withdrawl of 200 Euros. He is NOT a happy camper.</p>
<p>Tell your kids to go to the ATM in PAIRS, so one of them can be a lookout while the other withdraws money!</p>
<p>Yikes, Lafalum. I’m glad he’s OK. I hope he reported it at least to the Program folks. They my have ideas about safer places. Thanks for the name of that travel company.</p>
<p>D has the next three weekends in Granada, Lisbon and Cadiz, but I’m trying to talk her out of the last one because it is Carnaval, the 3rd largest in the world, and just a bit too crazy, I think.</p>
<p>A really nice thing for those in Spain, if you can get to Valencia in mid-March is the Fallas.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion to have your kids to to ATMs in pairs. My son was approached twice at ATMs during his semester abroad by scam artists. The first time he was a bit too trusting, but fortunately managed to escape the situation with only his card number possibly stolen. The second time he was more assertive and told the intruder to back off and disengaged. Apparently ATMs are one of the places where young travelers can be thrown off-guard, as you don’t hear about this kind of thing happening in the US much. (yet)</p>
<p>My son was with a group, and they did travel a lot in smaller groups and pairs during their spring break and a few long weekends. He also stayed over for three weeks after the course was finished to travel more with friends.</p>
<p>Amazon- I think your concerns about your daughter traveling alone at night are valid. I have a 25 year old daughter in graduate school, and I still prefer her not to travel alone (public transit) at night- even in the US. This same daughter will be in South America this summer alone, and I’ll warn her again about traveling alone at night. It’s just not smart, and should be avoided if at all possible. Fortunately, daughter’s undergrad college was not in the safest of areas, so she’s used to having to be careful.
One possibility for your daughter might be to ask the family for a trusted cab referral- she could have a cab meet her at the house and take her to meet friends, if it’s after dark, and then call to have them pick her up when she’s finished.</p>
<p>He was at an ATM in Placa Catalunya, in Barcelona. Placa Catalunya is the heart of Barcelona’s commercial and tourist district, and is where his program’s Center is. Not an “unsafe” area at all. Unfortunately it’s the tourist districts that have the most pickpockets. I tried to talk him into reporting it to the police, but he doesn’t want to bother and doesn’t think they can do anything for him. I told him if these 2 girls are running this scam frequently at this ATM maybe the police could catch them, so at least it would help other people. </p>
<p>An expensive life lesson. He says he will probably have someone with him the next time he uses an ATM.</p>
<p>Sorry for your S–what a icky lesson, but glad he’s not physically hurt. Thanks for the heads up. We don’t use ATMs much, but figure we may need to when we go to Europe. I know there are a lot of different ways folks try to scam people. Will be on the lookout for this new one as well. :(</p>
<p>So sorry to hear about what happened to your son. Just goes to show you that you can’t assume the victim/perpetrator gender roles are always female/male!</p>
<p>I agree that perhaps telling the police could be good, for just the reasons you mentioned.</p>
<p>I looked at that travel site, but all I found are things in Spain/Portugal, or other great places that leave from Florence or Rome. Am I missing something? I was hoping to find destinations to Central/Eastern Europe or Greece, but leaving from Madrid or Barca.</p>
<p>DD spent a semester in Madrid at SLU’s campus. She made friends there and a group of them would schedule their own European adventures on the weekends. Besides a few trips within Spain (Barcelona, Toledo, Valencia), she hit Lisbon, Berlin, Morocco, and spring break in Greece. Some of them also went to London and Dublin. They generally flew on Easyjet and found hostels online. Transportation was their main expense. They lived on the cheap for food & beverages. She was fortunate in finding a good group of kids to hang with. </p>
<p>D lived with a host family but there were 2 other students living there as well. While they all got along, those 2 roomies were not apart of the group she traveled with. I know I was disturbed to hear about D traveling on the Metro late at night alone but she assured us that there were always a lot of people up and about in the wee hours there. Didn’t believe her until we went to visit. There is a certain safety in numbers, and while traveling with friends is definitely better than alone, it’s not the same there as walking around downtown Chicago at 2am. There are a lot of people milling around and she felt very safe late at night.</p>
<p>DS is now in Barcelona. Lafalum, I am forwarding a copy of your ATM story to him asap. Thanks for the warning. He had an ATM issue himself, but it was that he tried using a machine but it was evidently out of money and his account was still charged. He had to contact Chase from Barcelona which cost him about $10 of phone time, but they credited his account while the dispute is being investigated. Unfortunately, it happened not long after he had arrived, while he was still getting his bearings and getting acquainted with his host family. </p>
<p>He was contacted by a few organized tour groups but wasn’t interested in their offerings, between cost and scheduling. He and a few buddies are headed to London this weekend and then they have another trip scheduled to Milan in March. Again, flying Easyjet and staying in hostels.</p>
<p>amazon, perhaps once your D gets to know a few people, maybe they will figure out a few places they want to see and start making plans. There are lots of great places to see in Madrid as well! One of D’s favorite places was Retiro Park.</p>