How To Survive US College Life As A UK Student
America and the UK college life, same thing right? The stark reality of this comparison was not clear to me until mid way though my first week in an American college. This was technically my third year of university so I thought I was pretty clued up on how things worked. The naivety. I was having this unusual feeling that I just couldn’t quite put my finger on and then an incident with the hall care-taker made it all clear to me.
I asked him if I could have a bin for my room because I didn’t have one yet and the college provided them. He looked at me with utter confusion and said “what is a bin?” Now my sleep deprived mind was unable to remember the American word for bin which is “trash can” for a good few minutes. We eventually and awkwardly got there together. After finally getting a trash can I realised, I think this weird feeling I am experiencing is an unexpected culture shock. And more was yet to come.
Do not ask for a rubber in class
After retelling this story and laughing about my inabilities to translate into “American.” One of my peers told me that a previous student from the UK had caused hysterics by asking to borrow a rubber in a class. Of course in America a rubber is a condom and not an “eraser” like on the tip of a pencil. I began to realise it was going to have to be essential to get to know the lingo. I didn’t want to be asking my professor for condoms. Suddenly binge watching American TV shows became my “cultural homework” and did help me out quite a lot. Surviving US college as a UK student was made a lot easier by chatting to my American friends. Share words (especially swear words) and phrases with each other, its often a lot of fun. And can really help you out.
twenny-one and the drinking thing
I was lucky enough to actually be 21 whilst I was a college student so I didn’t have to face the return to being underage drama, and I am very grateful. I’d just say on that subject that 21 is the legal drinking age and it is considered your responsibility to be aware of it by the authorities. Also something that happened to me a lot was that my drivers license would get rejected so I had to take my passport everywhere. This wasn’t that great so if you are staying for a long-term period I’d try and get a state licence, which your college usually help you out with.
The drinking culture is very different to the UK but my best advice is, if you want to, get stuck in and just roam those cultural ex-beer-iences. Surviving US college life as a UK student is aided by learning the rules of shotgunning, beer pong, flip cup… be prepared to be introduced to more games played with cups than you ever thought possible. Be careful of weird punch at parties and try doing a keg-stand I guess if the people running it look strong enough not to drop you. Also they call day drinking “darties” (day x parties) which I really like and am currently trying to infiltrate back into the UK. Watch the space.
Poor politics
So whatever you think you know, you might not. I really struggled to grasp a lot of American politics at the beginning because they have a very different system to the UK. Being from the UK you will most definitely be asked questions about UK politics, and probably in conjunction to American politics. I guess this was kind of a good thing because it made me start paying attention a lot to the news and I did try to understand the American political model.
Talking about politics is not one of my own personal favourite hobbies, especially at a party, but sometimes people like to question you, like you’re an advocate for the UK. Now you can get that anywhere you go of course. If you are studying in America however you can try to get to know what is going on beforehand I guess. Surviving US college as a UK student requires you to take some time to read a few bits of news coverage here and there and try and look out for some American news programmes too. Side note: be prepared to be overwhelmed by the volume of news programmes, unreal.
Food glorious food
They do pretty much have it all. The best fast-food of course. But also the best super foods too, hello Wholefoods supermarket (on a splurge day). The multi-cultural aspects of some parts of America too enable you to experience such a huge and gorgeous variety of food. And you can still eat things like corn-dog nuggets.
Yes that’s a thing. Yes try it. As someone visiting from the UK I’d say the main things that seemed different was the milk, bread and chocolate. I can’t lie I am a loyal Cadbury consumer through and through so struggled without at times. It really isn’t all just burgers and fries though, I mean it can be if you want it to be. I really enjoyed the food and miss some aspects a lot. I think people can often be quite snobbish about American food, but leave all those preconceived ideas at the door baby. Good and greasy things are ahead.
The best way to survive US college life as a UK student is to accept that it is different to the UK and not to try fight the culture to morph it so its the same as your UK experience. What you can do is learn from your American friends and teach them too about the similarities and differences between the two cultures.
Thus forming your own multi-cultural experience and making the most out of it. A culture shock was really not something I expected upon going to America. But in a weird way I really enjoyed experiencing it. It was exciting to experience a different way of living and speaking. Although you just know as soon as you come home someone is going to insist you’ve picked up an American accent. Howdy-do.
