Going to an American college football game during my first, action-packed semester at Maryland

After conquering my first action-packed semester in the US, when I returned for my second after the Christmas break I expected to come back almost victorious. I had overcome all the nerves I had felt before I first came, and had had an incredible few months.

Instead, upon returning to campus I was hit by the same feelings of detachment and homesickness that I thought I thought had been dealt with.

I loved every second of my first semester in America. All the fear I felt when I first arrived four months ago had dissipated by the time I was set to make my first trip home to spend Christmas break with my family. In fact, it was going home to England that had me filled with a strange nervous excitement.

The comfort of visiting home

I had arrived in America with no plans at all, and with no expectation of what was to come. All I knew was that, as an exchange student who is only here for one academic year, I wanted to make the most of the experience before it ended in May.

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What is behind all this school spirit?

When I first arrived at the University of Maryland, and for many weeks after, I was bemused by the number of students who walked around dressed from head to toe in clothing with our university’s name on it, and by the volume of merchandise in the university bookstore that features our mascot, Testudo the terrapin.

The weeks went by, and every day you could guarantee that at least 50% of the students on campus would be wearing at least one garment of University of Maryland attire. It wasn’t just the students – I saw their parents sporting large ‘M’ bumper stickers on their cars, and even younger siblings wearing Maryland red.

The university that you choose to attend in England is something to be proud of – most of us worked hard to get there and try to make the most of the experience – but at the end of the day it is just a university: a place to earn a degree, to meet friends, and to introduce you to another way of life.

Here in College Park, going to the University of Maryland is not merely an academic or a social choice – it is a way of life.

I remember one of the first orientation seminars I had when I arrived in Maryland, during which they played us a video showing a sea of red-clad students singing along to the Maryland victory song. They didn’t seem at all reserved or self-conscious to be professing so publicly their love for their educational institution.

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Photo: Reuters

I got to America just in time for campaign season to begin, and just in time to catch a moment that set the tone for the election as I have experienced it since.

When I arrived, Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin was just about to tell a TV station in Missouri that during “a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” arguing abortion shouldn’t be allowed in cases of rape. I was shocked to hear a candidate say something that was not only scientifically untrue but also such a seemingly extreme point of view. In Britain, this comment would almost certainly have resulted in the candidate stepping down and the campaign of the party being seriously damaged.

While many Republicans did condemn Akin’s statement, and Akin eventually apologized, the outrage was hardly as universal and decisive as I would have expected back home. Akin is still campaigning to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate, and even has a chance at winning, running in a state where nearly 40% of voters are evangelical Christians. In fact, the comments were treated as a political gaffe (albeit a major one); something for the Democratic party to seize upon as “worrisome” and “extreme” in arguing the case for their own party and candidates.

Divisions, Real and Contrived

As I’ve found, candidates can and do run on some very divisive issues, playing to the more extreme parts of their parties to solidify support from the “base.” Meanwhile, each party also goes after the middle ground, exploiting gaffes made by the competition in order to paint them as the immoderate ones.

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When I first joined the Student Union, I quickly discovered that most of my fellow bloggers, and indeed most of our readers, were students from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, not from Western Europe like me, and certainly not from England. At first I thought this might be a problem.

Do I really deserve my place here, being from a relatively comfortable background and part of a culture that many think closely resembles America? Will my experiences and anecdotes, troubles and triumphs, be as valuable or even as interesting as those of somebody who is coming to America from a place where everything from the language to the food is unfamiliar? How can I relate to people from all over the world, having only really experienced the European way of life?

And as I considered that last question, I began to think that actually maybe I’m not the only one who is nervous about, essentially, making friends in America.

Making friends was my biggest worry when I started university in England, and it was my biggest worry again when I came to America. Except this time, I wouldn’t be one among many students starting school for the first time. I would be the outsider; the new kid starting two years after everyone else had already settled in, the English boy who dresses a bit differently and has a funny accent. But worst of all, I would be alone, without any friends or family nearby to go and talk to or just to relax with – no way to escape from the pressure of trying to assimilate and make friends.

So you can begin to understand the mental state I had somehow put myself in by the time I arrived here at the University of Maryland.

You might be thinking that I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘daunting,’ being a Brit and sharing some familiar cultural customs with America as we do.  I know that in many ways I have it easier than other international students.  After all, I didn’t have to worry about my language skills, and many people in England even complain about how much our culture has been Americanized -  we have brands like Hollister, we have snapback baseball caps, and we have a desire to be constantly entertained.

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