10.1177/1028315304271480 Journal of Studies in International Education Spring 2005 Van Hoof, Verbeeten / Student Opinions Wine Is for Drinking, Water Is for Washing: Student Opinions About International Exchange Programs Hubert B. Van Hoof Marja J. Verbeeten This article reports on a study done among students who participated in student exchange programs, both in the United States and other parts of the world, between January 2001 and May 2003. Issues such as why students decide to study abroad, why they select a certain institution, how their home institution compares to a partner institution abroad, and what they consider to be the relevance of their international experience were investigated. Students agreed with the literature on the topic to a large extent and were very positive about the experience. Some interesting differ- ences of opinion between incoming (to United States) and outgoing (from United States) students were observed. Keywords: study abroad; exchange programs; international education When Penny Barend, a 3rd-year hospitality management student at North- ern Arizona University, arrived in Italy for a year of studies at the American International University in Florence, she did so with an open mind. Peers, par- ents, and professors had told her that this was going to be the best experience of her life and that living and studying in Italy were going to be very different from living and studying in Arizona. Different, she had been told, is not better or worse—it is just different. When she sat down for dinner with her host family on her very first night, she asked for some water with her meal, a common request in the United States. Yet, the response she got from a 75-year-old Italian was not what she had expected: “Wine is for drinking, water is for washing,” he said. With this, she was wel- comed to the world of living and studying abroad, and this incident stuck with her and became the theme of her valedictorian speech at her graduation cere- 42 Journal of Studies in International Education , Vol. 9 No. 1, Spring 2005 42-61 DOI: 10.1177/1028315304271480 © 2005 Association for Studies in International Education by guest on December 27, 2015 jsi.sagepub.com Downloaded from