by Merle Welsch (Date 06/10/2010)

The excitement of the first semester as a group of international students started with the departure from Germany or Finland respectively on the 22nd of January 2010. Six students from Germany and three from Finland met in London to proceed their journey to Logan airport in Boston where we got picked up from Dustin, a student working in the Umass Dartmouth international office and Colleen, another participant of the program from the same school.

It was the first time we all met and after months of preparation and nescience what to expect, it took some tension off us to finally meet everyone. After another 1 ½ hours in the bus we arrived on campus in North Dartmouth and saw the place, which would be our home for the next 4 months. The school was visible anxious to take care of us and to show us a good time for the next couple of days before the semester officially started on the 25th. It seemed that there wasn’t a problem, which couldn’t be solved, which gave us a lot of confidence for the new situation.

The first days were planned for us to get know the school, the people in charge and definitely all members of the international group. There was the delegation from Germany (Lukas Achenbach, Michael Elbert, Tommy Fiskus, Evin Oezmen, André Wagner and me Merle Welsch), three finish guys (Mika Huhtanen, Lorenco Rocha and Kimmo Koivisto) and our friends from America who warmly welcomed us to their country (Eric Mendes, Bilal Shanaa, Colleen Schmidt, Liza Mazzotta and Zeph Philips). In the case of us Germans we already knew each other quite well since we already had a semester together, but after two nights, some bowling and an ice hockey game where we could support our Coisairs for the first time it seemed that we knew each other for much longer than just 2 days and the group started to grow into a unity.

All of us, except for the two Umass Dartmouth students who already stayed in some other dorms and one finish and one German guy who decided to change buildings, we were all accommodated in Pine Dale, our new home sweet home. The rooms, all shared with a roommate, were definitely one thing we all had to get used to but in the end it was one of the best experiences. The rooms were furnished with a bed, a desk and chair, a wardrobe and a drawer, everything twice. The rooms were not big but enough space to coexist. In the limited space the rooms could be freely arranged and decorated, but since most of the roommates have already lived there the semester before at least one half was already in use and arranged. It took some time to get used to the room and to feel at home, but after a while it was just normal to take a shower in the bathroom at the end of the hallway and to have someone around almost on a 24/7 basis. The school picked roommates for us who were not in the program and all American, which helped us to build contacts outside the international group.

On Monday after our arrival we had our first day of classes, which mainly consisted of us looking for rooms and buildings, arriving late and being confused. Besides that, at the end of the day we have met all our teachers, got the syllabus (exact outline of what is going to happen during the semester) and felt like proper American students. Our schedule was quite gentle. No classes before ten or Tuesdays and Thursdays, which were supposed to be study days. Being used to the German system there was a lot of new things like compulsory attendance and homework. In comparison to what we knew from back home there was more consistent learning, homework, exams and quizzes scattered throughout the semester. Dependent on personal preference it was a good experience for some and rather annoying for others, all in all a broadening experience for all of us. Every class consisted of a lecture, and some exams. It was every teacher’s own choice how many of them, so we ended up to have one to 5 for every subject. Some teachers had homework due on a weekly basis, some just from time to time.

Throughout the semester we all learned a lot, not just on an academic basis but as well what it means to be part of a group and to respect others. The group becomes one of the steady factors throughout the two years of traveling from university to university and from country to country which makes it even more important and the friendships developing during the time are on a different basis from what I know from home.