Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dilmah G on May 05, 2013, 06:50:05 am
-
Gents.
I'm filling out my exchange application now for the States. Have Purdue, University of Illinois and Bellarmine as my preferences, but really hoping for Purdue at this stage. I'll found out whether my app is successful sometime after June 7th, and I'm applying to go on exchange basically for the whole of 2014.
I'm a Pol Sci+International Relations (they're the same at my current uni) and Management major, but I'm trying to leave as many elective units as possible to do over there. Not sure if ROTC is available, but I'd be keen to give it a go.
Are there any of us studying at those Colleges right now, or will be next year? Anyone nearby? I'd be keen on meeting some of you guys and LANing the hell out of some FS. :D Plus it would give me an excuse to bring my X-52 setup along with me.
I'm also planning to go into Michigan a few times, as I've been talking with a doctor there who does peanut and general nut allergy desensitisation, and to get that done whilst I'm over your end of the pond would be something I'd find fairly sweet. :)
So yes, anyone nearby? Anyone with advice?
-
GET IN SON
(http://fi.somethingawful.com/safs/smilies/f/0/getin.001.gif)
-
I'm also planning to go into Michigan a few times, as I've been talking with a doctor there who does peanut and general nut allergy desensitisation, and to get that done whilst I'm over your end of the pond would be something I'd find fairly sweet. :)
I live in Ann Arbor. Where in MI might you be looking to go?
-
well i live nowhere near there, but if you want to hang at a beach that isn't full of stuff that wants to kill you (as long as it's daylight so as to avoid the shootings and stabbings and whatnot), come on down to VB.
-
dont drink the beer
-
What? Come to New York the next time! :p
-
None of those are in Texas!
-
I'm nowhere near there, but if you happen to swing by the East Coast while you're here, maybe we can set something up.
Oh, and if you ever find yourself in an Outback Steakhouse, please forgive our ignorant stereotyping of your native land. :p
-
but the steak is awesome. and the bloomin onion.
oh, and hey, visit usafl.com (http://usafl.com/findateam) to find your local team and play with them for a year. maybe we'll even meet up at nationals that way :D
-
Oh yeah, the food's great, but he'd probably find the decor and menu language to be a riot. :D
-
As a University of Illinois alum, don't. Just don't. There are so many better places to go than that soul-sucking abyss.
-
IU is where its at! Hoosiers! Don't go to Purdue, tis a silly place
-
I'm also planning to go into Michigan a few times, as I've been talking with a doctor there who does peanut and general nut allergy desensitisation, and to get that done whilst I'm over your end of the pond would be something I'd find fairly sweet. :)
I live in Ann Arbor. Where in MI might you be looking to go?
Ann Arbor, actually! I initially wanted to straight out apply for UMich but there are no spots for 2014, unfortunately. I'd love to be able to see you if I end up making it!
well i live nowhere near there, but if you want to hang at a beach that isn't full of stuff that wants to kill you (as long as it's daylight so as to avoid the shootings and stabbings and whatnot), come on down to VB.
I'd be really keen to do that, AND play some AFL. I may also get to see Mobius too. Be advised though, I suck at AFL. :P
I'm nowhere near there, but if you happen to swing by the East Coast while you're here, maybe we can set something up.
Oh, and if you ever find yourself in an Outback Steakhouse, please forgive our ignorant stereotyping of your native land. :p
I'm hoping to do some traveling, so hopefully I'll be able to string seeing you guys together into some kind of logical order. Also it'd be hypocritical of me not to forgive you, we stereotype the hell out of you guys here too. Something to do with us being an island nation or something. :lol:
As a University of Illinois alum, don't. Just don't. There are so many better places to go than that soul-sucking abyss.
Ah really? Which faculty were you in? Or was it a general thing?
-
I'd be really keen to do that, AND play some AFL. I may also get to see Mobius too. Be advised though, I suck at AFL. :P
Never fear, so do the Americans. :p Have you seen the scorelines they generally get in the USAFL?
I spent a couple of months over there a couple of years back. It's fun. It's very similar to here, except you have novelty value because you have an accent (which, in my experience, they quite liked, generally, and it was quite useful here and there). Be prepared to dispel a ridiculous number of myths though - it's truly funny how much the average American just honestly doesn't know/understand about Australia. They will believe you if you tell them there are drop bears. :D
Driving on the wrong side is relatively easy to get used to, but having the handbrake and all the stalks the wrong way around took me weeks to sort out. Make sure you check that your license is valid in Illinois - it should be (AFAIK it's valid everywhere int he US) but I was on the verge of a dispute about with a cop in California before he decided not to worry about it (I knew it was valid, but it might be good to be 100% sure for your own interest).
