Exchange students Part 1

"Imagine you are hosting exchange students who have never visited the US."
Luckily for me, I've been there.

When I live in Clemson I live in the cultural exchange community. Every semester since I was a freshman I've had a foreign roommate. From England, Scotland, Spain, France, and Japan.

It's funny that you ask "What particular things about 'your people'?" Because as an American, describing Americans, we don't all have one cultural background. For me I have this strange sense of an aura that surrounds all Charlestonians, and I have a connection to the Blue Ridge mountains full or Irish and Scottish heritage. But that is me personally and I have friends from traditional Italian families that have a completely different heritage than me and friends with Israeli and hebraic traditions. I have no idea what to say if someone asks me to describe "my people." And it is even more awkward if someone from Ireland were to come and I were to explain my connection to a traditional Irish folk song. Why? Because since that song came to America it has changed. It's faster, there are more lyrics. It's not sung by a mother to her child but by brothers on a wooden porch drinking moonshine and not whiskey.

So for me, instead of trying to somehow personify and quantify what "American" means, my roommates and I try to show them CLEMSON. What it's like to be a tiger. :)

We explain football. We explain school. We explain eating. We explain going out.

But even in Clemson students are so diverse. Some students study through football games and some won't miss them for the world. Some wake up at 5 am and hike across campus to light up a grill and cook and drink all morning, and stay and tailgate through the game. Some students only wake up at 8 in order to drink and catch the last half. Some students study at home and watch the game online. Some students say "oh there was a game this weekend?"

I think though somehow, just through living here, they seem to get it. They see the differences and comment on them, but the overwhelming feeling always seems to be "oh you are a lot like us."