I should probably preface this post for all the people out there who think that this post is going to be about my trip to Italy. I started the draft of this the week after I got back from Middlebury, VT, about one month ago, but didn't end up finishing it because school started and everything just got pretty crazy. Now that I've got a few hours on a train and I need a break from homework, I finished my post . So here it is! Enjoy. :)
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In describing my experiences at Middlebury, I am going to try
to be as organized as possible for my readers, especially for you students out
there considering applying for the program.
First of all, a little bit of background about how I made my way to
Middlebury, VT:
As a Sustainability Intern at Johnson County Community
College, I had the pleasure of working with a young woman named Kristy
Howell. She is one of the most
down-to-earth, gracious, open, and vibrate women I have ever met and she truly
made my experience in that office one-of-a-kind. During conversation one day about God knows
what, she mentioned Middlebury College.
I already had quite a bit of background on the prestige that the college
has as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the nation for their
environmental program. It had been on my
¨list¨ of potential dream colleges, but the tuition was way too high and I
couldn´t imagine inundating myself with that kind of loan pressure. So I forgot about it, and then the name
popped up again, only instead for their intensive language program. Kristy´s husband had attended the program for
two summers and absolutely loved it, so I told myself I would look into it.
After a bit of research, I managed to find a full-ride
scholarship called the Kathryn Davis Fellowship and decided to apply. I told myself that I would go if I got the
scholarship or not if I didn’t, because I really couldn’t afford to pay 9K for
seven weeks in Vermont.
As it turns out, I got the scholarship. J
So I contacted the Spanish school and asked if I could get
in touch with some alumni who might be able to provide me with some
advice. I look online for reviews of the
program, and what do I find?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And somehow there aren’t any students who
would like to talk to me about their experiences. What exactly does that mean? Why is everything so secretive?
Not having enough information before applying was one of my
biggest regrets.
Intensive? Yes.
Es difícil saber
dónde empezar cuando pienso en mis experiencias en Middlebury. First of all, adjusting to English has been
harder than I expected. The
consonants of English are a bit harsher than those of Spanish and it’s not
something I would have expected, but it’s kind of cool.
I’m not gonna lie. It
wasn’t until the last couple of days in Vermont that I stopped being upset with
the program. Sure, there were moments
throughout the summer that I had a good time, but for the most part I was
stressed out of my mind, worried about completing the homework, maintaining
somewhat of a social life, getting enough rest, eating well, and staying fit. Well, I can tell you that after noticing that
my pants don’t fit, I only managed to accomplish the first three. The last two were an absolute failure, and I
know that it contributed greatly to my unhappiness. Maintaining my health through regular (small)
meals and exercise has always been central to my success, and without those two
under control, I often feel like nothing that I do is good enough, or that,
sure, I may have done all the homework, but I have no confidence in my
appearance and my mood is slightly sour.
According to other students, my positive disposition and
ability to understand what was going on in class was impressive. Not only impressive, but greater than anyone
else in my level. It took until the
final banquet for me to realize that my expectations of myself had been even
higher than I imagined. That night I
received the recognition of “Mejor estudiante de nivel 4”. For those of you who don’t speak Spanish,
that means “Best student of level 4”.
How could I feel so unsatisfied with what I had accomplished yet stand
out among the rest of my peers?
I tried to explain this dilemma to the instructors in charge
of my oral exam the morning after the banquet.
They asked me if I was surprised, and I told them “Sí y no”.
Receiving this award was just one more reinforcement that I am an
excellent student—but nothing else. I
didn’t participate in the theatre production, or the cabaret, or volleyball, or
soccer, or radio club, or the singing group.
I managed to go to some round table events, some of the fiestas, and one
cooking club. Throughout the whole
summer our professors encouraged us to participate in the co-curricular
activities. Yet I continually had to
turn people down to go out drinking, dancing, or to the activities sponsored by
the college because I wanted to finish my homework and feel somewhat good about
the work that I turned in. After writing
a six-page essay in Spanish, I reached a point where I didn’t care what I
wrote, I just needed to get something down on paper to fill the quota. Nevertheless, my jaw dropped when I saw that
I had received a 94 on the essay. But
this was crap, I thought to myself. I
couldn’t say anything profoundly like I can in English and I just regurgitated
what we talked about in class!
The same thing happened week after week, and I reserved to
be more sociable, to do less homework, and I came to class…without having
finished the reading. It was the first
time that I had not finished my homework before coming to class, and you want
to know what happened? Absolutely
nothing. No one called me out because I
hadn’t done it. In fact, when I came to
class everyone else around me just reaffirmed with each other that indeed they
had not done the reading either. But
how, I thought to myself, will I not get castigated for such behavior?
I decided to try an experiment, reading the first and last
sentence of each paragraph in a 30 page article that we were assigned. In thirty minutes, not only had I managed to
scan through it all, but I understood the main idea of what was written! This is genius, I thought to myself. Why had I been torturing myself this whole
week?
The realization that I could come to class without having
thoroughly examined the text was revelatory.
Inconceivable. And it allowed me
time to go to the gym. I was ecstatic.
