{"id":5743,"date":"2020-07-15T04:44:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T02:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/summerschoolsblog\/?p=5743"},"modified":"2020-07-15T04:44:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T02:44:10","slug":"danielle-ceronio-at-clemson-university-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/summerschoolsblog\/2020\/07\/15\/danielle-ceronio-at-clemson-university-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Danielle Ceronio at Clemson University, USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I would like to mention how stressful preparing for my semester abroad was. I really would like to put it into words, but I can\u2019t. Mostly because I can\u2019t remember how stressful it was. I know for certain that I was stressed, but the whole experience overshadowed that part of my exchange. Which, to me, is just an indication of how worthwhile all the effort and stress was.<\/p>\n

If I could\u2019ve done anything differently I would have done everything two weeks earlier than I thought I needed to. Start VISA applications, go for the necessary vaccinations, and apply for your courses as soon as you possibly can. Don\u2019t stress too much about which modules to choose though, because chances are they will change another four times before you start classes. It\u2019s just the way things are, so there\u2019s no use worrying about it. I ended up only doing two of the courses I initially wanted to do. I also ended up accidentally doing a public speaking course\u2026 So probably check what a course is about before selecting it. \u00a0It helps to be a bit persistent when applying for modules though, because sometimes the lecturers forget they already rejected you for a particular course.<\/p>\n

What I definitely did right, pre-departure, was to make a comprehensive to-do list that I worked from for four months preceding my trip. My list was comprised of sixteen A4 pages that I taped together and stuck on my wall and frantically highlighted and scribbled on at least once a day like a mad woman. Those pre-departure months really tune up your admin skills. And you for sure need to be at the top of your admin game to prepare you for all of the inevitable issues with getting a phone plan, organizing medical insurance, and all sorts of other painful business. But those things, like with the problems registering for courses, will all work out.<\/p>\n

Something else to prepare for is to be overwhelmed by orange. From the first day I arrived in Clemson I was assaulted by a wave of orange. I walked around looking at students, parents, grandparents, and infants all in the trademark orange Clemson merch. I remember thinking to myself, \u201cI\u2019ll die before I\u2019m caught wearing that.\u201d And now half the stuff in my cupboard is orange.<\/p>\n

The orange merch turned out to be useful, especially on game days. When I went to Clemson the football team had just won the ACC Championships the year before, so everyone on campus lived and breathed football. The athletes themselves are treated like Gods. I had a couple players in my class which is the only place I saw them on campus because the rest of the time they are driven between classes in cars with tinted windows. They also have their own private gym and training centre and dining hall. Personally, I didn\u2019t see what the big deal was. But maybe that\u2019s because my favourite part of the football was the tailgating beforehand.<\/p>\n

Tailgating and game days are a full-day thing. Our tradition was to meet up at 10h00 in someone\u2019s apartment to crack open the first Bud Light and have breakfast. An hour or so after that, things would escalate dramatically when we would meet up with everyone else in the exchange community and start a round of beer pong. Once everyone started to look sufficiently blurry we would head onto campus where every couple of feet someone had set their pick-up trucks and cooler boxes. Everyone is very welcoming and it\u2019s easy enough to find tailgates that are happy to have a couple international students hanging around. They love you and they feed you and they give you more beer until everyone packs up and heads for the game.<\/p>\n

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Tailgating is not the only American tradition you can participate in. You should also give a couple others a try too: play cornhole, go to home-coming, carve pumpkins on Halloween, have a thanksgiving feast, go to the mall on Black Friday. And the whole semester long you can just go absolutely mental about fall (drink pumpkin spice latt\u00e9s until you throw up, wear scarves when it\u2019s still 30 degrees out, snort some cinnamon, go wild).<\/p>\n

There are a lot of traditions specific to Clemson too. Take part in some Leisure Skills classes \u2013 that way you can do things like Yoga or Riflery or Stand-Up Paddle Boarding for credits. Another Clemson tradition I highly recommend is going to Tiger Town Tavern (locally known as Triple T\u2019s) to get a free T-shirt on your 21st<\/sup>. And if you are already 21 then tell them you\u2019re an international student looking for a souvenir. Never be afraid to play the international card. All you have to do is sound foreign and confused.<\/p>\n

The international card can be used when you\u2019re lost on campus, when you don\u2019t know how the self-checkout tills at Walmart work, or when you can\u2019t figure out the stupid Imperial Measurement system. The international card came in handy when I needed to excuse myself from classes so I could go traveling with fellow exchange students. There are plenty of places close by which make for a perfect weekend trip. A few of the places I visited during the semester included Nashville, Charleston, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Atlanta. If you can get five people together and rent a car then travelling to nearby states is really affordable.<\/p>\n

If you are invited for a weekend trip and have the resources to go, but aren\u2019t sure whether you want to go, take the opportunity anyway. One of the best trips I took was staying in an RV for four days with six other people so we could go watch the NASCAR in Alabama. Neither NASCAR nor RVs seemed like my kind of thing, but it was a true American experience and I\u2019m so glad that I did it.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of things which aren\u2019t my kind of thing, it can\u2019t go unmentioned that the Southern States are predominantly red states. The stereotypes of these conservative states are all true. Every second person is in camouflage, their patriotism is almost tangible (and they whack you with it regularly), you can buy guns at Walmart, and almost every local I met was an avid supporter of Trump. I discovered that when I looked at things from a more anthropological perspective, it was a lot easier to not want to argue about politics and religion and social issues and all the other tricky topics 24\/7. And although this may all sound a little scary and frustrating, the other stereotypes about the Southern States are true too. The locals are exceptionally hospitable, everyone calls each other \u201cma\u2019am\u201d and \u201csir,\u201d the accents may be the most charming thing I\u2019ve ever heard, and there\u2019s fried chicken as far as the eye can see. There\u2019s so much fried food everywhere that by a month in you\u2019ll be craving anything with real nutritional value. It\u2019s all part of the experience. And you\u2019ll have plenty of time to remember what health tastes like when you get back home. And that time will come before you know it.<\/p>\n

Time on the exchange moves very strangely. For most of the time it felt like I\u2019d been in Clemson for years and like I\u2019d known the friends I made there my whole life. At some points it also feels like it won\u2019t end \u2013 like you\u2019re just going to go home for the holidays and then come back and see everyone again next semester. But despite all those feelings of permanence, I now have to think about really small, obscure details to remind myself that it all actually happened because a semester goes by so quickly. And it\u2019s odd to think that my goal for the past four years has now been achieved.<\/p>\n

That being said, it\u2019s good to be home and around the people I love. You gain a real appreciation for your home country when you\u2019ve lived somewhere else for a couple of months. I appreciate the South African humour so much more now. And I appreciate the way we do things. I know we have our issues, but I think we\u2019re better for it. For example, loadshedding is a nightmare, but the excitement everyone has each time the lights come back on never dissipates. It also always gives people something to relate on. So even the bad things are not all bad.<\/p>\n

When I first got back I felt like everything had changed. But mostly it\u2019s me who has changed. I hope that some of the ways I\u2019ve changed will become a fundamental part of my character, and other changes I hope will fade fast \u2013 like my new-found love of country music.<\/p>\n

Most people ask me if my time in South Carolina was how it is in the movies. The truth is that the movies don\u2019t do the whole American college experience justice. It\u2019s so much more than you can ever capture in words or on camera.<\/p>\n

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