När man studerar utomlands via Lunds Universitet så förbinder man sig att fylla i en rapport efter sin tid utomlands i STARS - Student Abroad Rating System. Det är en 10 steg lång questionaire dr huvudfokus ligger på steg tre där man i en skriven rapport ska berätta hur ens år har varit, typ.
Jag känner mig mycket dömmande men har samtidigt varit mycket ärlig. Här är min text (på engelska):
Chapel Hill was a bit of a wild card to me. Arriving in the middle of August I was chocked by the tremendous heat that hit me when stepping off that airplane at the Raleigh/Durham airport. Being a Swede I was not expecting 40+ degress Celsius and I did not even know what to expect as of the climate in North Carolina!
A few days before I left Sweden I was contacted by one of my two apartment mates, John, who offered to pick me up at the airport. This was a great relief, to get an easy transport to campus is much appreciated when arriving at a place you've never been before. I did hear stories about other exchange students who did not know how to get to the university taking buses, cabs and even hitchhiking! Starting from fall 2008 I think UNC might have a shuttle going back and forth to the university for exchange students arriving.
If you've gotten housing through the UNC Housing (on-campus living), which I did, you will get an e-mail with contact information to your roomies/apartment mates. I recommend sending them an e-mail asking if they might be able to pick you up - DON'T rely on public transport your first day - a cab is a much more wise choice. Hazzling with public transport is something that can be done later throughout your semester/year at Chapel Hill as it is messy and takes times. Plus the bus drivers are usually mean.
Another thing people did not know was what to do when they arrived at UNC. Especially if they came a few days before school started. The number one thing I recommend you to do is to get to the FedEx Global Education Center and register that you have arrived. The people there are friendly and helpful. Since I missed the introduction meet I was happy getting that kind of expertise, for example a map etc. I was also pretty quick to unite with my Swedish compadre, Hans, who also was from Lund University and would be at UNC for a year just like me. The study abroad program in Lund introduced us to each other. It was definitely nice to have someone to fall back on speaking our native language for a lunch once in a while...
So, what did I expect from a year abroad? Expectations are very personal. Compared to most other international students from Europe I did not expect to go out every second night. I did expect I would get to know Americans, a few very well. Concerning the American culture I did not expect many of a difference. A western country I thought, with few difference.
For me the US has always been two sided. So many things you've heard through word of mouth but still American media showing something different. I read a lot on the web, but I have now understood that they are very liberal pages I've been hanging out on. United States is a very big country (yes, think again, BIG) with a great diversity of opinions.
Before I came to Chapel Hill to study I was traveling through the country for three weeks when I was about twelve years old. I had tons of memories seeing New York, Chicago, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and more. Even though my parents lived in the states for nearly a year while my dad studied in Philadelphia they never really gave me an idea what to expect. For the better of it, I guess. I like making my own opinions.
That trip far back in time gave me picture of the over sized cars, buildings and people(!). The images and the visual America, but only the visual. It's funny I use the word ”visual” America. It is a pretty descriptive word. I think about nature scenery that changes throughout the country, I think about how people are acting and behaving – it's all about the visual, titles and a good CV. It's about selling yourself or your product. Whether there is something behind the hansom face or not doesn't really matter as as short term impressions are more important.
This leads me to my 2 central conclusions when it comes to Americans and also my greatest disappointment with my year abroad. Americans are all super nice, with perfect smiles but for me it was hard to reach beneath that surface. I wanted to reach beneath the surface of America and talk politics, gender studies, values, their families... To me, that is my way of getting to know a culture fully. When headed back to Sweden I was surprised I only got to _know_ a so few Americans (whereas one became my current girlfriend!).
I was also surprised by the, in general, lower maturity level of american students compared to European ones. My theory on this is that they still are very much dependent on their parents for paying their tuition fee and housing expenses, they are not allowed to drink until 21, and they are living under strict regulations in campus (with RA's, Room Advisors, emplyed students on every floors who are acting like police men to see that everyone obeys the rules). It sometimes felt like more of a high school (Swedish: gymnasium) coming from Lund.
(Yes, I do sound very judging, but these are all remarks I've made throughout the year.)
Each and every time I am abroad I'm surprised to realize the perspective I get of Sweden. My year in the States was no exception. The trip has given me many insights: It's been very interesting to see extreme capitalism (for a Swede, at least) in action and how it works, a society with less ”looking forward” and more living in the present, a society based on debt, a government that does take care of its citizens with problem...ehm...I mean doesn't intrude :-)
I have definitely become much more politically interested during my time abroad. During spring 2008 there was the primary election going on across the country. The American 'pop politics' gave me an opportunity to see both Barack Obama and Chelsea Clinton trying to convince the mostly liberated Chapel Hill to vote for Obama vs. Hillary Clinton. It's been interesting hearing the americocentric world view, not just from the politics, but from ordinary American people who are talking about Europe as one country.
