Experiencing College Life in the USA - 4 Big Culture Shocks - Part 1

Studying in the USA is associated with a lot of euphoria.

Seeing how it's going down in movies: The biggest parties, athletes are like celebrities on campus, always some crazy events going on, the best campus lifestyle...

Life over there looked so much more fun and exciting.

At least that's what I thought, I mean the only reference I had were movies.

Even now, it's funny to see how friends come up to me and as soon as I mention that I studied in the US, they immediately refer to these exact things I mentioned above.

"Broo the parties must be insane"

"What about the guns, did you see a shooting"

"Do they even know where Germany is on the map?"

"Isn't that like a completely different world back there?"

Yes and No.

It's amazing to experience another culture and how much aligns with what you've seen in the news and movies.

Here are 4 things I've witnessed during my (almost) 3 years as a college student in South Carolina.

Keep in mind: I refer to MY experience in the South. The US is too big and diverse to just summarize in a couple of bullet points. Going to university in Boston is a whole other experience than in Atlanta or Columbia. Many cities have completely different infrastructures than others which ultimately changes your whole experience.

With that being said, let's get to the first point.

Infrastructure

Terrible...

Okay okay, let me phrase that right: Very different compared to what I am used to.

If you're from Germany you always have train connections or other public transportation at hand. It's pretty easy to get around.

Well, in South Carolina and the South in general, this is not the case.

You cannot do anything without a car. There are no real bus connections that could be useful to you, so you have to ask your friends. It's like being 12 again. You have to constantly ask everyone to drive you somewhere. That was the biggest pain in the ass.  

You need to drive to every single thing, even when it's not even needed.

I was living close to campus, about a 5-minute walk, yet EVERYONE doesn't matter how close they lived to campus, used their car... a 1-minute drive is standard.

Walking is not a thing. And the problem is you have to get used to that pretty quickly. The streets aren't built for that. Most of them don't even have sidewalks. So going for a nice walk was not an option.

I remember when I wanted to walk with my girlfriend to Target. Target was 10 minutes away. We were the only ones walking. Everyone else was in their car and just looking at us, like "What the hell are you guys doing?? We don't do that here".

We didn't even make it that far because the sidewalk happened to randomly stop in the middle of a street. I felt like Leonardo Di Caprio in The Revenant, fighting my way through traffic and parking lots just to make it to the store.

It's even common for Americans to drive 20 to 30 minutes just to get a coffee at Dunkin Donuts. To this day, I have never seen such dedication to iced lattes.

Friendliness

This is a 2 faced phenomenon.

On the one hand, It is amazing how they treat you.

In Germany, we think being nice is overrated. In the South, they are so nice, sometimes even a bit too nice. You walk into a restaurant and the waiter takes care of you as if you're his son with a side of comfortable small talk. Amazing.

In the US, you gotta make sure that you don't walk into the gas station and start making friendly conversations left and right. People love talking and oversharing. And the best thing is, they're so friendly that you don't even care.  

In Germany, you step through a door and already see the tension in people's eyes. No greeting, no small talk. Just pay and get out.

Germans are so tense...

To put it bluntly, Americans don't have a stick up their ass as we Germans do.

Another interesting fact is that I would never just randomly make small talk with a stranger in Germany. Most of the time you just make cold eye contact. But, when I'm in the US and the elevator door closes, I'll get asked 20 questions about my day and how I'm doing.

And that's why I said 2 faced. It can be good and make you feel at ease. But since I didn't grow up in a small-talk culture, it sometimes gets to me, man...

It's just too much sometimes.

What I mean by that is that it's hard to break through the small talk. You communicate in a very friendly way but only on a superficial level.

With most Europeans, it's hard to crack their shell, they are more distant on the surface. But once you manage to break through, you get to experience the real individual and then it's easier to really connect.  

With Americans on the other hand, you connect quickly but on the surface level.

Again, it depends from person to person, but I was in an international environment where I got to experience people from all around the world, and Americans. Over the years you could clearly see a pattern, that it was much easier to connect on a deeper level with internationals than with Americans. Americans are great at hospitality and making you feel at ease, but breaking through that shell is very hard, much harder than with other nationalities.  

Life is more fucked up

When I tell you, almost everyone I met, has either a story where someone in their closer circle got shot or died in some weird way.

I was surrounded by normal people. But they still had much harsher experiences than most of us Germans I know.  

I don't know how many times I sat in class and someone casually told me that there was a shooting at some random school they went to.

My sister goes to college in Indianapolis and told me that one of her friend's teachers had locked himself in the classroom and taken the students hostage with a gun. The other guy told me that he was in class and a girl randomly dropped dead, and when they had exam period, there was a suicide chain.

All these things are not happening in my world...

But these things just seem to happen, and people only mention them in the side of a conversation.... like bro, what??

One time I was having a conversation with my roommate, and right in front of our house, we hear gunshots. That was a vibe killer. The next day I walked to class and saw the bullets on the ground.

I think within my 3 years, campus safety sent out multiple emails about shootings or kidnappings. Yes, there was a girl who almost got kidnapped while running at 6 AM...

Nutrition

You want to eat healthy, and stay on a friendly budget? Cool buddy, not here.

Our university had a Chik-fil-A and a Starbucks. And that wasn't just on our campus. It didn't matter where we went, there were fast food chains at every university. If you would enter the student center (the main area of campus where the fast food chains were located) at 11:15 AM, you would lose it.

People standing in line to get a burger, milkshake, and some fries. That was the common picture you saw every day. Happy faces with milkshakes in the morning.

Chik-fil-A would open at 11:30 and by 11:15 the line was so long, you had to wait a minimum of 40-50 minutes just to order. And it didn't seem to bother anyone.

Well okay, there is still the cafeteria.

So, I was a student-athlete, and at some point, you would just like to eat healthy, no?

Well, go have some breakfast:

• Cinnamon Buns
• French Toast and Pancakes
• Muffins
• Glazed Donuts
• Eggs
• Bagels

Okay, eggs that's good. I can work with bagels as well, what can I put on my bagel?

• Peanut Butter, Crunchy Peanut Butter, Chocolate Peanut Butter
• Cream Cheese, Strawberry Cream Cheese, Blueberry Cream Cheese

This is not to make fun of anyone here, but it's just shocking to see what food options were available.

For lunch and dinner, there is a salad bar and often rice and beans. But it's just hard to get around all the fast food stations including:

• Pizza station
• Burger station
• Waffle station
• Dessert station
• And the 2 Ice Cream Machines

As soon as you go to breakfast at 8 AM and see people with a big glass of Coke and Sprite, you know something is off.

That was something to get used to and it's just hard to stay healthy and consistent when you're constantly surrounded by temptations.

And it doesn't stop on campus. Take a drive down the main street. You'll see why the country is called the fast food capital.

Conclusion

Those were only a few of many culture shocks. There are more to come.

The US is a country of extremes.

There are extremely bad things, but also extremely good things from which many countries can benefit.

You know what they say

Go Big or Go Home