Kind of like studying abroad....

Would you guys believe it, I’m in America?

Yep. America. The US of A.  And it’s actually rather lovely, considering I’ve only been asked where Wales is in England once and that everyone keeps asking me to say things in my ‘cute accent’. The American people are actually rather decent, I’ve found, though they still don’t know how to spell simple words such as ‘Colour’ or ‘Programme’ properly. As I write this on the shiny Mac computer in the student newspaper room, it’s underlining the correctly spelt words above in red.

Shut up American computer, I’ve been writing and spelling things for years. I know what I’m doing here.

So, yes, as you can see, I’m enjoying America. I’ve learnt a lot of things whilst I’ve been here already, such as that the fact that my name is apparently uncommon in America and everyone feels the need to compliment how beautiful a name it is.

Americaaaaa
Gemma Parry

Well done parents. You have the American approval. You chose my name well.

But in all seriousness now, I am actually enjoying my time here. We’ve been doing absolutely loads of stuff on journalism and media and all the stuff that I’m probably going to use one day, as well as finally getting round to setting up my own website, which will be linked up to this blog when I figure it all out. It has honestly been a bit overwhelming, with all the hands on learning and being immersed in American culture. We’ve been up to the Rockies, (did I mention I’m in Colorado by the way? Clearly not…), we celebrated American Independence, (we British didn’t even care anyways, India was a far better choice,) we’ve been to a rodeo and lots of other stuff I can’t even remember right now. It’s lovely that they’re trying so hard to show us what American culture is all about but, frankly, I’m mostly here for the food.

I think I’ve gained my body weight twice over again whilst being here. Even the vegetables here taste divine. It’s so confusing because I’ve spent most of my life holding a personal vendetta against vegetables that aren’t potatoes but I suppose it’s a good thing. I bet they coat them in sugar to make them taste better. I must try this when I get home.

 

So yeah, I’ve been here now for around about 24 days and I’m leaving for Britain on Saturday. It’s gone quickly actually, and I can’t believe it’s all over already. I think I’m more than ready to come home now though. I’m really starting to miss Britain, my family and my friends. In fact, it’s my little brothers’ tenth birthday tomorrow, which makes being away from home even worse.  That coupled with the fact that I’m not of legal drinking age here and that when I get back into my boyfriend’s house, I’ll probably be handed a glass of some sort of alcoholic beverage, makes me miss home even more. But I’m sure I can hold out for four more days.

Anyway, there is a point to this blog apart from my random musings on American life. And that is the positives of doing exchange programmes or studying abroad. I never really saw it as much of a good thing before but, now that I’ve done it for myself, I can truly see how wonderful it is.

1) Travelling to places you’ve never been before

Before this, I had never been to America before.  A few of the people I travelled here with hadn’t done it before either, so it was completely brand new and exciting. Like most people, I was expecting the version of America that I have seen on shows such as 90210 (best show ever, by the way) and, in some aspects, I was pleasantly surprised to find it completely different to my expectations.  It’s been a massive learning curve and I really wouldn’t hesitate to come back here again.

Me, Kayla and Jack 

2) Making friends for life

The first day of my arrival, everything was a bit awkward. I was sharing a bathroom with two of the only other females on my course who were already firm friends after travelling around America before the course started and, of course, having made friends back in Swansea. I felt left out, sad and tired. But mostly hungry after all my travelling. And so, one of the guys on our course went to Subway and brought me back a massive meal, and well, we all bonded. Over food – my favorite thing. It was a magical moment.

What was really the best thing about it was the fact that these two girls have now become friends for life. We have bonded and shared this experience whilst we have been here and they are without a doubt among the funniest and most cheerful people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. There is no doubt in my mind that we will continue to be friends when we get back to the UK and that counts for each and every single one of the other eight people on the course too.

3) Learning new things

This goes without saying. Being in a brand new environment obviously means that you will learn brand new things. But it’s still a wonderful learning experience, all the same.

Diana and I

4) Personal growth

To you, I may still seem to be the same immature student that I was before I embarked on this adventure and I suppose I still am in some ways. But I feel very differently about the world around me. I feel that I understand it a bit better and that I understand myself a bit better. It makes me feel sorry for my poor boyfriend who puts up with me, day in day out. I’m sorry babe, but it’s all good fun, right? My point is that I feel like I’ve developed as a person and that I can understand where I want to go a bit better. That can’t be a bad thing.

5) More stuff for the CV

I hate CVs. I really do. I hate writing them and I hate sending them off and I hate people reading them. But I feel a bit better about my terrible CV right now, knowing that I have had this experience that I can show off to potential employers, that not many other students will have had. Plus, I apparently get a shiny graduation certificate at the end of the programme to take home. My mother will hang it up in the house – it’ll look lovely.

My ultimate point is that travelling and studying abroad is incredibly rewarding. It’s even nicer for me because I’ve always really wanted to do it without spending the incredibly long time away from my home. So the fact that this course is compacted into one month is a bonus for me.

At the Rockies! 

I will be very sad to leave America – I’ve made incredible friends here and it’ll be really strange not waking up every day and barging into Polly and Diana’s room and bothering them with my nonsense talk. It’ll also be very strange not waking up and putting sun cream on straight away, but I hear that Britain is currently in the middle of a heat wave, so that transition should be easy enough.  But I still can’t wait to get back to Britain and cause the havoc that usually follows me around all over again.

Good luck with that, Britain.