BY SUSANNE BERGSTEN
PRIDE STAFF WRITER
photo courtesy of Susanne Bergsten
As an exchange student from England, I did not know what to expect coming to Cal State San Marcos or the U.S. in general. With that said, I also have to mention that I have had the time of my life.
The first thing I noticed is that everything in the U.S. is way bigger: the cars, the roads, the malls, stores, portions of food, etc. The Mexican influence here can be compared to the Indian influence back home; we have loads of Indian food places while barely any Mexican places whatsoever.
Cars here are just massive. Trucks are not at all popular back home, and having one would just make it impossible to find a parking spot as we parallel park a lot. I also realized the necessity of having a car. Back home, public transportation is very good, so you don’t really need a car. Buses, trains and subways are cheap and well maintained. They run regularly, not like the sprinter which just runs twice an hour. Here, you can barely get to a grocery store without a car, while back home, I’d rather walk than drive. Finding a parking spot would be too much of a hassle.
When I first arrived, I asked myself, why do I have to buy books and live with only girls? In England, I barely ever needed to buy books for school as most of the course books could be found in the library. The teachers do not expect their students to buy all the books.
Also, the double spacing and sourcing is new to me. We use the Harvard referencing system, not the MLA or APA. One of my teachers told me in the beginning of the semester, “Sweetie, your essay is a bit long, about twice as long as it have to be.” I forgot to double space because I’m not used to it and wrote seven regular pages instead of seven double spaced!
The dorms here are very different too, way more expensive and in England we have co-ed rooms and RAs.
Upon arriving in California, I realized football isn’t soccer here. Sports in the U.S. are different, as soccer, which we call football, is essentially the national sport in England. American Football and baseball are much bigger, and we don’t even have those in England. Surfing is also something that is barely possible with the tiny waves and super cold water in the British Isles.
The best difference though is the weather. England is cold and it rains a lot. (At the moment it’s 30 or so Fahrenheit in England, so the last thing I want to do is to go back.) It is quite different being able to go to school in shorts and flip flops here compared to rubber boots and coats back in England.
I also like that there is always something to do here: music festivals, concerts and great nightlife. The funny thing is that we can drink when we are 18 back home but also have to wait until we are 18 to drive while here you have to be 21 to drink but can drive when you are 16.
Both movies and music come out here way before they do at home. I recently heard that G6 by Far East Movement just started playing in clubs back home, and I also noticed I cannot buy certain songs on iTunes here because they have not been released back home yet and my account is connected to my English address.
When I came here, I didn’t think people actually played beerpong. Back home we only see it as something Americans do in teenage movies, and we never play it. That is something that I for sure will take with me back home and do with my friends.
I think my exposure to all things American has changed me a lot, and I will truly miss SoCal. I’ve had the time of my life, and going on exchange is the best decision I’ve ever made. I would encourage anyone to go, as travelling and meeting new people is just awesome.