A Tribute to My Dear Eastern European/Russian Friends

For my cultural anthropology class I had to write this "newspaper article" giving advice to International students about how to adapt to the American college life culture....(I apologize in advance if any of this article may offend you...LOL =P) I hope you have fun reading this as much as I did!!!

Dear Eastern European/Russian friends,

Welcome to North Central University! I am so excited that you are here. I just wanted to offer some perspective of the cultural similarities and differences you will experience during college this year. First of all, if you haven’t already noticed, we Americans are very outgoing, talkative and we can’t seem to stop smiling. (Trust me, no matter how “European serious” you might be it will eventually rub off on you.) Secondly, I would like to address appearance/clothing issues. In the cities, some people truly do dress like you (black leather shoes, boots, skinny jeans, & a leather jacket) Others in America prefer to rock the sweatshirt, sweatpants, gym shorts, t shirt, tennis shoes, and even pajama pants look. I know to most of you the second style of dress is considered a European /Russians worst fashion nightmare. Thirdly, I’d like to tell you about the food here. You come from countries that have a lot of healthy cuisine. In America, obviously food culture has lost its place in some aspects and there are a lot of fast food restaurants. As for breads,  we mostly eat white bread. They don’t have your favorite dark black/heavy rye bread. You have to buy it at a specialty store. Also, high fructose corn syrup is in mostly EVERY processed food product, so be careful when you buy certain things. The NCU cafeteria has a great variety of healthy food selections. I think you will enjoy it’s cuisine over all. As for the NCU sub culture, everyone here is warm, friendly and welcome so don’t be shy to introduce yourself to new people. I know in Europe/Russia the people culture tends to be more reserved. At NCU you have your musicians, bible scholars, artists, business, and sports people; a wide variety of groups that share at least one thing in common; their passion for loving Jesus Christ. NCU has a very strong Christian community, which I believe you will learn to appreciate and come to love. As for the language, we like to use a lot of slang/street language so once you start hanging out with all of us you will catch on fairly quickly. The symbols here are overall the same as those you are used to. I hope you found this perspective insightful and encouraging. I’ll be praying that you have an AMAZING year at NCU and I can’t wait to meet you!

May God Always Bless You,

Your sister in Christ,

~Aistė Miškyntė