Istituto Lorenzo de Medici (IDM)

1) Everyone in Italy wears black, grey and white! I happened to bring lots of artistic, second-hand, retro-grungy sorts of american-college student colorful clothes that seemed a bit strange. 2)Learning a foreign language takes more effort than you might think - and everything goes so much more smoothly when you can communicate to some degree in the language of your host country. 3)Have very few expectations about your host country and host people - because they will be sure to change. 4) Know how to get over disappointments and frustrations. Living abroad can be tricky, but you'll always have a good story of it if you know emotionally how to stay flexible, patient and open-minded. 5) Don't go out alone at night in the dark in a foreign country. You're an easy target for any sort of danger or abuse, which is made all the more exaggerated when you don't speak the native language well. Therefore, know how to say a few phrases very well that let people know they shouldn't bother you - and be VERY firm when you don't want their company. 6) It's good to be friendly - but be wary of strangers. 7) Keep a good, communicative relationship with your roommate(s) and other students in the school. This is your support network! 8) If you get homesick, don't worry about it too much. It's natural, and if you don't dwell on it too much, the feeling will pass. It's easy to soothe this feeling by staying in good touch with your family and friends at home. I found email the best solution, because it's cheap and I love to write, anyway.

If you are interested in meeting many other Americans while abroad, attending a school that is not very academically challenging or expensive in order to spend more time and money getting to know your Italian environment and culture, then this school is a good choice. Also, the school does have a pretty strong fine arts program, with many well-trained teachers. This is really the school's strong suit, as opposed to the liberal arts studies they also offer.

I hardly ever used the telephone; everyone I wanted to contact was either within walking distance, I would see daily at school, or lived in my building. Food was cheaper than at home, since I mostly cooked for myself and rarely went out to eat, except for small, inexpensive meals. Housing was just a bit more expensive than where my home university was - but in general, the rent I paid in Florence was much less than I would pay in a large American city. Nightlife was inexpensive as well, since I mostly visited inexpensive pubs and cafes, and not clubs. Travel was definitely the most expensive thing on my agenda - but I only traveled during breaks, so this probably broke even with the amount that I spend on gas money every day in the United States. Train tickets at the time were not very expensive - what gets expensive while traveling is eating in restaurants, hotels or hostels per night, and entrance fees at any public or private point of interest that you may visit.

I enjoyed art history - every week there were walking trips to see the places and artistic pieces covered in the course. I also learned a lot from the extensive in-class work in my drawing and painting fine-art courses. Video production was good, too - each student group had the opportunity to produce two video shorts.

Improvements could first be made in two specific areas: 1) my History of Italian Literature course was perhaps the only one I felt was lacking, because it did not make use of engaging material or instruction either inside or outside the class. 2) my Italian language courses would have been much more effective if we had had textbooks to work with. Instead, instruction was mostly vocal - and in one class, half the time in English - which did not prove to be the most useful strategy for the majority of the class. In general, the courses weren't extremely rigorous, and there was hardly any homework - but this I deemed appropriate for a study abroad program, since students have so many other things to do while they are studying abroad as well - such as seeing the sights, trying to meet people and make friends, learn the language, and figure out everyday practical things such as grocery shopping, transportation, and communicating with a landlord! My most intensive courses were those of the fine arts - painting and drawing, in my case - which consisted of 9-hour labs with live models. This was a necessary amount of time to spend in order to get involved in the piece you were working on, so I appreciated it. These long classes also only met once a week - which allowed plenty of time to work on outside projects.

I traveled as often as possible - taking a study trip to Bruxelles and a school trips to Rome and the Umbria region, in addition to a bunch of shorter trips in the Tuscan region. Going out was about the same; my Italian friends drank a lot less than my American friends. I ate out more - because the food was so good! But found the grocery stores (like Standa) very reasonably priced. And the foods are much fresher (and better!) than we have in the States.

I wish I had known who my roommates were before I went. I assumed all would be American but one was Danish and we had problems initially in terms of culture shock though not with Italian culture but with each others. Eventually it worked out but it would have been easier to learn more before I went.

Definitely give it a try if you are interested in visual art but the other areas are lacking and I am sure there are more schools with better qualifications.

Although I love the hotel accoms, I did not connect with the other 10 American exchange students living there; so at first, I was really lonely and depressed. But, I met my friends through classes and my classmates. My friends lived in the program-arranged apartments and it was just a better arrangement. They were cheaper, closer to the classes, and easier to meet people and connect with roomates. Plus, there were no laundry facilities at the hotel, and it's not fun dragging bags of laundry on 2 bus trips and through Florence as creepy men leer at you because your bra has trailed out of the laundry bag....