These days, people frequently ask me “So, what was the most interesting/valuable/remarkable thing about being at Dickinson?” This question is not easy to answer (seniors, try it yourself!). There are plenty of memories of events and encounters; some nice, some great, some odd. I also felt tempted, at times, to compare certain aspects of life at Dickinson with life at my school at home; but there is always something awkward about comparing two very different things, with too many characteristics that are simply not comparable, except for both being academic institutions.

Then there is the fact that I am not only at another school, but in another country. Experiencing Dickinson as a world of its own, yet being embedded in the culture that lies around it, created an interesting tension between the two forces. As one fellow international Dickinsonian once put it: “The good thing about Dickinson is that America is so close by.” She was referring to the “bubble-like” feeling that one can develop while being on campus, which sometimes makes it hard, especially for a newly arrived foreigner, to tell what about the new and different impressions is a common college thing, what is a typically American thing and what distinctively Dickinsonian. Therefore, whenever I would leave campus during the year, there were things that would strike me as curious, in both nice and disturbing ways.

I tended to become cautious with some kinds of American food, whenever I first got to know them in the cafeteria and ended up being not too excited about them – later to be convinced by American travel-mates: “you have to try this here, it’s way better than in the caf.” Many times, I would figure out that a dish can taste really good, if prepared well. It took me a while to learn that the stuff on the yogurt bar that I always thought of as frozen cola is actually apple butter, because I didn’t know what apple butter was until somebody introduced it to me at their home. Yes, I also became a decided fan of the “all-natural” peanut butter after discovering that, unlike in Germany, not all types of PB taste the same.

Now, having read “The Great American Pie Expedition,” I see what my next big plan will be: once classes are over, I will go on a road trip through parts of the US I haven’t seen yet, mainly the south. On that trip, I plan to find local specialties, and see what else the country has to offer – I’m curious about the boiled peanuts in Georgia. I’ve heard mixed opinions about those. Likewise, I learned that bagels are nowhere in the country as good as in New York City; although this has been claimed by a friend from NYC, who might be biased. And in case you know a spot to go to for an extraordinary experience (and it doesn’t have to be food-related), I’d be happy to learn about it. Feel free to send me an e-mail at [email protected]!

Before I came here, I was wondering how similar or different America really is to my home country, and I was hoping to get an image of that while being here. I did not have any expectations, however, about finding one place to be better than the other. In so far, my expectations have been met, because what I found is exactly that: neither way is better, they are simply different in certain aspects.