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comment by Devac
Devac  ·  3030 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 10, 2016

There's not much in my life at the moment, mainly self-study, doing my various little projects and piano training. However I was asked by my 'attending professor'[1] one question and I figure that I might as well get some feedback from you here.

Question is: Would I want to go abroad and study in USA or Canada as an exchange student?

At the moment I'm on the fence about it. Aside of stuff like "what university should I pick" (I'll be given a list in a few days), I have some concerns:

1. Do you think that my English is good enough?

2. How are Poles treated in these countries? (I've got seriously burned by all of my visits to England and I would rather not spend six months going for a German accent just so people would bugger off.)

3. Do you feel there is something in particular which I should know about or prepare myself? My knowledge of both of US and Canada is meagre at best, news don't help much. Although I know that USA is not only about gun violence, tornadoes, election and football… believe me, sometimes it's hard to remember.[2]

Thanks in advance!

_________

[1] - I'm on individual study track on physics. Aside of a broader selection of harder classes I am getting a personal guidance and occasional assignments from one of the senior researchers.

[2] - Obligatory "I can't believe I felt that I should to specify it, but Internet can get weird and oversensitive" arse-shelter: Just please don't take it as some condescending foreigner talk. I'm well aware about my lack of information, that's why I'm asking questions. I simply can't phrase it better.





wasoxygen  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Question is: Would I want to go abroad…

Surely the answer is yes almost without regard for how the question ends.

1. Your written English is probably better than average for the U.S.

2. I don't think any accent would work against you in most places.

3. You don't need to carry a gun to fit in, a cowboy hat is enough.

Devac  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Your written English is probably better than average for the U.S.

I'm going to take that with a grain of salt, but thank you!

    I don't think any accent would work against you in most places.

I think I can easily make better Yippie Ki Yay than Alan Rickman. That's a plus, right? ;)

    You don't need to carry a gun to fit in, a cowboy hat is enough.

I'm still laughing from that one :D.

Thanks! I'm actually warming up toward the idea of student exchange, but I'll have to get more details myself. Transport feels like a bit of a pain, but at the very worst I'll do what I was doing to get to my high school: get a bike.

user-inactivated  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I'm actually warming up toward the idea of student exchange, but I'll have to get more details myself.

More details, huh? Ok. Here goes. We got awesome food, awesome music, awesome art, awesome cars, awesome shopping, awesome parks, awesome museums, zoos, and aquariums, awesome sports, and more! Most importantly, we have awesome, wonderful, amazing citizens of all types. You wanna be here. ;)

Devac  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hah, sorry. I meant "I need more info from my end; when and where can I go, for how long and what kind of stipend/accommodations I might need" plus all that student visa stuff. But all of these sound interesting ;).

user-inactivated  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Do you think Lewis and Clark had to go and get visas and all that stuff when Jefferson asked them to explore the Louisiana Purchase? Hell no. He just called them into his office and said "Yo. Get your shit cause I'm sending you on an extreme camping trip."

Get your shit Devac and go camping. Visas be damned.

Devac  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Do you think Lewis and Clark had to go and get visas and all that stuff when Jefferson asked them to explore the Louisiana Purchase? He'll no. He just called them into his office and said "Yo. Get your shit cause I'm sending you on an extreme camping trip."

I would absolutely adore history teacher with this style of presentation :D. I'll just walk confidently to your border control (TSA?) and answer all questions with "manifest destiny".

Try to stop me now, America!

user-inactivated  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If I were border patrol, "Manifest Destiny" would be the secret code word to automatically be allowed in. I think there's a reason I don't work border patrol.

If you do make it here, find a friend with a Hulu account and check out Drunk History. It's nothing short of magical.

OftenBen  ·  3029 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I actually bought Season 1 on youtube last night. Don't have cable, so it was worth the $12

user-inactivated  ·  3030 days ago  ·  link  ·  

1. Your English is fine

2. Chicago has a very large Polish community. I doubt you'll find many people with a strong opinion one way or another about Poland anywhere else.

3. You want to know how to drive; like rd95 said, we don't really do public transportation here. Gun violence isn't something you need to worry about day to day most places. I don't get football either.

Devac  ·  3030 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    You want to know how to drive

See, I can drive, but I am not eligible for any kind of licence that's worth the hassle (and if half of the legends about your DMV are true, it would go tenfold for US). The best I could hope for in Poland/EU would be a temporary permit that I need to renew every two years, due to colour blindness.

Thanks!

user-inactivated  ·  3030 days ago  ·  link  ·  

1) Your English is fine. If you never shared you weren't a native English speaker, I doubt anyone would have guessed.

2) Americans, with the exception of a few jerks, are relatively nice to foreigners. Your accent will also probably get you bonus points with the ladies.

3) Not so much Canada, but with a few exceptions America sucks when it comes to public transportation. Prepared to be disappointed. If you live in a city, you'll have the opportunity to try so many different types of foods from different cultures, your mind might be blown by it. Prepared to be wowed. Some cities have better scenes than others when it comes to art, music, food, etc., but since you're in college your classmates will probably be able to steer you to some pretty nifty places. America is very big, and while there is an underlying culture, different regions and different groups of people will have their own subcultures. If you ever have trouble navigating a social situation, just play the foreign card and more often than not, that almost immediately smooths things over.

America kicks ass. If you do decide to visit, you'll more than likely enjoy yourself here.

Off Topic Edit: You start your game campaign? How's it going?

Devac  ·  3030 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thank you! I don't have the slightest clue where I might end-up regarding student exchange options, but I think that my university has some ties with University of California, Princeton and University of Chicago in particular, University of Toronto in case of Canada. All of these seem to have great maths and physics programmes from what I gather. If that helps with specifying anything regarding my questions, I'm all ears.

Although it's a bit of a shame that public transportation is lacking. That's my primary way to getting anywhere here, aside of walking. Since car is out of the question, how can I remedy that?

Regarding my campaign, it's a bit slow. Problem with having a group of five science majors lies in the fact that they really pulled their weight with helping me balance some of the mechanical stuff, but we hardly got into the story as of yet :D. Sorry for no updating by the way, I still have a habit of writing primarily in my notebooks while rarely having the will to type it up into computer. However! I think that majority of my background notes are just about done and I'm fairly deep into the races, each should have something close to 4-6 pages for themselves with culture, psychology etc.

user-inactivated  ·  3030 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh, I don't know much about what colleges or cities are better or worse, so I'd take other people'so advice on that. As for public transport? It depends on the city, New York has subways, smaller cities usually have busses and such. If you're gonna be on a campus though, there's usually a small economy of restaurants, shops, and other services within walking distance. For stuff that's further out, a friend with a car can drive you.

Your campaign sounds like it's coming along great. I look forward to the next update cause I'm excited to see what you've done with the races.

OftenBen  ·  3030 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If you can get into Princeton, go to Princeton.

My two cents.