A Year Abroad in America

So, you’re thinking about a year abroad are you. Fancying a change of scenery? Need to get away from people and the everyday routine? Sick of the weather? Buying into the whole ‘broaden thyself through travel and experience’ thing?

Well the good powers that be have asked me, a humble third year American Studies student and hapless participant in the UEA Year Abroad program, to provide you lot with a little taste test/crash course in the whole business. Strap yourselves in dear reader, here’s the 100% first hand personal experience promo you’d never get from the ‘official’ channels.

Now as you can imagine given my degree, I’m in America. Philadelphia to be precise, Temple University if you want me to be absolutely exact. Many of you I can imagine raise an unimpressed eyebrow at this, dismissive mutters of “well it’s hardly the experience of living in a completely foreign country, they all speak English”.

Well that’s technically true although believe me the number of vocabulary wars I’ve had over here with the natives, (the game is FOOTBALL! ‘Soccer’ indeed…), but this is probably the first thing I feel I should point out. The language barrier may be minimal but you’d be surprised just how much of a cultural divide there is.

For one thing, seems to me that people here are distinctly more…professional, in terms of their conduct. Don’t get me wrong, uni life here is by no means puritanical, parties happen left, right and centre and will firmly meet, if not exceed, the standards you’re used to.

The fact that the one show everyone here seems to know Britain for is Skins reaffirms this I think. Also they like Top Gear, so there’s hope yet for the former colonies. What I mean by professional though is a sense of this whole process being very much a PROCESS.

You enter uni, you pursue however many credits you need, you start networking for a profession after uni, if you ask me there really is a sense of everything being like an assembly line. Freshmen come in, Adults come out.

The classroom experience here can be a fair bit different from the seminars you’re used to, partly because of generally bigger numbers but also once again the presence of this very ‘professional’ mindset.

People are in class to study, not to chat. Start of the year I did my usual thing of breaking the ice, chatting to people on the first day etc. It was like trying to knock down a brick wall by throwing spoons.

They’ll engage you in chitchat but they’ll rarely initiate, and never really let it blossom. There are friends to make during your time here, but they are generally people living in the same building or in the same societies as you, not in the classroom.

Sports. I know I’ve grumbled before back at UEA about the lack of many sports that you can just play for fun without basically signing away your pride and soul and ending up in a national contest when all you wanted was to kick a football around for a bit. Well, take all that and multiply it by…..just multiply it.

That’s sport here. Mental. My survival instincts persuaded me to forgo actual organized physical recreation this year in favor of regular gym visits, but whilst actually participating in sport is a bigger deal here, the spectacle of watching it all in action is just about worth it I’d say.

Autumn semester is all about American football and the number of games was fantastic, every weekend regular as clockwork. I mean OK, Temple didn’t exactly do WELL and frankly even after all that don’t ask me to explain the rules. College football really is the definition of spectacle, even in its mildest form.

The action on the pitch, the colossal screens featuring ads, shout-outs and even audience participation based activities (the SmoochCam particularly springs to mind) and of course the cheerleaders. Even if you don’t like the game, you’ll enjoy being at one. The madness is infectious, and this lot do get very mad about it indeed.

I’ll end this for now by answering a question I’m sure all the lads back home are particularly factoring into their decision as to whether or not they should come here; do people really ‘dig’ the accent? Gentlemen, yes. Yes they do.

The accent has a power, I can assure you. It won’t get you to queue jump at any bars or clubs, not even the slightest discount at 7/11 or Starbucks. But it’s a good conversation-starter and will make you stand out.

Some will freak out with excitement at hearing you just say hello, others honestly won’t give a toss, at least visibly. Handy hint though, if you do get waylaid by an accent-obsessive, have a page of a book or something prepared to say when they tell you to “just say something, anything, JUST KEEP TALKING!” It’ll save you a spot of awkwardness at any rate.

Salutations to all back home, someone please send me some Jammy Dodgers and a Yorkshire Pudding!

Patrick blogs at patchmanblog.wordpress.com if you want to read more.