Will you be 21 while you're over there? If not, might be best to get a local fakie before you go rather than a US one - my WA license was accepted pretty much universally (course, I was a couple of years over 21 at the time), but they pretty obviously had no idea what it was supposed to look like - no reason they should. So not only would that make it easier to sneak the inherent dodginess of a fake through, it also seems less potentially disastrous to be caught with a fake foreign document than a fake US document on a student visa. There are lots of chain pubs, too, which was weird, but the booze is much cheaper over there than it is over here, so that's a big positive (though it gets steadily more expensive as you go east, for some reason). Also, the barmaids can drink while they're working (in some states at least). This is useful information, trust me. :D
It's going to be stupid cold, most likely, but don't bother bringing too much - clothes (especially winter clothes) are way, way cheaper over there - probably more so than the cost of shipping big numbers of your existing clothes and stuff over. In some really big shops you can get discounts for being a tourist too, with valid overseas ID, so keep your legit Aussie licence on you as well.
If you want to do some outdoorsy travelling, head west and south - the Rockies, and California had the best scenery and national parks from what I saw (which was a reasonable chunk of the country, if far from an exhaustive trip), and the Grand Canyon is definitely worth a trip on its own. I liked Austin, Boulder and San Francisco as far as specific towns went, and Yellowstone and Yosemite for National Parks.
If you want more of an indoors experience, head north east - Washington is a lot of fun, surprisingly, and the Smithsonian Air and Space museum is there (which I suspect will be on your itinerary). Be aware though, there're two, and the one with the big, cool stuff (like the shuttle and the SR-71) is a mammoth PITA to get to if you don't have your own car, so plan for that (we didn't, and I didn't get a chance to go, which is one of my biggest regrets from my trip). NYC is, I think, one of those love it or hate it type places - personally, I wasn't a fan, but the natural history museum was fantastic and well worth a look if you find yourself there.
Cost of living generally is cheaper in the US by probably, I don't know, 10-20% or so, but that varies enormously depending on where you are, far more so than here. Also, learn the local customs on tipping as quickly as possible - it's a mammoth PITA to figure out at first. If you're not sure, add 10% for just about any service more involved than a shop assistant, or a dollar per drink at a bar, but it varies from state to state and person to person. They most get paid terrible wages, and rely on the tips (I know, it's nutty, but that's how they run it over there), so not tipping for anything short of atrocious service is considered pretty much unacceptable. It's hard to judge how much it would cost to actually live over there, since I was spending at a holiday rate, so others might be better suited to suggesting a budget for you.
I had a great time while I was there, and, while I wouldn't want to live there on any kind of longer term basis, a year of study abroad would be a lot of fun (I know the yanks that came over here when I lived on student housing had almost universally great times, so I suspect it's comparable). Good luck getting in!
-
NYC is a ****ty place to visit but a pretty great place to live (if you can afford it.) Drop by
-
If you ever end up in Orange County, California, I'd love to hang out and grab a beer or two. Yes, I have to specify state here because there's an Orange County in Florida as well. Apparently people like to name their counties after their fruit farming industries. :P
-
Heh, it's always fun reading an outside perspective like that. I didn't realize our clothing was that much cheaper for one, though I guess when you have the behemoth that's Wal-Mart throwing its bloat around, that's to be expected.
But yeah Dilmah, if you do want more info on some of the more mundane everyday stuff that BW touched on, ask away. I'll agree that depending on which school of those you wind up at, it can get pretty freaking cold in the winter (especially in Michigan), so be prepared for that sort of thing if you're not used to it. And it probably goes without saying, but don't forget about the seasonal flip-flop. :p
-
NYC is a ****ty place to visit but a pretty great place to live (if you can afford it.)
That was the impression I came away with, but a lot of other people I've spoken to who've vistited absolutely froth over the place, so YMMV.
-
If you ever end up in Orange County, California, I'd love to hang out and grab a beer or two. Yes, I have to specify state here because there's an Orange County in Florida as well. Apparently people like to name their counties after their fruit farming industries. :P
there's probably an orange county in every state.
oh, and one more bit of cultural advice, "thongs" are NOT shoes over here. keep that in mind when asking for help at the store.
