<p>chocoholic, I don’t know anything about the class, but I can say again that Natalie Friedman is terrific! </p>
<p>nmatth, I’m an Italian correlate so I can tell you a little about the department. I did 105-106 and loved it. You really bond with your class, because it’s tiny and you see each other every day. I adore the Italian department - the professors are all totally nuts and completely amazing. They like to feed their students. (I have one professor who brought us wine after the election last semester. It was GREAT.) I’ve also taken French here and I think the Italian department is more fun… but languages at Vassar are generally pretty great. Really well-taught and good material. </p>
<p>SailorV, the social life off campus is essentially nonexistent. I mean, there are good restaurants around, thanks to the proximity of the Culinary Institute (grads stay in the Hudson Valley area and open up fabulous restaurants!) but we don’t get discounts. There’s enough to function, there’s a movie theatre and a Target and grocery stores and whatnot, but Poughkeepsie is kind of a dump. There is enough to do on campus that it doesn’t really matter, though, and if you’re free enough, you can always take the train to NYC.</p>