It is now more than eight weeks ago since I arrived in Charleston. My first impression was “Wow, what a beautiful and breathtaking city!” This view never changed, as I really enjoy my time here.
The international office is doing so much stuff and trips for us that we really have an amazing time here and see a lot beside studying at the college. One of those trips was the sunset harbor tour, which I will never forget. It was not only a tour, where we learned something about the history of Charleston but also saw Charleston from the ocean side.
As it was a sunset tour, all internationals met around five at the center of Charleston, at the Madison square. But suddenly a lot of clouds appeared at the sky and it began to rain a little bit. Nevertheless, I found out, that the people in Charleston are positive thinkers when dealing with the weather and therefore we hoped that the weather will be better when the harbor tour starts. We walked together to the Harbor, which is near by the aquarium and before getting on board, we took a picture with all internationals in front of the harbor. And as mentioned before, the positive thinking turned out to be good, as the clouds went away and the sun came back. At 6 pm we left the harbor and all of us enjoyed the beautiful weather, the ocean smell, the view, the music on board and above all the chance to see wild dolphins. Yes, dolphins! And not only once, we saw them several times and this was incredible! We also got free drinks during this cruise and also food. There was a huge vegetable plate, lots of chicken wings, tacos, dips, crisps, popcorn and cookies. During the whole trip, the captain talked about the history of Charleston and showed us the old big marine ship, which was really impressive to see so close. After one hour, the sun slowly went down and the sky was getting red more and more. I really got goosebumps, because the whole mood was miraculous. It didn’t need so much time and then the sun hit behind the horizon. We got back to the harbor where the tour started and really have to thank the international office for planning this trip!
I am so far away from home and I miss my family, friends and my home country for sure but Charleston offers so much and the whole area here is so beautiful, whit a lot of things to do, so there is no time for feeling homesick. To study at the college of Charleston is a life time experience! To live in a residence hall together with American students is an opportunity to learn how they life, work and socialize. At the beginning of the semester I was a little bit confused with the system from the college, as it is very different to the one we have in Europe, especially in Austria. All the essays we have to write and the amount of cases and books we have to read here was new for me, but after some time I got used to it and it helped me to improve my English. Most of my free time I spend together with the other internationals. Sometime we have the same courses and could therefore study together and moreover we want to see and do the same things in Charleston.
To say it all in one sentence: During lifetime you will see, learn and experience a lot of things, but only some memories will stay in your heard forever and many people will enter your life but only some of them will stay. My time in Charleston is definitely a memory which I will never forget and I build friendships who will last a life time long!
-Franziska Stanger, Management and Law exchange student from Management Center Innsbruck, Austria