My experience and observations as an international student

Being an international student has taken quite some time to get used to. It feels like being “the new kid” at school. You have to start from scratch and learn a new curriculum, style of teaching, campus and school community.

I’ve met a lot of people since I’ve been here, most of whom are international students due to my living environment. Meeting Ghanaian students has taken more effort because they don’t come up and talk to me while I am on campus, unless they are students I've already met. As far as making friends, as a guy, it has been easier to befriend Ghanaian girls and for most of the international girls, it has been a lot easier to befriend Ghanaian guys. A lot of my international friends who are girls seem to find it quite difficult to befriend the local girls. I always mention to them that they still have an advantage over male international students because local guys they meet take them out to dinner, clubs and around the city all the time. And believe me; my friends take advantage of most of these opportunities. They always tell me that they are not “gold diggers”, they are just not going to pass up a free meal!

As for the campus environment, there is no sense of urgency. Everything runs on a term my program group coined “Ghana Maybe Time (GMT)”, which is a play on the words Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It’s hard to tell when anything will start here. It’s actually worse than CPT (Colored People Time) for those who are familiar with that in the states. You can expect just about everything to start late, including classes, meetings, appointments and events.

Classes here usually meet once a week for two hours as opposed to Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday (MWF, TR) which I was accustomed to at USU. My classes are a lot less challenging than those I’ve taken in the states. I haven’t received any homework and have only had one quiz since I’ve been here. I have participated in two group projects which I must say were quite difficult to accomplish. Working with 7-10 people who had different schedules and factoring in GMT when it came time to meet made the process quite difficult. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, final exams are usually worth the majority of a student’s final grade, so more emphasis is put on preparing and studying for finals exams than there is on homework, quizzes and midterm exams. Not having homework, quizzes or tests on a regular basis has made me feel quite unproductive. Although I don’t really care for any of them, not having them consistently like I am used to makes me feel like I’m not doing anything. It can be boring at times but I am learning how to enjoy my free time and use it productively.

There is a large Christian population on campus. I feel like I’m going to school with 30,000+ missionaries. Someone is always inviting me to church. It’s obvious that the majority of the students here love God. This campus actually feels holy. The students here praise the Lord the way adults do at my home church in Las Vegas and it’s impressive to see in person. There are church services, prayer meetings, bible studies, choir rehearsals and other church related functions happening throughout each week. On Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, I always hear the graceful melodies of church choirs who are either in rehearsal or church service. I usually see small and large groups of students in prayer circles around campus each day on my way to and from class. As I was walking home from a restaurant on campus around 11 P.M. this past week, I came across a group of nearly 30 students who were speaking in tongues on a grass field. It was astonishing to see this happening, especially so late at night. Although the religious presence on campus is overwhelming to some of the international students I've spoken to, I find it rather comforting.

The majority of the local students dress well. Their casual is what we refer to as “dressing up” in the states. At first, I thought the local students were just trying to show off and were overly dressed up for the first few weeks of class. But I soon learned that dressing well here is standard. Many of them have the impression, “you never know who you’ll meet, so you want to look presentable at all times.” A lot of the guys wear dress slacks and a collared shirt, either short or long sleeve and dress shoes. Others usually wear shorts or jeans with a t-shirt and sandals or a style of shoe that best resembles Keds. Many of the girls wear long skirts, dress slacks or jeans with a trendy button up short or long sleeved top, polo shirt or short sleeve shirt and either flats or trendy sandals (especially gladiator sandals). Most of the local students have conformed to these particular styles of dress, so they look quite uniform and it's impressive to see everyday. The way many college students dress in the states would be considered inappropriate here. Wearing sweats, basketball shorts, flip flops (which are considered shower shoes here), tank tops as well as revealing clothing will bring a lot of unwanted attention to you here whether you are a local or international student.

The local men stay well-shaved and their hair cut low to their scalp and neat (a fade). It’s uncommon to see men with cornrows or an afro. Dreadlocks are common amongst the Rastafarian community here in Ghana, but aren’t a style commonly worn amongst students. Many of the women wear their hair permed, in braids (micro or cornrowed) or natural (unprocessed).

There is not much cultural diversity on campus. My tables definitely turned; from attending a predominately white university to a predominately black university with more than twice as many students. I have noticed many similarities between the campus culture here and USU, especially the religious influence.

As far as the overall experience as an international student here, it is what you make of it. For example, some USU students “bleed blue”. These students genuinely love the USU campus community and environment. They participate in campus activities, join clubs and organizations, volunteer, attend Aggie athletics games, go sledding down Old Main Hill, love Aggie Ice Cream, become True Aggies (and even Ultimate Aggies and Extreme Aggies), strongly dislike in-state rivals BYU and the U of U with a passion and overall seek opportunities to do everything they can while a student at USU. There are also students at USU who aren’t into all of that “bleeding blue business”. They’d rather attend classes and SI’s, then go directly home, do their homework, then order a pizza, bundle up under their blankets, watch a movie and “call it a night”. Each of these students will have significantly different college experiences but they each will have the choice as to how they spend their time in college. The same factors apply while studying abroad.