Having lived in the United States most of my life the change from my home town of Friday Harbor WA to Carlisle PA, wasn’t much of a shock culturally. Small cultural differences where easy to incorporate into my new life, such as carrying an umbrella when it rains and adapting to the seemingly less friendly East coast attitude. The environment around me changed as well, from a small-town high school in the Northwest to a rural college campus in the Northeast. The change from my life happening in many different spots (school, home, coffee shops, beaches, parks, town, etc.) all connected by driving, to a college campus where most of my life takes place in just several blocks on campus requiring just walking or biking from place to place.

While these differences are particular to me, it is universal to experience differences from where you grew up and to where you live now. Both changes in environment or the culture of your area. The climate in Carlisle is another difference from where I grew up. The temperate rainy climate of the Seattle area to a humid continental, clear skies of Pennsylvania. The deciduous trees in the fall and humidity in the summer were an adjustment from the evergreen trees and mild winters and summers of the Pacific Northwest. The change in climate and natural surroundings is almost universal among international and out of state students. The differences from growing up in Indian administered Kashmir and going to college at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE are many, which the climate being a major one. The snowcapped maintains and cool lakes of Kashmir to the open skies and desert of Sharjah is a dramatic change in environment particular that exchange partner. Indian administered Kashmir and the UAE share Persian cultural roots and Islamic tradition and religion being continuous between where our exchange partner grew up and where they are living now.

The almost universal change is entering college and into new learning environment. Students come from all countries and religions study there, with both AUS and Dickinson being internationally oriented, allowing students to be exposed to differences in both environment and culture.