Wonderful experience making new friends, despite administrative issues Past Review
By A student (International Development, Seattle Pacific University) - abroad from 06/16/2012 to 07/22/2012 with
Action AMIDEAST: Social Innovation Abroad in Tunisia
It was so worthwhile! I have a lot of friends from the trip--my American colleagues, British students, and Tunisian students.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
It wasn't that difficult at all. At the beginning there was a lot of reading, but overall the academics were fairly easy. I didn't find the intensive Arabic course to be too difficult either, although I know that others in the program thought it was extremely hard. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
The AMIDEAST Tunis office is so disorganized and the leadership was often unprofessional in demeanor. As an example, we were supposed to be doing homestays in Tunisia, but AMIDEAST did not inform us of this until we arrived in country. In addition, they did not find us host families until the day before the homestay was supposed to start. Then one of the country administrators began sending text messages at 1am to inform us of changes in our host family stays--and these changes were supposed to be for the very next day. Overall the administration was severely lacking: we never knew our schedule, any information about expectations of us, and the administrators rarely returned phone calls or emails. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
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| * Food: |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
The language village helped us integrate with locals, and it was a lot of fun to get to know some Tunisian students. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
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| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
It's pretty easy to stay within your stipend limit on food and taxis. |
| * Was housing included in your program cost? | Yes |
| * Was food included in your program cost? | Yes |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | ~50 dinar (roughly $30 USD) |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
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| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Intermediate |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | An intensive Spoken Arabic course--Palestinian dialect |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | At the least, try and haggle with merchants and ask people for directions--these are easy ways to get exposure and practice your vocab words. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | That the in-country logistics/administrators are disorganized and that they can't be trusted to provide accurate information. |
