Living in the USA - The blog of an unrestricted ambitionist.
January 22, 2010 “The First Impression”
When Europeans think about living in the United States, we generally tend to come up with a large number of clichés that we associate with Americans. Most of these ideas are associated with the “American Dream” which for most part we correlate with large famous cities. For example, we tend to think about New York City, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and lastly Hollywood as the typified American City. We principally know these cities as centers of commerce, fun, adventure and finally a place where dreams can be actualized.
After having spent a month in America as a knowledge hungry upper class student, I can say that some of the clichés that Europeans have are not all wrong. Yet, stereotypes that Europeans have range from the good, the bad, and the ugly. The one thing that truly stands out to me is that if you have positive attitude, ambition, and drive you can truly succeed in this country. Looking at the vast amount of people from the different backgrounds allows me to say that, if one is willing to adapt to American society and with the willingness to work hard one can go as far as they want.
One of the things that really stand out in living so brief a time in the United States is the realization that this country is so vast compared to most European Nations. It features a variety of dialectics, foods, and cultures from anywhere in the world. When I first arrived in the United States I spent five days touring New York City before traveling to Cullowhee, NC to begin my college career. I really enjoyed the city that never sleeps and was impressed by the variety of different languages, cultures, and locations.
After I had left New York and arrived in NC, I was struck mostly by how Western Carolina University was basically a small city and not at all what I expected. When I say I did not expect living in a small town by living at the University, essentially Western Carolina is the antithesis of university culture in Europe. In Europe we do not have college campus where students live, work, eat, and socialize.
To put into perspective of what I think of Cullowhee, I am referring to my past three years spent in the petit Dutch city Breda.
What I truly enjoy about living in the middle of nowhere is being surrounded by the Great Smokey Mountains that envelop this campus. I still cannot stress enough that the idea of campus life is truly foreign to me since, as I was already explaining that students do not live on campus when attending university. There are no inter university rivalries involving sports teams, and the idea of social events on campus is in fact new to me. It amazes me that there are unlimited wireless Internet connections available to surf the net or the availability of looking at restaurant menus online. The variety of restaurants and grocery stores offering a diversity of choices to students is impressive. It appears to be a pleasure having a Starbucks on campus where you can enjoy a coffee and the environment it provides for working on various assignments.
The dorms are different, but just fine. I, for instance, have a single furnished room sharing the restroom with my suite mate. The lessons are not that different compared to our beloved Avans University concerning the teaching methods, but the amount of homework might be an issue, especially at the beginning of the semester.
Having five courses plus a business law course in addition as well as being a member of United Nations Society, and other political student organizations, I have almost no free time. Yet, I appreciate being busy, working hard in order to gain the most valuable and essential experience I could ever dream about while being attending college.
Of course I could mention the great TV shows, movies, shops and cars driving around and appearing “so American” to European fellows, but I think this can be already presumed. Consequently, it is essential to pay attention to differences in culture, mentality and not to wait that everything we might think is great would be seen here as awesome, as well as the other way around. Although being alert in the beginning would be already enough.
In this way, those are my first impressions and experiences overseas that I appreciate sharing with you. I hope I have given a certain insight to the life of a European student in the USA and am looking forward to broadening our horizon in a near future.
Goodbye for now from the sunny and warm (+16C dg!) Cullowhee!