I mentioned above that Chapel Hill was liberated. In fact it was a small island of liberalism on the desert of (religious) conservatism. I am not religious myself and being from one of the most secular countries in the world I was aghast to see men preaching fundamentalist Christianity on central campus explaining how homosexuals end up in Hell together with the women wearing too short skirts. It was interesting seeing religion, and even more God, infiltrating everyone and everything. Public circles of prayers, presidential speeches and bible studies. Things I've heard of but never seen to such an extent.
Just like God infiltrates everything you also have the military and patriotism. The military presence, as the country in fact is (as of writing) at war, was very interesting to see. But also the presence of a blind patriotism. How can you protect borders if you've never crossed them?
The us vs. them scenario was seen all the time. Competition is fierce and real in the states. Either we are talking about sports, academics or war. In Sweden don't have something like that.
And as for my academics, I did learn a lot. I've almost exclusively been taking graduate classes, mostly at the Computer Science department. Being used to the Swedish educational system (esp. Civil engineer system) I'm don't think I ever grasped the American system as a whole. I've been taught throughout my time at university that as long as I know everything being said in class the final exam will be easy. In the US the lectures were extremely easy and seldom touched upon advanced subjects, yet the exams expects different.
The American classes are smaller and in a way open up for more discussions. Something I was lacking during my time at UNC was the teachers asking me how my studies went. It's definitely not easy acclimatizing to a new system, I wanted to have a better dialog where I could ask more about what they expected and could have an ongoing dialog. Being an exchange student sometimes made me feel a little neglected. Sure, it was possible to visit the teachers but they were either interested in either 1) helping you with a problem or 2) working on their research.
It's been said before, and I also came to the same conclusion: The American education is not very hard, but there's a lot of work! All my grad classes except one required me to do a project at the end of the semester. Because the classes were not part of a program any intercourse planning of projects did not occur which meant we all had to hand in all our projects the exact samt week. Huh. If you want to have time getting a feel for the country and not getting too stressed about school I strongly recommend to start of slowly with taking grad classes. They are not hard in theory, and usually start off very simple, but become stressful in the end. Especially the upper graduate classes (that also has some Ph.D. students in them).
As I said before I got an apartment through the UNC on-campus housing. I sent in my housing application with the rest of the bunch of papers that also contained my class registration form. The number one thing you should know about housing is THAT YOU CAN CHANGE ROOM MATE ANY TIME. I had issues with of my first two and being abroad is enough of an issue your initial time in the country. You want to be able to relax in your home. So, if an issue arises early, just switch and don't hesitate, it'll only make things worse.
There are lots of different residential dorms, the one I asked for in my application was called Ram Village and is one of the newer ones where you actually get your own room (alone, ie. not shared, which is common in the US). If you don't specify, most exchange students will likely be put in an apartment housing with your own room (although there were exceptions, a Danish friend did not). There were, however, also exchange students that found their own housing off-campus. I think they found them on Craigslist on Internet, but I'm not sure.
Concerning on campus housing you are not allowed to live cross-gender, ie. boy-girl, and you are probably not likely to be allowed to do that at any American university. Pretty silly. If you want to live together witha girl you have to do it off-campus.
The US is extremely car dependent. There was one exchange student that did buy a car I remember, but I would recommend you to already start thinking about maybe get together with some friends and buy a shared car. Parking is a hazzle on-campus so somebody with a parking off-campus would host the car. Sharing a car would make grossary shopping SOOO much easier. The American students can rarely cook and they instead have meal plans at the two university dining halls (you buy a plan per semester, there are different plans). Either get a car or find a nice American who can drive you, heh.
There are buses going around on campus but as soon as you wanted to leave somewhere you were car dependent. Buses to Raleigh and Durham exist. The nearest Greyhound bus (that goes to different parts of the US) stop is in Durham, but you need use a car to get there. Don't go with Greyhound at night. It's scary and STUPID(!) I did it to Washington DC.
Do you want to know more? While in the states I started my own blog (in Swedish) that can be reached here: http://ztyx.blogspot.com
It contains lots of stories about my experiences. Especially look at the (early) posts tagged "Utlandsstudier" (http://ztyx.blogspot.com/search/label/utlandsstudier) that should make life easier for you if you are planning to go to Chapel Hill, the US or just abroad. The blog is in Swedish.
