STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

rosey · Dooney & Bourke

Language institutes abroad?

cc · Marc Jacobs

I looked into taking classes in Italy a few years ago but sadly I never got around to doing it, mainly because at the time it would have eaten up all of my vacation. I think I still have a big file of stuff that I printed out from the web. If I find it I'll post some info for you.

You should definitely check out the Slowtrav.com forums. A lot of people there have taken classes in Italy. I think the main thread on it is here.

e_doli · Dooney & Bourke

i did a semester in san jose, costa rica in 2000 and i loved it -- it was the best experience of my life.

i researched language schools on the internet and went with Cultural Experiences Abroad (CEA). they were great -- everything was taken care. they picked us up at the airport, brought us to our homestay family's house. the program i did was at a costa rican university, and there was a CEA resident advisor at the school who helped us with anything and everything -- he took us out to lunch the first day of school and to a museum, and would randomly gather us after classes to take us around to get to know the city. on first 3 weekends they took us on trips too (activites, transportation and accommodations included in the cost), so we got to see and do some really cool stuff that otherwise would have taken a ton of planning (it was also good b/c it gave us a knowledge base to be able to further explore the country on our own).

we really felt like we were on road rules or something, b/c it was like every day they would be like "okay, this is what we're doing today" and just take us somewhere amazing.

the director was so cool that we were on one of the school weekend trips in a town where i had costa rican friends, and when we were on our way back to the city on sunday i asked if we could stop at the bar across the street from my friend's house -- so we stopped and i ran over and got my friend we all hung out there for a couple hours (proceeding to get pretty wasted) and it was so much fun.

i dont' know if you're in college and are doing this for credit also -- but CEA was great as far as getting my transfer credit documentation to my school, and anytime i need a transcript i have just called their office and they send it right away.

while we were in CR the heads of CEA had come to visit and they were really cool also -- young and into traveling and you could tell that they were really into what they were doing.