<p>"That's one thing negative about going to the USA - football isnt really followed much over there is it?"</p>
<p>If you're talking about the real football, the one played with pigskin where you score touchdowns, then you are very mistaken. Ameicans are obsessed with football. If you're talking about soccer... eh, we're not in to commie kickball.</p>
<p>Lol, I was talking about soccer. Only I refuse to call it that. We invented the game, you can't just go and change its name! :p:</p>
<p>I don't know much about your football. It just looks like rugby with helmets to me.</p>
<p>Soccerguy - what team do you support? There's some good American players about. Tim Howard, Brian McBride. And of course Brad Friedel who used to play for Liverpool! He's a fantastic goalie</p>
<p>Manchester's a good uni. I applied there and they rejected me! That's the only rejection I got, but it was still annoying!</p>
<p>Friedel is just another goalie.....nothing so fantastic about him....i prefer Casillas (Madrid) or Dudek to Friedel.....</p>
<p>I guess I'm biased because he used to play for Liverpool. But I still think he's a good goalie. A couple of seasons ago he was brilliant for Blackburn, and came out as FA goalkeeper of the season. And he was the reason the USA got so far in the last world cup. I think he's past his best now though.</p>
<p>Dudek has been dodgy for us lately, making mistakes and costing us matches. I think Kirkland will replace him as number one (if he ever gets free of injury)</p>
<p>Hi London_girl ... I spent a bunch of time in the London area on business and loved being there (I wanted to spend a year or so assigned to the UK but it did not happen) ... it was fantastic visting a different culture where there was not a language issue ... it was an adventure. </p>
<p>That said there are some differences ...
* language ... different word selection, spelling (centre versus center), and accent ... everyone will love your accent and you'll adjust to our accent and the speed of our "wierd" English in about a week
* food ... meals, especially at reasturants, will be fairly similar ... but speciality foods can be quite different ... breakfast, sweets (deserts here), family traditional meals will be quite different ... it is a great chance to taste another culture.
* driving ... driving on the "wrong" side of the road is wierd for a few days especially if you are driving a standard. In the UK the roads are very well marked to help all the foreigners driving there ... that is not true here so staying on the right will be tougher.
* Public transportation ... you are used to buses, the tube, and taxis being available to take you anywhere ... depending on where you are in the US public transportation is much tougher to use
* Smoking ... smoking is much more prevelant in England ... and banned lots of places here
* Drinking ... drinking can be much-much different here ... while neighborhood pubs can be big in England; here bars tend to be cater to more narrow client base (young singles, working guys, etc).</p>
<p>Nothing too big here ... just come with an open mind and I'm sure you'll have a great time.</p>
<p>REAL football is played with feet and goals and has it's ultimate prize up for grabs in Germany next year.</p>
<p>Well, the team that I support the most would be Man U. Don't shoot me, I can explain! I have a friend who is from England and he is a Man U fan, so I kinda started following them with him and such. Hopefully Howard is coming back into favor with them, as he was down to 3rd string at one point, after winning goalie of the year.</p>
<p>Other than that, I root for the teams with American players, haha. (There's also an 18 year old American defender on Man U)</p>
<p>Friedel is an amazing goalie. He was 2nd to only Kahn in the world cup. I was quite sad to see him retire from international soccer. Beasley is playing for PSV, and John O'Brien is playing on Ajax... he was awesome in the last world cup too, but I haven't seen him in a national team uniform since. He has history of injuries, I hope he's doing well. Donovan is back in Germany after first arriving at 16, he came back to MLS b/c he wasn't good enough to play then.</p>
<p>They usually show a premier league game during the week here, and we always watch that too.</p>
<p>Random insert here: I just realized I can study abroad at Univ. of Sussex, also, if there are any opinions of that school. :)</p>
<p>Yay, another Friedel fan :D Even if you are a united supporter :p</p>
<p>uschicka - Sussex is a really good school, better than Queen Mary. It's really good for English - it was ranked the highest university for English in one league table I saw (can't remember which one), above Oxford and Cambridge. I was going to apply there, but I could only choose six. It's in Brighton, which is on the south coast. It depends how much you want to be in London though.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help again. I really don't know where I'd want to be or go to school. I love big cities, and I really liked London, but I'd hope I'd get plenty of chances to go there from Brighton. I'm sure I'd have a good experience at either place.</p>
<p>And I don't know anything about soccer/football teams, or else I'd join in! :)</p>
<p>soccerguy, if you're talking about the games shown on ESPN2 and such, they're usually about a week late or so so I usually know the results by the time it comes on.</p>
<p>Luckily, the second leg of Chelsea's Champions League tie was televised live here. I went completely insaned when Terry headed that ball in, running all over the house screaming "GOOOOOOOOL!"</p>
<p>Dima, yea, I know... but what can you do? It's high level soccer. And if you don't look at the score beforehand, it's just like it's live, lol.</p>
<p>But yes, the later champions league matches we do get live sometimes.</p>
<p>BC is GORGEOUS! Victoria is a beautiful little city and Vancouver Island has these awe-inspiring beaches - one ferryride away from thousands of square miles of snow-capped mountains, rainforest, and wilderness across the strait of Juan de Fuco, one ferryride from Vancouver, full of great restaurants and tons to do. UBC provides tons of college students, people are friendly and cosmopolitan. Skiing is two hours away (ferry ride and a run morth up the highway to the mountains). You can get inexpensive trips up the 'BC inside passage' that rival Alaskan cruises, and get out on the water as well. </p>
