Academics

My life here in Bologna isn't all fun, games and trips to IKEA. In actuality, I spend the overwhelming majority of my time at school. Since most of my readers probably aren't familiar with it, I thought I'd take a few paragraphs and explain the program.

I'm a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, or SAIS for short. SAIS has three campuses, one in Washington D.C., one in Nanjing, China and a third, of course, here in Bologna, Italy. About half the students spend their first year abroad, and then move to D.C. for their second year. The school essentially offers only one degree, a Master of Arts in international affairs (there's also a one-year program for mid-career professionals, and a tiny Ph.D. program, but they're so small as to be effectively irrelevant to my experience). The program is split into two concentrations. Everyone must take a sequence of international economics courses, and then choose a second area of study to specialize in. There are both regional and functional concentrations available. For example, you could choose Latin American studies or international security. In addition, all students must pass proficiency exams in two core international relations courses and a language other than English. It's quite a lot to achieve in two years. I haven't really gotten started yet. I've been in Bologna for the last month for two pre-term crash courses to get prepared for the proper school year, starting in two weeks. I'm doing survival Italian and an economics prerequisite, both for no credit.

Once the academic year starts, I'll be jumping in with both feet, taking a full course load of economics and international relations. I was originally accepted into the international development track, but since I arrived I've been less than enthusiastic about how restricted the course offerings are in that area. A professor sagely advised me that thanks to my development "experience" as a Peace Corps volunteer, a degree in the field is rather superfluous. So I switched tracks to general international relations and look forward to the flexibility my new concentration affords me. The registrar was shocked to hear that I was giving up IDEV. "People kill to get into that program," she said. Well, maybe some people do, but not me. I'll let others fight to the death over the introduction to development gateway course, while I take a course on risk in political economy instead. I'm also auditing a course this fall on Italian art and culture. There are field trips! I'm very excited.

The campus here in Bologna is rather a joke. It is literally a single building, but it has everything a student could ever need. There are classrooms, a computer lab, a library, a cafe that serves pastries, pasta and prosecco (it is Italy, after all), a student lounge and, in the basement, a locker room with a drum kit and a ping-pong table. Everyone has to blow off steam somehow, and if the vino upstairs doesn't do it, banging around on a snare drum might. Being an American university abroad, all the windows are blast-proof. Following the earthquakes last year, the building was reinforced at great expense. You need an ID card to open the front door. It's all very safe. I guess if you're in Bologna at the time of some  massive zombie apocalypse, the SAIS building would be the place to be. Even more importantly, the view from the penthouse deck on the top floor is spectacular.

So that's basically it. Anyone want to go back to school now?