Flash forward six weeks, and I’m at the final banquet, where
one student from each level is recognized and another student from the same
level gives a few words of wisdom to the crowd.
Danny’s speech at the ceremony almost made me cry. He was able to make references to our
collective experiences in a poetic way, and for me to feel something so
profound in a foreign language made
me want to cry even more. Of course I
didn’t, because there was a sea of people around me who were all now looking my
way because I had just been recognized, but I really did want to just let the
tears flow. Indeed, I had formed some
great friendships over the summer. For
me, having just one or two really good friends after meeting hundreds is worth
it. I know that I’m going to maintain
contact with them and hopefully even visit in the future! I’m always looking for an excuse to travel to
California…
When all is said and done, I don’t think that I’ll be able
to truly appreciate everything that I learned this summer until my first day of
class at KU on Monday. If the syllabus
is in English, that will be sign number one of a much-less-stressful semester.
But for the prospective students out there wondering what
the Middlebury experience is really like, I’ve compiled a list of things that I
think you must know before you come, because if I had known everything I do
now, I’m not sure I would have applied in the first place. That being said, nothing beats the opportunity
to travel by yourself and do things independently for the first time. This was my first long trip away from home
and it taught me so much about what I want out of my future career, why I value
my community in Lawrence, and where I can go with my language skills. Spanish can take you so many places in the
world, and knowing that the next step up after level four is master’s level
Spanish, I am even more proud of everything that I have accomplished up to this
point. I wish all the future graduates
from Middlebury the best of luck, and cannot emphasize enough the importance of
sleep, eating well, and getting physical activity.
With that, here is the master list:
Regarding your living situation…
·
Do not expect air conditioning
·
Plan to buy at least one fan for your room
·
If you want to be able to store food/drinks/etc.
in your room, you can get a mini fridge from the bookstore for about $133 and
as long as you return it in perfect condition at the end of the summer, you’ll
get about $62 back.
·
The laundry rooms work on a card system, so you
have to load money on to a card and then use it up. I put $20 on my card at the beginning of the
summer and left with $12 still on it. I
also only did one load every two weeks for the first four weeks. After that, I did a load every week and a
half or so. I hand-washed my work-out
clothes so that saved me quite a bit of money.
·
Yes, there is a community kitchen in the dorm,
but it isn’t supplied with anything. And
when I say anything, I mean there’s literally nothing in the kitchen. Except for a microwave which is super helpful
for heating up your leftovers.
·
The washing/drying machines are often out of
order so identify at least two laundry rooms at the beginning of the summer so
that you have a back-up plan when everything is broken or being used
·
You’ll be supplied a pillow and a fleece blanket
for the bed, a couple of bookshelves, a desk lamp, a desk, and two little
cupboards that fit under the bed with four drawers. I had plenty of space for all of my things
without needing the storage in the desk, but I also flew into VT and packed
light. There’s windows as well that open
(thank goodness) and shades to cover them.
With regards to the food…
·
The dining hall is great as long as you are
creative when it comes to food or don’t mind eating the same thing every
day. Why do I say that? At first your options seem really
impressive. I mean, there’s a salad bar
with Spinach and Romaine every day, four types of yogurt, applesauce, homemade
granola, a cereal bar, pancakes every morning, two soups at lunch and dinner
every day, hot foods that change every day, bagels, three types of bread plus
artisan bread that you can cut yourself….The list goes on and on, but after a
while you get the sense that you’re in a hotel, and if you don’t start coming
up with new combinations of ingredients, it can seem a bit boring. Start looking up recipes for the panini press
because that’s where you can get really creative. And, of course, the toaster and microwave
help to do some interesting stuff. I
definitely hit a phase where I was bored with my spinach salads and deli
sandwiches, so I made bruchetta and started mixing in some of the cooked
veggies into the soups. I promise it
will make things easier.
·
If you have money, explore the restaurants in
Middlebury. I gave myself a budget of
$20 a week for eating out, and it was very hard to stay within that limit, but
somehow I managed to without going over very often. The only time I did was when I bought a beer
and some almonds from the co-op.
·
Go to the cooking club if you can, because
you’ll be fed well. The one time that I
went we made ceviche with tostones and a mango/graham cracker dessert. I had more than enough to eat that night.
·
Oh yeah.
There’s ice cream. Every. Single.
Day. Soft serve and regular. Not my favorite aspect of the dining hall.
·
The hours are weird. You might want to buy yourself a reusable
container from the co-op or the bookstore so that you can take stuff with you
and eat when you’re actually hungry.
·
If you want to take dry food with you, there’s
paper bags next to the crackers over by the soup. You can also ask the staff for a to-go box or
plastic wrap if it’s not already out and they’re usually pretty amiable about
it.
With regards to transportation
·
Go to Burlington! Take the Burlington Link that picks up in the
Adirondack Circle and spend the day on Church Street. It costs $4 cash each way, and they only take
exact change so be ready for that.
There’s bus schedules on the buses and in the Davis library, plus
McCullough I’m sure.
