Best Places to Study Abroad

[Iplayboard]

Obviously the answer depends on individual criteria, but either from personal experience or from word of mouth, what places are good to visit? I guess important factors would be cultural opportunities, friendliness of people, overall satisfaction with experience.

[eviljeff]

common sense answer: Amsterdam

[RunDownHouse]

Wow, thanks for helping us out here. You really let us know what your interests are, what languages you speak, what you're looking to get out of your abroad experience, and all the other pertinent information. Great work.

Based on what you've told us, I'd have to recommend going where the exchange rate is the most favorable.

[TheMainEvent]

I've heard good things about Ireland

[Iplayboard]

Smartass.

I like playing/watching soccer and smoking weed, but I don't really care if pot is legal there. I also like drinking so anyplace that has good bars/pubs. I only speak English, but I want to go to a place that speaks a foreign language, which I will then learn. I want to go somewhere in Europe, to a metropolitan city like Rome, Madrid, Paris, Prague, etc. I want to go to a place that has some cultural like museums.

Basically I just want to experience someplace that is different from the United States. Also, my scholarship would pay for my tuition and board, so my expenses would be travel and living. Exchange rate is not a major issue.

The point of my post wasn't necessarily to give you every single detail about me so you can tell me which place to go. It is more like what places are you familiar with so that I can cross those off or move them to the top of my list.

[britspin]

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S
I like playing/watching soccer and smoking weed, but I don't really care if pot is legal there. I also like drinking so anyplace that has good bars/pubs. I only speak English, but I want to go to a place that speaks a foreign language, which I will then learn. I want to go somewhere in Europe, to a metropolitan city like Rome, Madrid, Paris, Prague, etc. I want to go to a place that has some cultural like museums.


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Well, you've described pretty much every major University city in Europe. Any major capital should satisfy those needs!

In addition to the capitals, you might also want to consider:

Florence (firenze)- The home of the renaissance. also the home of fiorentina.

Salamanca- Home of one of the oldest universities in Europe- and stunningly beautiful.

Leiden- university town in Holland- like Amsterdam, but less sleazy.

for something I bit more offbeat- consider Budapest, Moscow or St petersburg- eastern europe, so cheap, but much more of an adventure.

[mmbt0ne]

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I like playing/watching soccer and smoking weed, but I don't really care if pot is legal there.

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Here's one vote for Singapore.

[stanky]

In the shower.

lolrolflmao!

I'm an idiot

[thatpfunk]

I had ana amazing time in Madrid and would recommend it.

[imported_metrognome7]

I spent a year in London and LOVED it - great beer, great soccer, amazing music scene, poker around every corner, some amazing schools... I don't smoke, but my friends who did said it wasn't a big deal to find.

Plus - and this was my favorite part - from London you can fly anywhere in Europe for around $75 round trip if you know where to look. My friends and I would hop over to Amsterdam for the weekend all the time; hell, we ended up in Denmark once and that was a BLAST.

[Jdanz]

i'm going to prague next semester, when i'm done i'll write up a trip report.

[wacki]

Bavaria - learn a language, awesome beer, easy day trips to neighboring countries, and they /images/graemlins/heart.gif americans.

[jthegreat]

I've never known anyone who regretted going to Australia.

[RunDownHouse]

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Bavaria - learn a language, awesome beer, easy day trips to neighboring countries, and they /images/graemlins/heart.gif americans.

[/ QUOTE ]
More specifically, Regensburg or Munich. Regensburg is a smaller town about an hour north of Munich, on the Danube. If you remember the opening scene in Gladiator, where they're in the woods in a battle, that's actually the historical founding of the city. The Uni has about 30k students, and that's a healthy percentage of the town. Regensburg was also one of the few towns not destroyed in WWII, which means the medieval downtown is intact. They've turned most of it into a pedestrian zone, and the result is lots of uni students all walking the streets from pub to pub to club. Geographically, its an hour from Munich, a four-hour bus ride to Prague, an hour or so to the Black Forest.

Munich is obviously a much bigger city than Regensburg. You'll have all the advantages of a bigger metropolitan area, like more culture (theatre, plays, historical monuments, etc), better public transit (although this isn't really a problem anywhere in Europe, in general), more/varied bars and clubs, and so on. It also has the downsides, like more crowding, a bit more impersonal, many more tourists, etc.

You should PM jason_t to ask him about Prague, as he lived there for a couple years (?). I can tell you that you won't be able to pick up the language very quickly, certainly not in the time span of something like six months. It is a really awesome city, though. When I was in Regensburg I made that bus ride 4 or 5 times. I once even got stranded with no cash when my passport got stolen, and still had an ok time. The only city in Europe I liked more was Budapest.

Overall, I'd have to recommend somewhere in Germany for a couple reasons. First, you're closer to eastern Europe, which I definitely favored over western. Second, the language isn't that hard, and is surprisingly close to English for those who haven't studied it. Third, the beer culture is unbelievable, and weed is pretty much accepted in all but the letter of the law. Fourth, its much cheaper than Great Britain, although not as cheap as Czech/Hungary.

Good luck and post when you've made up your mind.

[kenberman]

various places in Europe are great, b/c of the exposure you can get to multiple cultures. in particular, places w/ easy access (via plane, train) to other cities :

Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Florence

I studied in Athens, and loved it. almost all of my travel was w/in Greece, which is both good and bad.

[RunDownHouse]

I'd also like to add that I think Berlin would NOT be a great place to study. As of a few years ago, Berlin was the biggest city in the world in terms of acreage. Way too big, and I generally preferred the attitude and gemuetlichkeit of southern Germany.