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International Exchange

Annelie Watt: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Degree: Bachelor of Arts, Psychology

Semester: Autumn, 2007

Anyone who has watched an American College film has a few ideas of what the lifestyle is all about. My experience at UNC Chapel Hill certainly lived up to many of those expectations. There were the frat parties, the basketball games with their crowds of thousands, the beer-pong tournaments, the cheerleaders and the cokes so enormous you could undoubtedly drown in them. My expectations, however, were also exceeded on many an occasion. I could never have envisaged that I might one day sit four rows in front of Michael Jordan at his own 25 year anniversary of winning the national championships playing for UNC.

Nor could I have imagined becoming a fan of an all-male a cappella choir, let alone being star struck to meet a member of such a group (The UNC Clef hangers’, who were as awesome as their name suggests, had celebrity status). Other ridiculous memories include trying to enter a frat house by crossing the drawbridge over their mote, forming ‘grind-trains’ at Players Nightclub, eating deep fried gator, deep fried cheese cake, deep fried buffalo, deep fried everything, becoming such an avid fan of the Tarheels that in celebration of their defeat of Duke University (the Tarheels’ arch rivals in basketball and every other competitive arena) I would leap across bon fires on Franklin Street, whilst chanting “Go to hell Duke” in an almost tribal manner. I’m also sure that before my semester at UNC I would have bet my entire travel budget that I would never start a sentence with “y’all”, so that too was a surprise...

It was an incredible session, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think James Taylor’s ‘Carolina in My Mind’ will forever more bring tears to my eyes. I recommend exchange to anyone who is even remotely interested- don’t be intimidated by the paper work or the amount of time you’ll have to spend living off mi goring noodles while you’re trying to save, it’ll be worth every mouthful.

Academic Experiences

PSYC501: Advanced Personality

PSYC245: Abnormal Psychology.

PSYC434: Cognitive Neuroscience.

HIST128: American History since 1865.

All of my professors were excellent, and in fact some of the best teachers I have ever had. My three psychology classes were small and felt very personal; the professors went to a great deal of effort to get to know all students as individuals. In fact one of my professors memorized all 45 students’ names on our very first day of class.

Living Experiences

I lived in Winston Residence hall, in dormitory style accommodation. All rooms in Winston were shared rooms, as is the case in most of the on-campus accommodation. Before arriving I was feeling very apprehensive about the idea of having a roommate, but my hesitations were quickly assuaged and my roommate and I became really good friends. Living within such close proximity of someone who was initially a stranger also forced me to be open-minded and practice my tolerance.

The location of Winston was excellent. I was extremely close to all of my classes, meaning I could get out of bed about 10 minutes before they were due to start. The two main libraries on campus, one of the main dining halls, and the gym were all within 3 minutes walk, and Franklin Street, and the strip of bars and restaurants where I spent a good deal of my time, were less than 10 minutes walk.

I think Cobb would also be a great residence hall to live in, mainly because it was such a beautiful old building, and had such a great feel to it; however all of the North Campus accommodation that I saw seemed fairly good, and well located. I would recommend South Campus accommodation only to people studying at the UNC business school, as it is quite a way from all other classes and the rest of the university.

There were several on campus dining halls, and the selection of food available was absolutely mind boggling. Anybody wishing to pack on a bit of an American bulge would be easily accommodated at UNC, with an all you can eat selection of cakes, donuts, cookies, ice-cream, waffles, bagels, a pizza bar, a sandwich deli, a rotisserie, the ‘omelet guy’, burgers, and fries (the list goes on) which were available in the dining hall all day long. For those of you with any self control, one could also scrape together quite a healthy meal, as the salad bar selection was also enormous. A trip up to the dining hall costs about $7 US, depending on whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner time, and once you’re up there you can stay up there and eat all day if you wish. There are also meal plans available, however these actually end up being approximately the same price as paying for each individual trip (which is what I opted to do for the semester). An advantage of having a meal plan is that if you’re having a particularly poverty stricken week you can still eat, however paying in advance might also mean that you end up paying for more meals than you actually need, as was the case with some of my friends.

