After preparing for a couple days before all the students arrived, the South Asian students presented on their cultures for the international students. You can read more here, and see a few student interviews here, beginning with Olga!
Monica
Mohammad
Rohini
Kultwisiso
Shilpi
This trip was wonderful, visit four cities in 1 month, it was very fast for me, especially where we were two days, but I liked it, there was also a very diverse cuisine, some better, some worse. What I didn’t like in America, I didn’t like America because everything there is strange and not like Europe, sometimes in a bad way, and sometimes I didn’t like the places where we went, for example, in San Francisco I didn’t like the coast where there were souvenir shops, museums I didn’t like it either in San Francisco or in New York. What I liked the most. I want to write about each city. In Los Angeles, I liked Universal studios the most, first the town of Harry Potter, then the town from the cartoon “Wretched Me” and at the end a small tour of the film sets, I really liked it there. In San Francisco, I liked the day the most when we went to the museum “academy of sciences” there was a lot of interesting things, I especially liked the aquarium where there were many different fish, and not only fish, after this museum we went to the Japanese-style garden, I love this culture, so I liked it very much, we were not there very long because the garden itself is small, but the gardens did not end there, because after the Japanese garden, we went to the botanical garden, which was also beautiful, there I remembered the moment when half of our company climbed a tree and we did a small photo session there. After that, we also went to a restaurant with Japanese cuisine, which I adore. I liked everything the same in Washington, there were simply excursions that did not impress me much. I think that I liked New York the most, because we had an interesting program there, and I already started to feel freer when choosing where we would go, what we would do, when we would eat. I also liked New York with its program, most of the time we just walked around the city and it was not as difficult as in the same San Francisco where we were sent everywhere where you can see something. If it were my project, I simply don’t know how to fit all the cities into one month, because we never had very little time to write these texts, so I would allocate the same number of days to each city, because it’s not enough, and yes, I liked most of the places we visited, thank you for such a wonderful month.
Having visited so many cities and various places, I gained too many different experiences, and I have an idea about each city, people and their activities, local and not only food and, of course, living together with other participants of the trip. It was a grandiose trip, because at the time when I first heard from my mother: “Katya, you are flying to the USA,” I was stunned. I always dreamed of visiting New York and Los Angeles as a tourist, and it even happened that they opened up to us as if we had been living here for a long time. Our program was so full that there was no time for rest, and what’s more, so many different events happened that not all of them can be remembered and reproduced in memory. But despite this, the time passed quickly, because there was never a dull moment. Talking about the things that I liked about this trip, you can touch on the topic of constant communication with our companions, compatriots, friends from other countries, which makes this trip even more useful. Improving my communication skills, overcoming the language barrier, the fear of communicating with unfamiliar people, and getting rid of complexes – all of this unexpectedly materialized in my life. In fact, it makes it a lot easier to understand certain things in everyday life. Also, adding to the topic above, I personally liked the contrast of the chosen cities with each other, especially the discovery of both sides of the coin of each city we visited, because America is a huge country, with a huge number of people and interests. Thus, there is a chance to see all the pros and cons of living in a certain city and studying there. therefore, pleasant feedback was always present from people nearby, who constantly helped, tried their best to create a comfortable atmosphere and show everything from the best side. To be honest, it is very difficult to remember what could have been done better in this trip, because only the best, brightest and most memorable moments were left in the memory. But, of course, sometimes it was difficult to get along with everyone and agree to visit one place, because we had different interests and ideas. Speaking of which, there wasn’t enough free time to visit the places we wanted to see so much. For example: take a leisurely walk in the park without a guide; do longer shopping; instead of certain places that we have visited before, learn something new and so on. But still, most places and cities were just a must visit! It was they who created a whole impression of the trip. I can’t say much about the bad, I’ll come back to the unforgettable! The city that simply conquered my heart is San Francisco. I was surprised that it was the city from which I will have the most impression. Because the greatest expectations were probably from New York. Yes, they are somewhere in the same position in my rating, but because of incredible museums, receiving interesting, new experiences, magical nature around, pleasant and homely atmosphere, I give it 10/10! It was there that I felt the most comfortable, the most joyful, there were moments when I seriously thought about not returning home from there. I will really miss those evening gatherings, the legendary bridge, the flight over the breathtaking city and, of course, the people I met there. I don’t even know how to thank you because words just aren’t enough. I cried while writing this text, remembering everything that happened to me during that month. And, I think this ride is perfect in its flaws and all the moments that happened along the way. Because if it weren’t for them, it wouldn’t have existed, moreover, the journey wouldn’t have been what it was for me and for all of us.
I am very grateful that I was able to visit America. I was able to see new places by visiting four new cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and New York. It was a new learning and a new journey for me, which allowed me to learn what happens in cities every day, where it is very noisy and where there is not even a person. It was a great time. I had a great company with whom I could express myself and not to be afraid of anything. It was very interesting to see new museums and listen to the stories of the cities. But waking up very early was not very cool. It was very difficult. We still had to write lyrics, and there was no time during the day, so we had to write at night, so we couldn’t sleep. We went on two or three excursions every day; it was fascinating to look at the exhibits. But it was very difficult when there were excursions before leaving for another city. But when we flew not by plane, but by train, it was very cool, it didn’t clog our ears, there were no sharp landings. I think I should have done the same number of days for each city because there were so much more that I wanted to see in a particular city. For example, in Los Angeles I wanted to spend more time on the Walk of Stars or less time in San Francisco, because the last few days were very boring and there was nothing to do. But still, it was an unforgettable trip that I will never forget and the wonderful people who were with me the whole time!!!
