Last evening a group of staff and students gathered to say goodbye to Juan Carlos Ramirez, a student from Venezuela who has been studying at BMSL for the past four months.  In his time at BSML, Juan Carlos has had an extremely rich cultural and educational experience, spending time visiting historic and tourist sites throughout the area and making some life-long friends with students and staff members.  
 
When Juan Carlos was looking for an ESL program he did lots of online research and learned about many schools in the U.S.  He then contacted BSML and talked about his goal to study "business English."  After looking over the curriculum offerings at BSML, he determined it was the right place for him and began classes in the late fall.
 
Being from Venezuela, Juan Carlos had never lived through a real winter where frequent snow storms bring feet of snow that doesn't melt because temperatures do not exceed freezing for weeks at a time.   He told me last night that when he was walking to school during the first storm of the season he took about 40 photographs of the snow to share with his friends and family at home because he knew if he tried to describe what was happening without evidence no one would believe him.
 
I asked him last night if he learned everything he had hoped in his time at BSML.  His answer was a simple "absolutely."  He also said he is surprised at the affection and attachment he feels to Boston, BSML and the many friends he has made over the past four months. The time he spent here was a great luxury, he said, one which allowed him to re-evaluate his career path and make some better choices for his future.  He said he will be forever grateful to the faculty and staff at BSML for this opportunity and hopes to return in the not-too-distant future.  We hope that it true, because we will all miss him.
 
Good luck Juan Carlos from all your friends at BSML.