Hi y'all!
I'm going to try to get up to speed with what's happened since summer started. You see I've moved from Norway to South Carolina to study at Winthrop University. I want to make the experience a bit less frightening for other Norwegians who want to study in the US and explain how I got here.
The hardest part for me is all the waiting - my patience has been throughly tested. I'm the kind of person who wants things done as fast as possible, so that I don't have to make the effort to remember to do something or have to worry about it until it's over. I didn't receive my letter of acceptance form Winthrop until the beginning of June, and when our applications were sent in the middle of April I think that's too long to wait for an answer. It could have been worse, I know, but I'd expected better. On top of that I had some problems with financial support from the State Educational Loan Fund (Lånekassen). You see, to receive support for the tuition the Loan Fund needs a document that states your name, how much you will have to pay (specifically) and a signature from somebody at Winthrop. And as it turned out, Winthrop does not determine the fee until the middle of July. Luckily, it's possible to receive support for the year itself and send the documentation for the tuition later and receive the support for that when they have approved your documentation.
In between all this comes the visa application of course, which was my biggest worry. That is why I went on the web as soon as I got my letter of acceptance and submitted my application. You might want to visit the site beforehand though, as it's a lot of information to digest there. Among other things you will need to submit a picture of yourself. The requirements for this picture are endless so take the time to read it and test it on the website. Yes, you can test the picture without really starting the application process. There's not really much to tell about the interview. You can bring a bag, but it has to be small or you have to be able to fold it. You can bring your phone and other electronical devices, but you can't take them with you into the embassy building. I stressed a lot about this. There's really not much to be afraid of. You just have to be prepared for a lot of waiting.
When it comes to communicating with Winthrop over the summer. Be persistent! If you don't receive an answer within a couple of days send a new one and to another person. All the Norwegians had problems reaching Lindsey, who was our assigned contact. On the Winthrop web page under the international center tab there should be a general e-mail address to the international center and then someone will respond. This has been my constant worry over the summer. Will everything work out? One important thing: to get the document that states what the tuition is, you need to ask someone at the international center for it.
Generally, they are good at what they do here, but this year they changed the computer system. And like in Norway people + new systems = a lot of waiting and confusion. Let's move on to nicer stuff! When you came here there will be an option to go to Walmart to get stuff for your room. Really fun, especially if you're arriving late. I arrived at 8pm and there was a pick up at 9pm and we got to leave our bags in our room and then we went to Walmart. Imagine walking around in a huge warehouse like store at 11pm, strange feeling. What I regret not doing is reading about the residence hall that I would be living in. I ended up finding out that you have to buy your own toilet paper where I live. So go to the web site and read about it.
The classes here are pretty demanding. The fact that everything counts a certain percentage of your grade is stressful to me. Being used to just handing in papers every now and then that won't be graded and leaving it all on the final exam, it takes some time getting used to quizzes and participation in class being graded along with all the tests and hand-ins.
Campus is really beautiful, I must say. The only downside, as in all of the US, you can't get anywhere without a car. Luckily, you have the basic needs in walking distance. We even have a Starbucks shop on campus! I'm sure that I'll come back to other aspects of campus life, but this will have to do for now.
Later!