-
As a University of Illinois alum, don't. Just don't. There are so many better places to go than that soul-sucking abyss.
Ah really? Which faculty were you in? Or was it a general thing?
College of Engineering in general. I can definitely speak for the departments of mechanical and civil engineering. It's a long, sordid story, but it basically has to do with the lengths to which the organization was willing to go to maintain their "top five" rating in various engineering disciplines and the cost incurred on the students (mostly the students) and faculty. I think, in their desperation to remain "the best," they lost sight of what got them there in the first place. There was no camaraderie between students and faculty. They were the masters, and we were merely untrustworthy servants who probably shouldn't have been admitted to the program in the first place (we all had been awarded research assistantships or fellowships, if we weren't good enough to be there, why did they invite / PAY us to come?).
Screw that. I've been around in academia. I know it isn't like that everywhere. It sure as hell isn't like that at Texas A&M. UIUC need to pull their head out. My whole group of peers had been planning to get our Ph. D's. We had bloated opinions of ourselves, sure, but we'd aced undergrad, and we were ready to change the world. All but three of us said, "screw this," and got out of academia and research entirely. Of those three, I know for sure that two of them went back to their undergrads to finish. I'm not positive about the third, but I don't think she stayed at UIUC either.
-
NYC is a ****ty place to visit but a pretty great place to live (if you can afford it.)
That was the impression I came away with, but a lot of other people I've spoken to who've vistited absolutely froth over the place, so YMMV.
I actually feel nearly the opposite way, and that's after living in Manhattan for a summer. I think it was too much "city" for this country bumpkin :nervous: so I'd rather visit than live there again but as BW said, YMMV.
-
*long and helpful post*
Man, thanks so much for typing that out! I'll sort out my travel itinerary closer to the date, but a fake ID (I'm 19 ATM) and budgeting about $12-$15k for the year is what I'm planning on at the moment. Buying cheap winter clothes over there is pretty sweet too, I just spent SEVENTY DOLLARS this morning on a jacket. :mad:
But I mean, cheap booze, AFL, plenty of **** to see, and yanks to regale with stories of wrestling drop bears off my back during hikes through the Australian outback? I'm keeeeen.
NYC is a ****ty place to visit but a pretty great place to live (if you can afford it.) Drop by
T'is on the to do list man. ;) Will keep the gangster shenanigans to a minimum.If you ever end up in Orange County, California, I'd love to hang out and grab a beer or two. Yes, I have to specify state here because there's an Orange County in Florida as well. Apparently people like to name their counties after their fruit farming industries. :P
Mate, if I end up making it to Cali I'd love to. :) Just going to hope that I don't encounter a navigation fail and end up in Florida...
Heh, it's always fun reading an outside perspective like that. I didn't realize our clothing was that much cheaper for one, though I guess when you have the behemoth that's Wal-Mart throwing its bloat around, that's to be expected.
But yeah Dilmah, if you do want more info on some of the more mundane everyday stuff that BW touched on, ask away. I'll agree that depending on which school of those you wind up at, it can get pretty freaking cold in the winter (especially in Michigan), so be prepared for that sort of thing if you're not used to it. And it probably goes without saying, but don't forget about the seasonal flip-flop. :p
Thanks man. :) Will definitely ask away if I need to. I'll try and fill out the bulk of my exchange app this weekend, which is when I'll be momentarily free of assignments. It may result in more questions, so stay tuned!
oh, and one more bit of cultural advice, "thongs" are NOT shoes over here. keep that in mind when asking for help at the store.
:( Man, I'm gonna be offending a lot of people if/when I get over there.
But Perihelion, Jesus...that sounds pretty bad. I'm Arts/Commerce but I'll be sure to tread lightly if I get accepted to Illinois.
-
Now see, if you were to swing up to Canada you wouldn't need the fake ID! Now unfortunately I'm about 2-4 hours from the Michigan border up in Guelph (Or alternatively near Niagara Falls if I'm down at my parents) which might be a tad bit too far to bother with.
-
I dunno about that man, I'd like to maximise the exposure I get of Northern America in my year of being there (hopefully), I'll see if I can give you a visit! Plus I've always really wanted to go to Canada, and you guys have plenty of people of Sri Lankan descent near Toronto don't you? I'm also of Sri Lankan descent, if that wasn't glaringly apparent. :D
-
Fellas!