<p>W&M is a decent school, relatively close to Virginia Beach, nearest larger city is Richmond (loaded with history but not all that wonderful for college students), four hours from Washington DC. But living in the Williamsburg historic district seems like carrying coals to Newcastle, since you have so many older and more beautiful buildings in the UK. Also (IMO) if your beliefs place you in the 25-75% of the UK political bell curve, you would probably be more sympatico with the Canadian kids than most of the Virginians, by and large (70% are from VA).</p>
<p>Louisiana is deep south, Kansas is "flatland." I believe both places would be a culture shock (as they would to anyone from the coastal or northern Blue states here) and probably not very stimulating in the main (even though you would undoubtedly be welcomed and meet some nice people), maybe even downright boring. You might end up begging the pilot to take you home on the next flight.</p>
<p>My two cents. Check out the cities and the surrounding areas thoroughly on the web before you decide.</p>
<p>I'm from London too and am going to college in Southern Georgia, do you think that will be a big culture shock?</p>
<p>Where are you going, Natoar23? </p>
<p>For the record, I am a liberal Democrat from the east coast. I believe that the majority of UK and Canadian citizens tend to have political opinions that correlate with many of the principles of the US Democratic party.</p>
<p>Atlanta is reputed to be a pretty liberal city and has a strong African-American political presence like DC - however, most of the rest of Georgia is decidedly "Red." (Read the Republican Party platform on their main web site - it is like a shorthand bullet point list of the beliefs and positions that they ran on last election - that will give you some background on the beliefs/opionions that you might encounter).</p>
<p>It would probably be helpful to you to read up on the state as well as the destination city and college. Try to contact some students prior to going who are in clubs or organizations that interest you. You can always find a compatible peer group if you make the effort.</p>
<p>Mind you, I am NOT saying that you will meet unwelcoming or unfriendly people - the South is well known for its friendliness and hospitality. It's just that the prevailing views on issues like abortions, animal rights, importance of religious beliefs, etc. are likely to differ from what you have been exposed to growing up in the UK.</p>
<p>I agree with what yulsie said, Euopeans will find themselves more at home in Democratic cities like Atlanta.</p>
<p>If you're looking at either the University of Georgia (Athens, GA although that's in the north so I guess that's not what you're talking about) or Emory, you're going to be in a failry liberal place so there shouldn't be much of a schock.</p>
<p>Hey Londongirl!
I go to the British Int'l sch in jakarta, and the british ppl in my school are quite anti-america. They think anything that's gotta do with america is basically crap. Even when they knew I was going to America, they were like "omg, why are you going to that retarded country" and I was just rolling my eyes. hahahaha. </p>
<p>In general, US unis are really nice, i think. I was in Stanford for two months and the experience was unbelievable. The people there were really open, and receptive, yes. They aren't arrogant. Accent-wise, I would imagine them teasing you around for it, but I think it wouldn't be an issue. </p>
<p>I applied to both UK and US unis; received an offer from imperial :) while nervously waiting from my other decisions in the US. Any questions, you're welcomed to ask.</p>
<p>I like the way this hopelessly vapid thread has avoided anything of any importance whatsoever. Howabout the way that American universities function in comparison to the British system? American universities are much better funded, and enjoy significantly more freedom than their British counterparts, because the government isn't bogging them down in the same fashion. Also, endowments, especially at private universities are much better. Somewhere, and I hope I recall this right, I read that Harvard's endowment alone is more than all British universities minus Oxford combined. Furthermore, our faculties are much better paid, and much less cramped and regulated, and because of this, the quality of education tends to be higher at most American Universities, particularly at the larger ones, than the vast bulk of British schools. When you look at American schools, the British system looks downright french, or even German. I also think that you should be aware of the enormous number of loud-mouthed hicks we have over here. You're very likely to have at least a few ugly encounters with abrasive (or worse, not), bigoted, jingoistic, dogmatically driven people who will make outrageous and offensive claims and have little or no evidence to back them. Some may be in positions of power, or even public office. Also be aware of the current American Culture of Victimization, wherein middle and upper-classes whine about trivial matters to rationalize their own greed and self-absorption. Note also a significant range in what is and what is not considered socially acceptable. Perhaps anywhere you go, you will find signficant deviations, but if you go to an American school with a student population draw from all over, east-coast, west-coast, red states, blue states and so on, be prepared for even the Americans to sometimes be wholly confused or offended at each other's behavior in public. Also note the significantly larger role of religion in public life than in most European, or at least western european nations. While it's my understanding that you guys got all our Jehovah's witnesses, where I live, I'm regularly confronted by evangelicals, such as Baptists, or even Mormons. Many of these evangelicals have little to no sense of propriety as to where and when their faith becomes appropriate to rub in others faces, so do not be surprised if you're told god hates you because you're jewish, or not one of them. Also, don't be surprised to see this in government. Also expect people to mistake you for a New Zealander. A British friend of mine became very ****ed because people kept asking him if he was from the areas where the Lord of the Rings was shot, or if he spoke any Maori, or could offer any particular advice on the choosing of decent lamb.</p>
<p>Well a few things to keep in mind Americans tend to have the mind set of "There's the American way and there's the wrong way" and alot of the time we don't have anything to back up our claims or opinions. Although you will find out that most Americans are open to hear differing opinions. But you defiantly dont want to be dissing are our History and anything that has to do with the birth of our nation (Constitution, Declaration of Independence. Etc.).</p>
<p>And No Soccer (or as I know it from my time oversees, Fußball) isn't that popular here.</p>