Some people say the hardest thing to deal with when going to college is the culture shock. For me, that was the one thing I was looking forward to. Coming from a small, and not very diverse, town in Eastern Iowa, I’ve had very few chances to experience diversity first hand. I’ve always enjoyed learning about different cultures, whether it was watching television shows or hosting foreign exchange students. Here at ISU there are so many opportunities to learn about different people. Not only from attending events hosted to promote education on diversity but also just in the normal day-to-day life of a college student. Meeting and talking to people before class or getting to know the people on my floor, I’ve been able to learn about different countries but also just differences in the United States.
It’s been fascinating talking about the differences with my friends and roommate about the differences between Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Even though they are in the same region of one single country, there are many differences from what they call pop and drinking fountains (soda and bubblers) to how grocery stores are set up (whole aisles dedicated to cheese?). Even in this short month since moving, I’ve learning a lot and I look forward to learning even more.