I just got my letter of offer for Willamette, for all of next year. :D
-
Grats.
-
Good luck! Do WA proud! And show the yanks how to drink. :D
-
Hey, I almost went to Willamette. Good job Dilmah, have fun!
-
I shall! A quick google made Willamette seem like a dryi-ish campus though, can anyone confirm/deny? I'll definitely save up for a HLP US road-trip during the Spring break though. :D
-
Son, with us Australians around there is no such thing as a dry campus.
-
I shall! A quick google made Willamette seem like a dryi-ish campus though, can anyone confirm/deny? I'll definitely save up for a HLP US road-trip during the Spring break though. :D
Not that it's usually that much of a problem, but a reminder that the drinking age in the US is 21 =)
-
I know, and that's the problem! :P I was thinking a fake ID might be a good investment, especially as I doubt anyone around knows what a real Western Australian driver's license looks like anyway. Not sure if it's worth it though, what are people's opinions?
Son, with us Australians around there is no such thing as a dry campus.
Indeed. :pimp:
-
I know, and that's the problem! :P I was thinking a fake ID might be a good investment, especially as I doubt anyone around knows what a real Western Australian driver's license looks like anyway. Not sure if it's worth it though, what are people's opinions?
False identification in the possession of a non-resident alien on a visa in the United States is a SPECTACULARLY bad idea. Unless you like the sound of the words "deportation hearing." In my not-inconsiderable experience, the American Immigration authorities do not **** around.
-
Yeah, I don't think you should get into blatantly illegal stuff like that, not with the US in full-on imperial paranoia mode right now.
-
If you have to drink, don't do it in public. Seriously. It's a bad idea.
-
Hmm, this is fair enough. Cheers for the heads up, I probably won't do that in that case. What do you guys do for fun in college if you can't legally drink?
-
Probably get someone who can get the stuff to, errr, get the stuff?
(Seriously though, I dunno, I don't do alcohol)
-
What do you guys do for fun in college if you can't legally drink?
I'm sorry but this sounds really sad. :p
-
I'm Australian - alcohol is not a beverage, it's a vocation. ;)
But seriously. It sounded a bit worse than I meant it to, I'm keen to get into some sport and get my social activist on at Willamette, but bars/pubs/clubs are a big part of my life here (and of everyone else's my age) in Aus and you guys not being into that isn't something that I expected. Should I assume that college social life consists of a lot of house parties, gatherings, and sporting events in its absence? I'm also geared up to compete in a novice Powerlifting competition this November in Aus before I go. It'd be cool to compete in the US too if I could, but I don't know how many of us around 'ere parts lift heavy things regularly. :P
Probably get someone who can get the stuff to, errr, get the stuff?
(Seriously though, I dunno, I don't do alcohol)
Jesus, this sounds like high school! And I didn't do alcohol in high school either!
-
For the most part, at least in my experience, everyone drinks. Even high schoolers party pretty hard, at least where I live. Basically, just don't HOST parties. When/if the cops come to break them up, they usually just send everyone home and ticket the host(s), as long as the party didn't get completely out of hand and start a riot/burn down a house/etc.
Oh yeah, and what Nuke said. Don't drink cheap American beer, it's piss water. There IS quite a lot of good craft beer around, though.
-
Fat Tire is the main CO export (other than the Coors swill, or Blue Moon), it's good beer.
-
(I don't do alcohol)
Neither do I. That's a very unusual trait we share. Hey, maybe there's more to Flipside mixing you and me up than meets the eye, eh? ;)
Dilmah, I wonder if you could do the pubs/clubs/bars without alcohol? Just drink something else? Probably not though. I can't relate since I don't drink. If it was just a matter of wanting some drink around, you could get someone older to get them in, but it will be a bigger problem for you at a pub/club/bar.
Good luck. I hope you have a blast, especially if you get to meet some other HLPers IRL.
-
I know, and that's the problem! :P I was thinking a fake ID might be a good investment, especially as I doubt anyone around knows what a real Western Australian driver's license looks like anyway. Not sure if it's worth it though, what are people's opinions?
already on the NSA's watchlist, watch yourself commie
-
Dilmah, I wonder if you could do the pubs/clubs/bars without alcohol? Just drink something else?
