Coming to Charleston

One year ago, I started one of the best years of my life, my first year at the College of Charleston. Being an international student from Norway, transferring from a school in New York, came In hope of completing my education at CofC. And as I am preparing for my senior year here, I don’t really want my time in Charleston to end. To make the most of my last year here I have signed up to be a Cougar Ambassador, and I really want to share my experiences and help all new international students have the best time possible at the school.

Before starting at the CofC I had never been to Charleston, and all I knew I had read on the Internet. But while the Internet may say a lot of nice things, you don’t really see how great the city is until you get there. This city is the definition of the South, with beautiful old buildings, churches, parks, polite people, horses and carriages in the streets, etc. And let’s not forget that we are right by the ocean, in near proximity of plenty of beautiful beaches, and most importantly, we have beautiful, warm weather almost all year long. As I am Norwegian, you might understand why the weather is important to me. A little warning though, it might rain a lot from time to time, so bring a raincoat, and also, in Charleston the streets tend to flood.

When you are coming to a new country, and a new school, you might be going through a string of emotions, and you might find it tough in the beginning. To avoid that, I highly encourage you to first stay in contact with your Ambassador, and when you arrive, also don’t forget that there are plenty of others in the same boat as you. You will have the opportunity to meet these other students at the events put on by the Center for International Education, and I can tell you from experience that this is a great way to make new friends. The ambassadors and internationals might also create events together, for example last year we had a weekly sushi night and a night we all went to the same bar together. Charleston has a lot of very good restaurants and bars, so it is not very hard to have some fun. I would also encourage you to make some American friends as well, and the school makes this very easy by having a lot of clubs and organizations to join, for example for different sports, languages, music, politics etc. These clubs are for all students and can give you a lot of friends and experiences. I, for example, joined the club soccer (football) team, which is for players of all skill-levels, and we even traveled to a tournament at another school.

I could go on and on about all the fun things you can do, how nice Charleston is, and more about me, but in the end all I can say is make the best of your time here; meet new people, see new places, experience the American culture, and do the schoolwork you need. To cap this off, I will now serve you a couple of pictures from my first year at CofC (I’m the Viking).

cofc blog 2

cofc blog 1

 

Skjermbilde 2015-08-11 kl. 15.20.46

Stian Andersen, senior, Business Administration major from Norway

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