FIRST IMPRESSIONS
It was in the middle of August that I went to the USA to study for one
semester (4 months). I had had to stop my Russian summer holidays for the sake of study:
my Russian university provided me with this great opportunity for successful learning, so
my companion (another girl, fellow-student and future room-mate) and I started off.
When we boarded the first of the three planes we had to take, I thought it would be tiring to fly for so long. In fact, I wasn’t quite right: it was too tiring. The flight over the ocean took more than 10 hours, the whole trip – about 30 hours. The ocean seems like a desert when you look at it from above, you can see neither the beginning of it nor the end. But it also looks like the sky: the blue covered in some places with white clouds. Then we approached the continent. The first thing that impressed me was the regularity of the roads: none of them were winding, and they made perfect squares and rectangles. After the third flight, in a small American plane, we got to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, where our coordinator met us and we drove to Magnolia, the town where we were to live and study at Southern Arkansas University. During the drive I noticed several other things about the roads: first of all, there are no advertising bill boards along federal highways – they are against the law. And then there are no special pavements for pedestrians: such areas are marked by yellow stripes, and you must be careful when walking or crossing the street because of the cars. Driving rules here are very strict and nobody wants to violate them: they are not only enforced but also controlled very firmly. But this doesn’t prevent one from having a car: almost everybody has one or two. You may get a driving licence within a month here, it costs almost nothing – about 17 dollars. In Arkansas (I don’t want to try to speak about the whole country because it’s very large and varied) people will think something is wrong with you if you walk to some place, no matter how close it is. Besides, there is no public transport at all in Magnolia – though it is the birth place of Bill Clinton. It is a bit unusual for Russians, especially Moscovites, as we are used to crowds, buses, underground trains and so on; here all is quiet, so quiet that strolling along you may meet squirrels and rabbits, and eagles flying above.
The houses in Magnolia, usual in the south of the US, do not have more than two to three storeys. All the buildings have good air conditioning because of the heat: during the day it is around 112o F (which means approximately 45o C; the temperature in the USA is measured in degrees Farenheit, weight – in pounds, distance – in miles). Besides, August is the hottest month of the year. When, last winter, it snowed in Magnolia for a day, the university was closed, the cars did not move, and people did not go out; it was an unusual surprise – though tornados are rather common, their season beginning in March and ending in August. Storms also occur, one can see a “Storm Warning” on TV with an indication of the area where it is expected. In any case, when anything of the kind happens campus alarms ring. As it is the South, it gets dark very early, around 7 p.m.; and the sun rises at about 7 a.m. in August.
The climate is rather hot, and everything grows quicker and on a larger scale. For example, the needles of the pines are about 20–25 cm long, and cockroaches are 5–6 cm and they can fly. Nice, is it not? But they do not do any harm, in contrast to ants which can bite severely. By the way, there are a lot of pines in the state of Arkansas, they are grown specially for the paper industry. Usually it takes thirty years to grow a pine tree, then they are cut down and a new generation is sowed. But in Magnolia there is no river and they grow as they like – fortunately, because when paper is made the smell of the chemicals used is not very pleasant. The other well-developed industry in Arkansas is producing crystallised bromium out of the liquid they extract here.
To tell the truth, quite a lot of attention is paid here to agriculture. Originally, almost all newly-organised universities in America got pieces of land, to build their campuses, on the condition that they taught agriculture first of all and only then other subjects. On the grounds of SAU (Southern Arkansas University) there are also fields with experimental crops and cattle. By the way, beef cows and milk ones differ in appearance: the former are black or dark brown, the latter are black and white.
Many houses have US flags hanging out of their windows, even on campus. Even Americans themselves, as some of them say, cannot explain their love of the American flag: but they even travel with them. Travelling is part of life: many people do not always live at the same place, they may change states or towns. One can see a lot of mobile homes, or camper trailers, forming small villages in some areas. Maybe because of their mobility, Americans here are very sociable and friendly (though I think the situation is a bit different in the North, in big cities): they will never pass you without saying “Hi!” or “How are you?” with a smile. On the other hand, the younger generation seems to be too noisy. Generally speaking, in all booklets for new-comers “culture shock” is described, and is supposed to happen; but personally I did not feel anything like that.
During the first days of my stay here I visited an “International Students Orientation” program where they told us about the University and student life. Though sport is very popular, they strongly advised us not to forget about learning also. At the same time, they disapprove of “bookworms”. One more pleasant thing was that “Americans like to smell like flowers”. Does it not sound romantic? And they really try to do it.
I think a good lesson for Russians would be to learn to be as cheerful as these people: it helps greatly, especially when you experience something new (in my case it is studying in the USA). But my stay here has just begun, and I hope later to tell you more interesting things about life and study in America. Watch out for further reports!
By Oksana Danchevskaya