No, no, no. This blog post will not be about marriage and commitment as everyone expects since I got married last weekend :) Let’s talk about the expectations people in the USA (american or not) will have for you being an alien (yes, you have to get used to this term).
When I first came to the USA as a freshman in college, I had all types of expectations for people, food, life, cars etc... All based on the American movies I had watched, the stories I had read, or the things I had heard. One thing I had not anticipated was that people would also have expectations for me. Here are some of the biggest ones:
Education:
Expect you to speak English fluently, even though you landed yesterday. Funny thing is you will probably think you speak English until you arrive to destination and realize there is level to this.
Expect you to speak at least 3 other languages fluently. Don’t even try to lie, you will be quizzed!
Expect you to be very smart because overseas you went to school for longer hours and learned about every single subject.
Expect you to be studying engineering, IT, biochemistry, politics, fashion design, or anything that would put you in a position to change the world one day.
Lifestyle:
Expect you to be rich because that out of state tuition is no joke and you surely can’t get a student loan from here.
Expect you to become that one foreign person who owns all the gas stations, all the subway restaurants, or all the hair stores in the city.
Suspect you to drive on the other side of the road when no one is watching.
Expect you to drive a tiny bitty car like Mr. Bean does.
Other:
If you are a student athlete, you will be expected to be a beast because your coach didn’t bring you all the way here to suck.
If you are French, you will be expected to be super romantic, eat cheese and drink wine everyday.
If you are from Saudi Arabia, we definitely want to see a selfie of you and your pet tiger LOL
Feel free to share your experiences, comments and all that good stuff below. I want to know what you think.
Live Life Fully,
France Mkb