With a couple exceptions, most bars/pubs/clubs in North America that serve alcohol do not allow minors on their premises. Some food establishments do have liquor licenses to serve alcohol with meals, but that's fairly rare in the pub/bar industry (North American prudishness about alcohol strikes again!). Though some American states do have laws that permit minors in those sorts of establishments until a certain time of night.
-
I suppose it all rather depends on which part of the country you live in. Down here in Southern California pretty much every restaurant serves alcohol of some kind, although you really need to avoid the big chains if you want good alcohol. Fortunately Orange County is fairly cosmopolitan with regards to booze, so it is actually pretty easy to find a place with a decent beer selection. There's even a restaurant about 20 minutes away by freeway with about 120 different beers on tap.
-
I see. I'd actually be okay with doing pubs/club/etc sober, but yeah, even at 19/20 I won't be let into a club, will I? If everyone drinks at house parties and the like that's not too bad and not too different from what I occupy myself with at the moment.
I know, and that's the problem! :P I was thinking a fake ID might be a good investment, especially as I doubt anyone around knows what a real Western Australian driver's license looks like anyway. Not sure if it's worth it though, what are people's opinions?
already on the NSA's watchlist, watch yourself commie
THANKS Obama.
Willamette isn't too far from Canada though, is crossing the border a common thing for you guys?
Also, if anyone else is keen to play FS/chill out/sink piss with me when I hop on over, feel free to also let me know!
-
/me looks up Willamette.
Not bad. Since beer appears to be high on your list of priorities, Oregon's a hell of a place for that with plenty of craft breweries. I don't want to make any assumptions about surfing Australians, but if you do, think about heading all the way down the coast to Huntington Beach next year when the weather warms up. Kinda touristy, especially in the summer, but the surf is still really good. Its also close enough to where I live I'd be able to meet you for some delicious deep dish pizza and beer at a restaurant just up Main Street from the pier.
-
Vancouver is a bit far to go to get a beer, though I heartily recommend the trip (you can hit Seattle along the way too). The San Francisco bay area is the other major metro zone within striking distance, but that's an even longer haul (or a pretty painless plane ride). Portland is only and hour away though, so that's probably the destination of choice for most city fun.
-
I need to check regulations on alcohol through the mail, but I'm tempted to send Dilmah: http://www.wasatchbeers.com/polygporter.html
It's one of the few local brews I recommend to people, taste may very though.
-
Glad to hear you made it in, though you're probably a solid 2000 miles (3200 km) away from my neck of the woods. :p
-
You know, one thing I will never cease to be amazed by is how many Australians (including myself) are on this board. I mean holy ****, on most boards I've been on there's only 2 to 3 other Australians at most.
-
Your country does have a lot of free space.
-
I c wat u did thar.
-
if you really want to drink in college and aren't of age, go to house parties. in college towns, you can usually get into clubs if you're over 18, you just might have to pay an extra cover.
as for what to do for fun other than drinking, it's college dude. you can do just about ANYTHING. play sports, go to movies, concerts, just hang out in friends' dorm/apartment/whatever, study play video games, hell just stroll around campus and socialize. seriously, you don't need a bar for that. any open field on campus/in the town will do. check out your student union and student organizations/clubs. you'll find all KINDS of **** to do. some of it you'd never have known you wanted to. that's how i found AFL.
-
Fair enough, college in the states is sounding preeetty good. I remember Willamette having 100 odd student clubs so that should be sweet. I'll also think about getting my surf on and seeing you if I can SpardaSon. Contrary to the stereotype, I drink beer and eat meat pies but I do not surf...yet. ;)
-
College is not pretty good. It's AMAZING! And you're foreign. You are by default AMAZING! Meet people in class, get numbers, go party. I don't drink and I still have way fun. I have a French friend that's crazy awesome too!
There's a lot of 18+ clubs near the Ohio State University on Thursdays. They might have that where you are too. If not, house parties are the best bet for alcohol if you're underage. At least in our school, underage drinking is encouraged by the recently retired president and not enforced by the police.
And congrats! Life will get a whole lot crazier.
-
Cool. It does get really crowded in the summer though (being a beach in Southern California), and it does host the U.S. Open of Surfing IIRC, so you might want to try to get down there fairly early in the season where there's a lot fewer people around. And if the trip is too long, no sweat, I understand. Oregon is a long ways away.
-
Next time, come to Raleigh!