·
I didn’t use the inner-city bus much, only once
to try to get to a brewery at the edge of town, and even then it was a Saturday
so the schedule was super weird and I ended up having to walk twenty minutes
anyways. Make sure you look at the
differences between the week day schedules and the weekend scheduling.
·
If you fly in and want to be able to bike
around, the college actually has a kick ass bike share program that lets you
check out a bike for 24 hours. You have
to fill out a form online, get a sticker (supposedly) from Public Safety, and
then you go to the Davis library to check out the key. I say supposedly because they were in some
weird transition phase and I called public safety but they didn’t know what I
was talking about, and then later they said that the stickers had been moved…I
ended up getting a bike somehow and renewed it every day before I went to bed. For 24 days in a row. Just saying…there are ways to take advantage
of the system. The cool part is that
because you’re there during the summer, there aren’t as many students so the
demand for the bikes isn’t that high. I
never had an issue with having to compete for a bike. If you find that the bike it too
uncomfortable for you (I really liked the seat on bike B), check out the bike
shop in town and see if they’ll let you rent a bike for the summer. I was going to do that originally but then I
found out about the school’s program
·
Walking from campus to downtown takes about five
minutes. It’s a super small town. Like super small. I’ll get into that later. There are a ton of hiking trails all around
the campus so if you need to escape, you don’t even need a car to do so. I really appreciated that aspect.
·
I can’t tell you much else about driving in
Vermont because I didn’t have a car and only rode with a friend once, but I am
sure that you would be in a better position than I was without a vehicle
because being at the college with only public transportation, walking, and a
bike, I felt trapped. You’ll look out onto
the mountain view every morning and feel like they’re so close to you but you
can’t even venture out there because you have so much homework to do. I probably should have won an award for “Most
Hours Spent in Library”.
With regards to the city…
·
I’ve never spent a long time in a city that is
smaller than my hometown of Lawrence, KS.
I didn’t realize I would have a program with a town that only has one
local coffee shop. Yes, there was a
dunkin donuts down the way, but that doesn’t count. I’m talking Javabreak, Z’s Espresso, type
coffee shops. Names that you don’t
recognize. I’m also talking about hours
that reflect the fact that this is a COLLEGE TOWN. What kind of coffee shop closes at 5:00
p.m.? I mean, seriously? What happens if you want to be NOT on campus
and study? Literally everything except
the bars and restaurants close at 5 or 6 and it was pretty depressing for
me. I wish I would have eaten out more
in retrospect, but I also was trying to keep to a budget. Not working for seven weeks is certainly
something to plan for financially, and I highly recommend allotting yourself a
certain amount of spending money per week on food or anything else you normally
purchase.
·
It’s hard to say what else should be
highlighted. Definitely make sure that
you go down to the dam. It’s therapeutic
to sit across from the water over in the Marbleworks district.
·
There’s a massage therapist in the Marble Works
district that’s amazing. Her name is
Irene Poole, so if you’re in need of a stress-reliever, I highly recommend it!
·
Make sure to go to the farmer’s market. It’s very tiny (maybe 20-25 tents total), but
it’s cute and there’s excellent food.
·
Go on a hike as often as you can in different
directions. I think the system is called
TAM and there are signs everywhere on the side of the road demarcating the
entrances. I really loved biking in the
morning all over the place just to explore.
·
Don’t feel like you have to stay on campus. Consider allotting a car rental for a day in
your budget just to go somewhere else.
So…one month later, I’ve come back to this unfinished post
having started my classes at KU and on a plane to Italy. I laugh at my comments above because I know
it was a very frustrating time for me, but here’s some really positive news for
you:
11:00 a.m., August 20th. First day of SPAN324 at KU. Everyone around me is speaking in
English. It feels wrong sitting in a
classroom for Spanish and listening to English, and I keep quiet for fear of
having to speak my native language. Our
Professor has a Hispanic accent (hooray!), the girl next to me doesn’t know how
to talk about her hobbies in Spanish. “I
haven’t spoken Spanish, like, all summer.
Sorry.” Jesus, I’m thinking, as
she asks her friend across the room for paper and a pencil. What the hell am I doing here?
2 hours later: I send
my transcripts to the Spanish department and ask politey to be moved up to a
higher level class, copying my professors from Middlebury onto the email. My request is granted. SPAN340 here I come!!
Long story short, your Spanish is going to improve
TREMENDOUSLY even though you don’t think so or aren’t cognizant of it. Trust me, and trust all the professors who
will tell you this over the summer. It’s
hard to describe the feeling of making comments in your head in Spanish, or
starting a phrase in English and ending in Spanish in everyday
conversation. That is a sign that the
language has truly resonated with you and that it’s natural. I never could have imagined something so
strange would be happening to me, but I’m telling you: it’s real.
My advice to you if you can’t go to Middlebury’s language program is to
find ways to immerse yourself in the culture, no matter what. Even if it means sacrificing other
opportunities or alienating some of your friends for a bit. You’ll meet wonderful people along the way
who are just as excited about you learning Spanish as you are. And if you’re persistent about it, you’ll
make your way to fluency, just like I am trying to. Best of luck on your life-long journey.
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