Some
of the differences I noticed between English life and universities (University
of Derby) and American life and universities (Eastern Michigan University)
1. Sharing
rooms we
all knew this one before we came but after we weren’t put with our friends and
nearly all got the top bunk it soon became a nuisance. I even got along with my
roommate but there were many nights I really just did not want to literally
climb into bed.
2. Work/Grading
one
thing that really confuses me at English universities is how difficult it is to
get the top marks. 70% gets the top grade but my friends and I never even get
close to the 90’s. In America it was possible to get 100% definitely a
confidence boost.
3. Participation/attendance
credit I don’t know many people who go to every
single lecture. Even in America where your attendance actually goes towards
your grade it didn’t appear to affect the number of lectures students missed.
But for those who do go to every lecture this was certainly a plus.
4. Gaps
in toilet doors at
first we just thought the airport toilets were strange, but then we found out
it’s the same in most public toilets. Very awkward. Especially when my friend
had a little girl peeping through at her.
5. Presidency there are presidents for nearly everything. Presidents
and vice presidents for the university, for every sport team and the
fraternities. They even have a drinking game called ‘presidents and assholes’
which by the way is a card game that includes drinking 4 times at most.
6. Expensive healthy
food and at back of store ironically this photo was taken in
Whole Foods which the whole store is healthy but your major supermarkets keep
their fruit and vegetables right at the back. Even in England healthy food can
be quite expensive but this shop especially shocked us.
7.
Everyone drives being
in the small city Ypsilanti we could have done with having a car. It took us
about 3 months to work out there was bus that only cost $1.50 to the nearest
supermarket, mall and main city. Pretty much everyone we met had a car so
didn’t know anything about public transport.
8.
Lovely houses America
has so much space for all these adorable detached houses!
9. Love the British
accent Britain’s full of so many different
accents for a small country but they couldn’t tell the difference between
Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Rugby, Essex, Croydon and Nottingham
accents. They just loved them all and I’m sad I won’t hear the phrase “I could
just listen to you all day” again.
10.War of 1812 It
wasn’t until one of the classes I took in America that I had even heard of this
war. And I’m not sure many people in England are taught about it either, so it
came as a bit of a shock to have people yell how proud they were that they beat
the British in this war.
11. House parties over
clubs Every American we told we were going to a
club was horrified and told us not to go, but of course we needed to compare
them to English clubs and warning us only made us want to see what could be so
bad. It’s all about house parties as you see in many American teen films. But
really, the club wasn’t that bad, just turns out everyone pairs up and spends
the entire duration with a stranger; we as a group stuck out like a sore thumb.
12.Dance with everyone
this applies to both house parties and the clubs.
Apparently it’s not just seen as flirtatious. And it’s completely normal for a
guy to watch his girlfriend grind on his best mate right in front of him.
Another awkward moment.
13. Fraternities and
Sororities there is hardly anything I can say about
this because everyone is extremely secretive about it. Everything we asked
received a reply of “I can’t tell you.” All I can say is they take it very
seriously. And have the symbols on their house.
14.Bipolar weather we
came on a Friday night in January and by Monday the campus was completely
white. The snow didn’t disappear for over two months and we had temperatures
below -20 degrees Celsius, but around a month later it was positive 20, and
there was even a tornado that luckily didn’t reach the ground where we were. It
was pretty cool to experience such variations.
15. Obsession with
peanut butter I am not a fan of peanuts anyway but to be
with a friend who has a nut allergy we really noticed this one.
16.Terrible crossings this
isn’t subject to America as a whole. After going to Chicago we realised the
system is a lot better than in Ypsi. But still, the fact cars can turn right on
a red light can be a bit daunting to pedestrians.
17. Taxes put on at the
till I always forgot this, not a big problem,
just a bit irritating when I find the exact change only to be short when I get
the bill.
18. So many different
words I already knew the deal with crisps being
chips, no ‘u’ in colour and favourite and z instead of s. But I wasn’t
expecting to be asked what I meant by lectures, block (as in a block of flats)
and chatting. Was very fun to hear Americans pick up our phrases. My roommate
found it very funny when she referred to the time as ‘half 4’ rather than ‘half
past 4.’
