Why Europeans Can Have a Hard Time Adjusting in the US

After living in the South of the US for almost 3 years, I came across many different nationalities with different perspectives about the country.

I observed a pattern between the variations in experiences, expectations, and requirements of students coming from South America and Europe.

To give you a brief background, I was a student-athlete at a university in South Carolina. In my soccer team, we had a minimum of 10 nationalities from all around the world.

Columbia, France, Germany, Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, the Bahamas, and more.

You can imagine that so many cultures have different expectations when coming to the states.

And those expectations can become a deciding factor when it comes to your college experience, or rather, your overall experience in the States.

The First Year in the US

I remember exactly how I felt when I flew home to Germany from my first semester. I still had so much excitement in me.

I thought that almost everything in the US was better. The right word would have been different. That was what I was looking for. Something different.

A new culture, the positive vibes and energy from people, the movie-like lifestyle...

Especially in US universities, these huge buildings with all the fancy equipment cannot be compared to most European universities. Going to a school that heavily invests in its appearance by constantly building new facilities or spending $200,000 a year for cutting grass, just made you feel at ease.

During the first months, I got so many new and impactful impressions that it was hard to comprehend them all at once. And I guess that's what made it so exciting.

In the second semester, it was similar. As an athlete, you're on the field every day with your teammates, which automatically means you're in constant contact with your friends. There is always something fun coming up.

Be it winning a practice game, partying on the weekends, or attending the same class, you would slowly build your own family.

Additionally, the environmental change was really refreshing:

August - December: in college

December - January: at home in Germany

January - April: back in the US

Although this rhythm wasn’t easy after a while, it was still refreshing, since your environment completely changed after a couple of months, and it felt like you were thrown into a different world.

When the Excitement Starts to Fade

As I said before, it is great to have excitement when traveling to different countries. It shows that you’re open and happy about new things coming your way. You're also ready to expand your horizon.

However, at some point, life becomes life again.

The excitement slowly fades and you try to apply behaviors that were possible in your home country but then suddenly realize that this isn’t your home country.

Things work differently here. Not the way you’re used to.

That might not affect you as much in the beginning, but after a while, you get a look into both sides.

Obviously, when you make a big trip to a foreign country, you want your experience to be good and therefore, you mainly focus on the good side. But everything in life is 2 sided.

With the fading of the excitement, you begin to experience the downsides of your surroundings and your focus shifts from "everything is amazing" to "hold up, what the heck is that?!"

• Lack of proper nutrition
• Lack of public transportation
• Hard times aligning with different belief systems
• Gun violence
• Constant debates and disagreement about politics
• Struggling with cultural behaviors

What I mean by differences in cultural behavior is that I've noticed how careless Americans and South Americans are with appointments. Going to the Gym at 2:30 PM can quickly become 3 PM or not showing up at all without further notice.

You can imagine that a German will have a hard time adjusting to that because most of us just are differently wired when it comes to being on time.

Some of the problems mentioned above are also found in Germany, but not to this extent.

Suddenly you understand that things are handled or done very differently than you are used to, and that can become bothersome very quickly.

• Sometimes you just want to go for a calm walk outside... but realize you can't
• Sometimes you want to go to a local bakery and taste some good bread…but that's not a thing
• And sometimes you just don’t feel like completely trashing the planet by using plastic bottles and plastic boxes every day and producing three times as much trash as usual… but that's also not possible.

And that goes back to the basics.

Depending on the country you grew up in, there are certain behaviors and values you were taught that sometimes you just can't shake. They are a part of you, and if something goes against those values, they are simply not compatible with you.

But, when I compare the states with my friends from Columbia or Argentina, most of them were fascinated by what they saw.

They told me how happy they were that it was so much safer here and the number of opportunities they could get.

The goal for most of them is to stay in the US and get a job, whereas for me it was clear after the second semester, that I was definitely leaving the US.

In my personal opinion, for what I was looking for and used to, the standard just wasn’t as high as in Germany. I'm talking about the quality of life.

And the funny part was that every single German I met at my college had the same feeling.

No one wanted to stay. It was fine for the college experience, even better than in Germany. But starting your own life there was out of the question.

Even though the experience was completely different and new, it was amazing in the short term. In the long run, however, you are just gravitating back to your roots and you're not ready to give up a certain type of luxury such as :

• Hopping on your bike and driving through cities
• Enjoying more of nature and getting less of the traffic culture
• Not worrying about guns
• Not contemplating if the casual street down the road is “safe” enough to pass through

That’s when you start appreciating where you're from.

All this time I was bored and critical of my home country. I was so used to the lifestyle I grew up with, but when you come in contact with other countries and actually live there, you start to see it in a different light.

For example, I never knew how much I should appreciate the cleanliness, the quality of food, or the education that I’ve received.

When talking to my friends from the South or even South America, I realize how challenging and high-level our high school system was compared to most of them.

In the first year of college, you deal with material that we in Germany studied in 7th grade. US high schools do not even have a big exam in their senior year like the Abitur in Germany, which is crazy to me.

Conclusion

Experiencing both sides of the coin is absolutely necessary.

Trust me, you will want to experience the good stuff, but also the other side. Its reality.

This is why I am so grateful to have done this experience and I can only recommend it to anyone out there.

Even if you think you had a bad experience, it surely made you realize a lot about yourself and your desires.

Traveling or living abroad will reveal what you want from life and what not.