Über Column: Moving to America

Written by Viktor Kewenig

Photo Credit: Eric Evans

Moving to a foreign country is difficult to organize. You have to get a visa, budget the money, sign up through a program, and find a guest family. Because of all these things you are lucky to find a family at all, even if this family lives somewhere like Alaska, Minnesota, or North Dakota. You learn to be happy with what you get.

So you can imagine that I was pretty excited to hear that I was going to California, since this is one of the best places you can be in the United States.

The next step was deciding whether to attend public or private school. Of course a private school has many advantages; they probably have better equipment, a “nice” environment and very qualified teachers. However, I decided I wanted to get to know the real American people and culture, and didn’t want an environment that is so artificial and protected.

I am really glad I made the choice to go to M-A. Moving to a new country on your own, you learn to watch out for yourself. You become more confident, and get a first impression of life as an adult. Suddenly I have to wash the dishes and make my own lunch, while in Germany my mom would wash my clothes and I would go home for lunch.

The food in America is also very different. The only fast food in Germany is McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut. We don’t have things like In-n-Out, Taco Bell, or Chevy’s. Mexican food is quite rare and there are a variety of different kinds of pizza in America, most of them I had never heard of. In Germany I would eat potato dumplings, potato pancakes, or I would go to Italian, Vietnamese, and French restaurants. Overall American food is more fattening than German food. However, a lot of it tastes much better, except for root beer, which in my opinion tastes like plastic.

Going to school in America is different in many ways. In Germany, we don’t have school pride, and activities such as sports, clubs, leadership, or dances. Furthermore, the classrooms have much better equipment here. One could only dream in Germany of having a SmartBoard in the classroom. Even a laptop is a really special thing in the school. In Germany you have to rent them for a PowerPoint presentation.

For me, the biggest surprise was learning that the people are quite the same; they actually have the same slang as in Europe. Perhaps it is because we are all influenced by musicians and movies. On the whole my first impressions of M-A are really good, and I hope it continues going on this well, for the rest of my stay. I’ll keep you updated.