I am a 20-something German university student with a passion for literature, languages and traveling, among other things. I am an American and Spanish Lit major and have spent one year living and studying in Oklahoma and another year in Barcelona, Spain. Usually I blog over at Earth to Bella. I’m glad I got the chance to guest blog on here about my experience living in the US as it really was an amazing time and it is always great to reflect on and share my memories with others.

I started studying American Literature in the fall of 2002. In 2003 I decided that I wanted to spend a year at a university in the US. A few months, some research, an application and an interview later, I received a letter congratulating me on having received a spot in the exchange program of my university. A lot of paperwork followed and in July 2004 I finally flew to the States a couple weeks before classes would start. I moved into my new home, an apartment in a university-owned apartment complex, only knowing that my roommate would be the other girl from my home university. We had met up a couple of times before going to the States and decided to room together. I was the first one to arrive, but within a week, my other roommates arrived. They were J., the girl from my university, A. from Japan and A. from Bolivia.

I was very thankful for all the support and help that I got from the staff at the international office, as the first few days proved to be quite the adventure what with trying to find a building, enrolling in classes, and many other things. And all that in the scorching heat that is Oklahoma in August. There were also many volunteer students who helped us international students with settling in and getting around, because none of us owned a car. Not owning a car is not an issue in Germany but in Norman, Oklahoma? You can hardly get around town without one. There was a basic bus service, but it made any trip to the grocery store an event that took several hours. There was that one time I tried to walk to a store and not only did it take me forever, I was also sweaty and thirsty when I finally got there (turns out it was over two miles away!). I ended up having to walk on the green along the street because there was no sidewalk, not to mention the looks I got from people who passed me in cars, probably thinking I was mad. I guess that was one of those moments when my German habits clashed with the reality of life in an American town. Needless to say, that was the last time I tried walking anywhere further than from my apartment to campus and back.

I met people quickly, meeting most of the people I would later be friends with in the first week of classes. I kept in mind that it was me who wanted to make friends, that likely they already had friends, so I knew I would have to reach out to them, but my (now) friends made it easy for me by being really nice and outgoing. Most of the friends I made I am still in touch with almost four years after I left. And even though everyone has busy lives, I try to stay in touch with them and catch up every now and then.

University in the US is quite different from what it is like in Germany. In Germany, our grades all depended on either one paper or one exam at the end of the semester. I liked the US system better, and I did a lot better, having to study less at once, but more regularly, really worked much better for me. But the differences don’t end there.

College life in the US really is a unique experience. In Germany (as well as in Spain, by the way) we don’t really have a school community as US schools do. Basically, here, we go to class, and then we go home. In our leisure time, school doesn’t really play a role. College sports are so important in the US, here no one cares how school teams do, except maybe the teams themselves. I was able to attend two games and OU won both (as they did every other game that season except for the national title), and wow! Norman on game day was an experience in itself. The atmosphere in the stadium was amazing!

Another difference is in the service, equipment and amenities provided by the university. OU (and every other university in the US) is a university funded largely by tuition, fees and donations, it is run like a business, the student is the customer and is treated as such. In Germany, up until a couple of years ago, universities were funded entirely by the state, and the departments had no money. Tuition has now been introduced and things have gotten a little better, but it is still only a fraction of what US students pay. Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept of getting a university degree for next-to-nothing, but I loved being able to enjoy all the amenities of a school where I would have had to pay $12,000 for the year I spent there, hadn’t I been an exchange student (we didn’t have to pay any tuition at all and were waived most fees, except $50 a semester I think).

Besides school, there were so many differences between Oklahoma and Germany. The weather – tornadoes and the shortest winter of my life being one of them. I really loved being able to wear flip flops at the end of February, but in the summer months, all you could do was walk from the air-conditioned apartment to the air-conditioned bus to the air-conditioned classroom to the air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned grocery store … you get the idea. The people – much friendlier and open to meeting new people. I used to think that this superficial friendliness was fake and annoying (as do most Germans), but really, in everyday life, at a store or elsewhere it’s much more pleasant to deal with a fake nice person than a genuine grumpy person.

I loved how Walmart was open 24/7. I loved Sonic Drive-Ins, ranch dressing, Hot Tamales, Old Navy flip flops, Cosmopolitan, pizza at church, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, spending Thanksgiving at a friend’s house, Thanksgiving food (I could die for some Thanksgiving food right now, turkey, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, and did I mention the pies?), OU football games, Lucky Charms, Mexican food, the school community, and so many other things.

There are many more things I could write about, but I am not sure anyone would want to read that much. I have so many fond memories of that year, so many small things that I treasure.

Living in the States for a year was a great decision. I learned so much, I met amazing people, I was challenged to be more open-minded about people who have different opinions (who are not hard to find if you are a liberal European in conservative Oklahoma, USA). Of course my English improved, and I was able to travel a bit during spring break and after classes ended in May, I loved San Francisco! I saw and experienced so much. I am still in touch with my roommate J. (who would have thought we’d become friends despite having to share a room for almost a year), and several of my friends there even though I haven’t been back in the States since.

I am finally going to be back in the States in March. I’ll be spending a week in New York City and I cannot wait. I will not be able to meet any of my OU friends, but I am so excited about getting to spend a little while in the country I love and miss. Despite all the differences I have written about in this post, I never felt a culture shock, I always felt comfortable living in Norman, I felt welcome, I genuinely felt at home. Of course there were things I disliked about my year in Oklahoma, some bad memories, many tears shed, and not everything is perfect in the US, and I love Germany too, but I feel a connection to the country, people and language that is hard to explain.

