Experiment the Experience: Chronicles of an Exchange Student (By Nelson Salgado)

I’m going to study in Ole Miss!!! But… Where is Ole Miss???

Once I knew that I had been accepted for the exchange scholarship, I was eager to know which city in the United States would be my home for the next nine months. Seven days later, the waiting had been over: The University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi; was the institution that approved my application. I started to read about Mississippi, Ole Miss and the Southern U.S.A. culture; my mind started to fill out with preconceived ideas. “They speak with an accent that is difficult to understand”, my friends in Honduras agreed; “A very conservative culture” or “southern hospitality” were some phrases that constantly appeared on the web sites that I consulted. I tried to step outside those ideas and be more open minded to this new experience.

The Southern Hospitality

I arrived on a warm Sunday night. I had less than three hours in American territory and I was able to ascertain one of my expectations: With gentleness and kindness, the people who received me showed me that this famous quality of hospitality was true. My shuttle driver, a guy called Caldwell (who I’ve never seen him again) and Sherrie Jenkins, student service coordinator of the Intensive English Program (IEP) were the responsible of this good impression.

A personal advice: If you’re going to the bank, you’d better eat faster…

The first week, I lived in one of the campus dorms called “Miller Hall” and the only person that I knew at that moment was another student from Thailand whose scholarship is sponsored for the same organization. The day after our arrival, we had an “exclusive” pre-orientation which started with a lunch in the JC Cafeteria with one of the instructors and the student services coordinator of the IEP. More nervous than excited, we were there, surrounded by the smell of peppers, onion and cheese impregnating the air in a delicious combination the Thai student and the Honduran student, trying to digest both our quesadillas and the anxiety that new situations in life usually provoke.

Everything was okay, until my first shock with the American culture: This same day, in the afternoon, we went to the bank to set up a bank account. I thought: It’s just setting up a bank account, easy! It was everything but easy. We were required to sign about ten forms, each form with its respective long and boring eleven minutes of explanation about how important those pieces of paper are. In addition, we were going to be moved to Campus Walk, an apartment complex almost off campus, and we didn’t know our new address, we had to make a phone call to know our own address, which made me feel a little embarrassed, specially seeing the expression in the bank employee’s face getting irked and trying unsuccessfully to maintain a “five hundred teeth” smile on her face.

Say it slower please… Konnichi wa

Since, I arrived; I was impatiently waiting for the orientation day, I wanted to know other international students. I was surprised when I saw the other international students; most of them, from Asian countries, were speaking in their native languages and until that moment, I hadn’t heard anyone speaking Spanish; I walking with them led by Minji, an IEP intern and Dinorah, an IEP teacher onto the Ole Miss streets showing us the campus. A guy from Japan asked me: “Where are you from?” “Honduras” I replied, and he immediately got his I-phone out of his pocket and searched in Google Earth where Honduras was located. “You live here”... told me. “Yes, Honduras” I told him. Later, despites our English language deficiencies, the conversation between me and some boys and girls from Japan flowed well. I never expected that the fact of knowing people from other parts of the globe would be so interesting and made me recognize that I hadn’t considered that priceless aspect in this experience.

Sharing Apartment but Not Ways of Thinking

I was very glad that I was able to understand what people said and I could tell my friends: Nobody talk with that strange accent that you told me. Losers!!! But this satisfaction feeling disappeared the day that I moved to Campus Walk; the only person that I had known with a very strong and confusing southern accent was my roommate. Damn!... Even if I listen to him carefully as much as I can, sometimes, I just don’t know what he is talking about, which is completely frustrating. I still don’t know if luckily or unluckily, someday, during a casual conversation among roommates, I perfectly could understand his words. I was telling them that my scholarship sponsor is an organization financed by the U.S. state department. He said: “Yeah, I know, the government is now spending a lot of money on foreign people, like the Mexican immigrants that are deported in luxurious flights. Hilarious! I didn’t say anything and I changed the topic of the conversation. I controlled myself, maybe too much and I couldn’t translate the words that I had in my mind from Spanish into English to reply this comment; but I was more than upset. Mexico is part of Latin America, and as a Latino I felt insulted. The prophecy was coming reality; the sarcasm implicit in his sense of humor made me consider that I had found a sample of conservative thinking in this twenty eight years old man.

♪ ♪ ♪ Nobody said it was easy♪ ♪ ♪

An important percentage of my expectations had matched up with some of my experiences in the United States. Just the destiny knows if this trend will continue… Place your bets!!!

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(make click on the last and underlined title and you can listen "The Scientist" by Coldplay)