Category Archives: Continental Europe

Spanish homestay

Posted on by

I had the (mis)fortune of being able to experience both the best and worst of home-stay experiences. I picked my roommate during the orientation trip before we arrived in Madrid. Our host-mom (our senora) was Lola, a pharmacist with two daughters around our age and lived smack in the middle of Madrid. The pictures of the room were from strange angles and it looked quite small but we were very excited to meet her,move in, and maybe even make friends with our “sisters.” However the situation didn’t pan out quite as smoothly.

It turned out that it wasn’t a camera trick that made our room seem so small, it was in fact tiny. Barely two twin beds fit, and neither the closet nor entry door could open all the way. The tipping point though was the lack of a window in the room. We were essentially living in a closet. We didn’t want to immediately complain though so we gave it a try. We soon realized that this was more like a boarding -house than a home stay. We barely spoke with Lola, and never with her daughters. Additionally, an unidentified person in the house would smoke even though we had specifically stated we could not live in a smoking house. My roommate and I were very unhappy in these conditions and contacted the housing liaison with our program. She was very attentive to our issues and had us weigh all our options before making a decision After much debate and deliberation (this apartment was in the CENTER of Madrid)  my roommate and I decided to look for a new home-stay. We interviewed two other “Senoras” and decided to live with Maria Antonia who lived slightly outside of Center. We were scared but moving was the best decision we could have made.

Our new bedroom was huge and had french doors that opened onto a balcony with tons of natural light. More importantly, we now had a Senora who loved conversing with us and having us around. We immediately felt like her “ninas” but she allowed us our space and didn’t infringe. An important aspect to keep in mind with host families is respect. In my first home-stay the respect was lacking and you could tell. With my “Senora” there was mutual respect on both sides. If we had any concerns, we made sure to voice them to Maria Antonia and not just bottle them up and visa versa. Home-stays can feel awkward at times, but just like in most circumstances, it’s important to push past the awkwardness to get the most of the situation.

Interning in Italy

Posted on by

It is pretty easy to incorporate something like teaching English into your experience, especially in Bologna. The Brown program is well-established and is often approached by language schools looking for students to help teach English and I had some friends who did that.

Finding another kind of internship can be pretty difficult. Things run more really slowly with Italian companies and they are not used to a system of students interning part-time during the school year. Many students spend over a month just trying to establish contact with the correct person in a company or museum etc.  If you are really sure you want to find an internship, come at least a month early to start setting things up. Be aware that companies operate on a stand-still in August and most people are on vacation – – it would be very unlikely to find a job during that month.

Money matters in Italy

Posted on by

Italy was a lot more expensive than a normal semester, especially since I wanted to travel and experience a lot of things.

For food, at least it is normally possible to take advantage of a communal kitchen and fresh produce is generally a lot cheaper in Italy than in the US. This can help put down your general food costs.

Hostels are pretty cheap, you can stay for a night for $15-$30 in most cities. Trains can be quite expensive depending where you are going. Make sure to check different rates because they can vary quite a bit.

Learning in Italy

Posted on by

The Italian university system is incredibly bureaucratic and confusing and can be a complete mess to deal with for an American trying to spend only a semester. I had to let go of my pre-conceived ideas of what an academic system and experience should look like and try my best to find classes that were interesting and where it seems like I would have the chance to meet people. The best thing I did was contact some past students and ask what professors or classes they thought were a good fit. It’s not a good idea to overburden yourself with a class that is out of your range of understanding so I ended up taking classes that would be considered easier at Columbia. I still got a lot out of it and had more time to do personal exploring and form my educations my own way.

In managing my time, I tried not to take a typical Columbia student mentality that schoolwork comes first and looked for opportunities to educate myself in other ways and not feel guilty about it. If you miss your Art History class because you are sleeping, that is not useful. But if you miss it to go to Rome and visit all the sites, you are getting an extremely rich experience and learning at the same time which is much more valuable.

Because most classes do not have a set syllabus and do not expect students to turn in homework every week or take quizzes and tests, I started to feel like I had a lot of free time on my hands and was surprised at first not knowing what to do. In the end I found that as long as you go to most lectures and keep reading information pertaining to the class on the side you will probably be fine.

The way the system works for Italians is that they take the lecture and don’t do much reading. Then they have about a month before the typically oral exam to do all the reading and study intensely. If you go in the Fall semester you won’t have that month because you will go back before Christmas and the exams are after the New Year. You’ll take the oral exam right after the class ends. Most teachers are pretty understanding about this and will take it into account that you haven’t had adequate time to prepare. Do as much reading as possible but don’t kill yourself.

A word about oral exams – they sound really scary, but as I said above most teachers understand that you are an international student just learning the language and will help you along. This is why it’s useful to try to find a professor that other students have liked in the past and will not punish you for being less on top of the material than an Italian student.

Italian students are also friendlier in class than American students are. This can really help to your advantage if you start friendships with people in your classes and start study groups with them. I had a lot of people approach me in class and when they found out I was from New York were really excited!

On being Jewish in Paris

Posted on by

While there is a vibrant and active Jewish community in Paris (especially in the Marais, where you can find some of the best falafel in Europe), I found that Parisian Jews are generally not as open about their religion amongst non-Jews as what I’ve grown accustomed to living in New York City. I had the great fortune of living with a reform Jewish family in the 16th arrondissement, where there is no shortage of Jews (according to my host family), and we did Shabbat every Friday night and celebrated Passover together. However, I was warned by my host family not to openly express my religion in the presence of strangers, because it’s impossible to know “how they’d react.” I was never confronted by any sort of anti-semitism, I was just told

that it exists in Paris and may possibly be becoming an increasing problem, but I do know that my host family took special measures to ensure that their religious identity was not made obvious in public. Even when friends came over to the house, Shabbat prayers would be said discreetly in a separate room so as not to “alienate” any non-Jews. Perhaps this discretion of Parisian Jews has something to do with France’s policy of “laicite” and is not so much a question of anti-Jewish sentiment, but compared to New York City, where Jewish culture is celebrated openly and

proudly, Paris is less openly accepting. However, this is not to say that Jewish students will feel ill at ease in Paris—on the contrary, I found that although Jewish culture may be somewhat strictly confined to within the Jewish community, there is a strong sense of solidarity, warmth, and acceptance amongst Jews in Paris. Though perhaps a bit insular, the Jewish community is vibrant and the culture is incredibly rich, making it quite easy to forget that it is not a mainstream lifestyle. – Alexa Davis, CC ‘11