If you ever get the chance to study or work abroad for a while, take it! It is a challenge, but it is a great experience. I know many people who have studied abroad and I have never talked to one who regretted it. Even though my year in Spain was not as easy as the year in the US, I don’t regret it, and I would make the same decision again if I had the choice again. Even if you end up not liking the country as much as you expected, you’ll grow, gain confidence, expand your horizons, experience extraordinary moments, and improve your language skills. And that is something no one can take away from you.

JR Moreau is a Worcester, Massachusetts native and takes great pride in being from Worcester, a very different city than Boston. Educated in the ways of Public Relations at Suffolk University in Boston and Literature Philosophy in Univerzita Karlova in Prague, JR diversified his working interests after college to include, but never to be limited to marketing, copywriting, creative writing and sustainable economic development projects. While holding a day job at a media analytics software company, JR is always looking for new and interesting clients to work with on a freelance basis as well as other writers, entrepreneurs and adventerous people to trade stories with.

In the Winter of 2005 I sat in my Boston apartment watching foot traffic walk by my noisy North End location when I heard my roommate mutter to himself “what the fuck is this? Why would I go to Prague? I don’t even know where that is.” I got up and expressed my curiosity at the letter he held in front of him. He said he had been invited to attend a semester long study abroad session in Prague, Czech Republic because of him being on the Dean’s List. My roommate was smart, almost too smart for his own good. He was able to stay up late, party hard and barely try at school and still managed to keep a 4.0 grade point average his first two years of undergrad before transferring to Georgetown in Washington, D.C. I was silently jealous of him, but my silence was broken when a burst of frustration came forth as I shouted, “you’re not even going to consider it? What the fuck is wrong with you John? I’d kill for something like that to be offered to me!”

He shook it off, I did not. This was my first year in Boston after I had barely completed two very unsuccessful years at UMass Dartmouth. I had opted to change my life around as much as a 20 year old could by getting in great shape, cutting back on the booze and taking a new lease on academic life by placing myself in a great city like Boston. However, I knew that I was going to be in great debt due to Suffolk U’s high cost of tuition and Boston’s high cost of living. I accepted that I wasn’t going to be spending any time abroad during my undergrad and that I was going to be as grateful as I could be for living in Boston.

As I went and sulked on the futon after I watched John scoff at my outburst and throw the letter aside, my cell phone rang; my mom was calling her usual once a week call. I answered and immediately answered her question of “how you doing?” with my story about John ungratefully disregarding the letter about studying about and how I wish I was on the deanís list and got invited. I also complained about how I wish I had thought about studying abroad because I couldn’t afford it. After about 5 minutes sitting through my self-pity monologue, my mother interrupted me and said, “Well by the way, you have mail from the dean’s office. Do you want me to open it?”

My heart sank and I went cold and then my heart rebounded off of my stomach and jumped into my throat. Excitement, denial, elation and nervousness all came over me as my mom read off the contents of the envelope (which she had clearly already opened and read before calling, typical mother). She said she thought I should do it which helped quell some doubts I was having. She also was the one who gave me the idea to move to Boston. I was going to ride her lucky advice again.

I went to the information session and it didn’t take much to sell me on this trip. I was told that everything would be drastically cheaper than my current living situation and that I would be among the “elite” intellectuals in Prague taking graduate courses at the Philosophy faculty at Charles University (up until that letter, I had no idea I was carrying a 3.7 GPA, imagine my surprise). So, I eagerly agreed to go as soon as possible, knowing that if I put it off for too long I wouldn’t go and I packed my bags a short 3 months after signing up.

Choosing to study abroad in Prague or choosing to study abroad at all is probably among the best decisions I have ever made in a lifetime. I have no reservations in telling you that there were some pretty rocky moments when I was over there, such as having things stolen in my dorm room, blacking out from excessive drinking and being extremely homesick during Christmas and Thanksgiving. But, even with such things happening to me, I’d say it took my experience from 100% down to maybe 98.5%. Barely even worth mentioning.

I couldn’t begin to start listing all of the great things I was able to do while there that meant so much to me because I would likely go on all night. Just to name a few memorable moments, I sat in on classes with the first person to ever translate Shakespeare into the Czech language. I found a cafe where nearly no one spoke English and spent most of my free time there drinking beers, espresso shots and searching for native conversation. I was invited to a film school party and had an amazing time with some of the most talented and creative people I’ve ever met. I traveled to Vienna, Austria, many small towns in the Czech country side, saw the grim and sobering Terezin concentration camp and missed my train to Dresden, Germany when I came down with a bad case of the flu (or the Czech common cold, as my boarding mates teased me). I wandered through the dark cobblestone streets late at night with friends I made for life talking about how we were going to figure out a way to stay and finish our degrees there. At some points I wanted to come back more than anything and for the last 2 months of the 5 months total I spent there, I swore I’d never leave.

I’m over-come with emotion and fond recollections when I think about Prague. I don’t quite know if I’ll ever be able to go back or spend significant time there or anywhere else in Europe for that matter, but the memories I have won’t fade from my consciousness for a very long time I don’t think. For me, faces and names fade, but the sense of place that I am able to achieve so rarely leave my bones and heart no matter how hard I try to move on.

For anyone looking to study abroad and is doubtful about how they’ll do independently, financially or socially, I say just take the jump. It’s not for everyone, but if you’ve considered it a few times, it’s probably for you anyways. Prague, because it is not on the Euro (yet) is very cheap for Westerners. I suggest you go while it stays that way.