Highlights of UNC Chapel Hill

• Franklin Street Pub crawls- Franklin Street is the street that runs along one side of the university. It has something like 26 pubs in 2 blocks. Basically you just start at one end and see how far along you can make it; He’s not here (great big summer beer garden), Four Corners (Have a moose juice), Jack Sprats, Yeats, Goldies, Spanky’s, Top of the Hill (Micro-brewery with delicious beer), The library, Linda’s, Martini Bar, P-bobs, Players (crazy nightclub- generally the last stop) etc.

• Seeing Ben Folds work his magic in Memorial Hall at UNC- He used to live in Chapel Hill so there was a beautiful sense of reminiscence which made the show incredible.

• Cat’s Cradle- An awesome music venue in Carrboro (just down the road from UNC), which had so many great gigs on. It was listed in Rolling Stone as one of the top 10 music venues in the USA.

• Carrboro Markets- delightful place to go for a Sunday picnic.

• Mediterranean Deli on Franklin. mmm…

• Watching the tarheels play in any number of bars on Franklin Street, hugging complete strangers when they won, and the elation campus-wide for days afterwards.

• Being able to access the free university wireless network from the cafes on Franklin Street always made for a very pleasant ‘study’ setting.

• Free Gym membership, and the fact that there were TWO gyms right across the road from me, open early to late.

• Tarheel takeout- an online service where you can order food for delivery from pretty much anywhere in Chapel Hill. My friends and I would order Med. Deli or an Indian feast to aid us in our study sessions, or Cold Stone ice-cream for movie nights.

• Taste testing the new flavours on offer at Yogurt Pump, a delicious, incredibly cheap, and beautifully old-school frozen yogurt place on Franklin. Frozen yogurt became a staple part of my diet.

• The sushi train, again just off Franklin Street.

• The P2P; a free shuttle bus service which loops through the Uni and back up to Franklin Street every 15 minutes until 3am. Guaranteed to be an entertaining ride after a big night.

US Travels

I took a lot of domestic flights within the US. Cheap flights were very easy to find online through travel search engines such as Expedia. I found Southwest airlines to be consistently cheap and reliable.

New York City

• New Years eve- Having decided that going to Time Square would be horrendous (given that you had to line up for at least four hours in the sleet to get in), we miraculously managed to get into a bar which was all you could drink once you had paid the $150 entrance fee, without paying the entrance fee! Needless to say it was a crazy night.

• ‘Bed’, a nightclub which had replaced tables and chairs with beds.

• Seeing the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium on the 4th of July, eating hotdogs and feeling for a few hours like I was in The Simpsons.

• Lunch at ‘The Boat House’ in Central Park, where I accidentally ordered a ridiculously expensive glass of champagne to celebrate New Years day.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• The Staten Island Ferry which goes back and forth from Manhattan to Staten Island-great view of the statue of liberty and the city, plus it’s free!

• The city at Christmas time, particularly the tree at the Rockefeller Centre, and the incredible store decorations in Saks Fifth Avenue (it felt like you’d stepped into Narnia).

Bloomington, Indiana

• Hanging out on a frozen lake and making friends with the ice-fishermen.

• Road tripping from Indiana University to Chicago with a fellow Aussie. Neither of us had been in the USA very long so it was such a novelty/challenge driving in the snow, on the right hand side of the road. The highways all across the country were a constant source of entertainment. They were absolutely littered with billboards advertising things like “Hooters” and “Steak n’ Shake” (one of my favourites of the endless number of wacky American fast food chains), and the cars and trucks (utes), like everything in the USA, were just so much bigger.

Other Travels

Over spring break I broke the tradition of heading somewhere tropical and instead visited some friends in London and Ireland for 10 days. My flights over were about $400 return, and only took 7 hours, making it a fairly easy and affordable trip. In Ireland we hired a car and road tripped around the country for a week. I also spent ten days in Mexico and an absolutely incredible month in South America, traveling from Chile across to Argentina, then up to Bolivia and Peru. I think my views of the world changed more in that month than any other time in my life that I can pinpoint.