When I was an undergraduate at Augustana College, the Middlebury Summer Language School advertised in the Student Union every spring. 6-8 week immersion programs for college students, where you speak only the target language: French, Spanish, Russian, German, Chinese, and, in 1982, Arabic! My summers were always too busy to go, and besides, who could afford the tuition (today it's $12,000 for 8 weeks, plus room and board).
Middlebury is about halfway between Upstate New York and Montreal, so 20 years later, I would make a point of stopping there for lunch on the way up. It is definitely my favorite town in New England: a very pretty Main Street that crosses Otter Creek and goes up to a town square with an iconic white-steeple church, some antique shops,two used bookstores, and the Henry Sheldon Museum, with 19th century Vermont art.
Not a lot of good places for lunch, if you don't want burgers or pizza, so you get burgers or pizza. Two Brothers Tavern has a good turkey burger, field greens salad, and poutine (for $1.50 extra).
Middlebury College itself is rather disappointing -- cool gray buildings cluttered on College Avenue, with a student union that looks unfinished.
And not a lot of students walking around chatting in French, Spanish, Russian, German, Chinese, or Arabic -- those majors are offered, with their own houses and tables in the cafeteria, but most students are majoring in liberal rich kid subjects like Film and Media Cultures, Feminist Studies, and Subaltern Studies.
It's completely pro-gay, of course. One of the runners came out by mentioning that he had a boyfriend in an email to the whole team. Their reaction was, "so, like, is he cute or what?"
The college is not big on sports. It has swimming and wrestling teams, but they don't win a lot of awards (this a player from the opposing team).
At the NCAA Meet in March, Middlebury placed 46th of the 53 teams competing.
But Middlebury Union High School, where the professors send their kids, offers football, baseball, wrestling, ice hockey, and Nordic, which I assume is skiing.
It's completely pro-gay, too.
