According to me, a country is defined by its culture to some extent. All the choices we make, the food we eat, the way we dress, the music we listen tells a lot about our personality and our upbringing. I am from a country which have different cultures not only from rest of the world but also within its states. In India, the culture varies from state to state. The language people speak, the way they dress, the food they eat all varies from state to state. During different levels of education, I moved from one state to other and found the cultural difference. But, coming to America is an out-to-out experience. The difference in this two countries are not only cultural but also educational, political, social etc. Some of my experiences are listed below.

1. My most important aim to come here is to gain knowledge and complete my Masters. During my course, many assignments are being assigned to me. This assignments are not straight forward or they are not just two or three formula based numerical. The assignments require critical thinking and analysis. I was very excited to start with my first assignment of Telecommunications which was due next week from the date of assigned. I completed it by weekend also uploaded it. Before the next assignment was assigned, the first was graded and I scored highest in that assignment. Now, it was time to submit the second assignment. I completed it and uploaded. One of classmate was stuck at some question and asked for help. I helped him and tried to explain the question by showing my approach to solve it. He copied my answer to that question and uploaded. After the grades were uploaded, that question was not graded and it had a comment “idea copied from …….” This teaches me to help people but not to give them the complete solution.
2. I am supposed to do a presentation in my Telecommunications. We were asked to give the topic we are interested to present and also select whether we want to do it alone or in a group of two. The topics was to be graded out of 100.  I submitted the topic. I scored maximum and also received a very good comment from professor. I was really surprised when I received a mail from him about my presentation topic selection and coverage of the topic. He also said that I can meet him whenever I need help as he don’t want me to select the things that may be less relevant to that topic. This not only motivates us in giving our best but also makes us more confident especially when we have so much work to do in other courses. Now at this point of time, I can say that the assignments count is very high and we have a project kind of thing in every course. Sometimes it becomes difficult to handle this many assignments in such short period. So this appreciation from our professors helps us keep going.
3. In EAP class, we were asked to lead the discussion in the class for a day. To do so, we were divided into group of five. As this class is designed for International students, there are multilingual students in the class. I my group, there were four Indians and one Chinese. To lead the discussion we met several times outside the class to discuss the plan. Initially, we had problems in understanding her opinion and even she had the same experience. It was getting very difficult to make the plan and come to one conclusion. But after meeting four five times, we started to understand each other so well that now we don’t even feel we had such problem. Understanding her opinion, her perspective, he accent is no longer a challenge. Now, we are not only classmates but also very good friends. I being an international student, used to face the problem in understanding other international students or Native American. This was my first very close experience dealing with a Non-Indian. This presentation has helped me overcome one of the very important challenge and make some multilingual friends.
4. One thing that interests me is politics. After coming to United States I found that the political systems is so much different from that of India. Though both are democratic nations the way the elections are conducted are so different. The US presidential elections is the one that caught my eye. I loved the fact that the presidential candidates are a part of numerous debates where they question and answer their opponents approach towards various policies. This was completely new to me. The way the debates are conducted is also fascinating. The voters get to know their candidates better and also know about their vision.
5. Another thing that I found amazing about American culture is the way people think about people with disabilities. I was so amazed to see the provision for people in wheelchairs, in order to board the bus. In India, I have been in Mumbai which is one of the most crowded cities in India. There are seats reserved in buses for handicapped people, but I have seen people with the abilities occupying the seat and handicapped person standing. I have never seen a person with a wheelchair in a bus. I was really surprised to see the way people think to provide them with all the possible comforts. This country has given me a new vision to look at people. The same thing I observed in George Mason campus, where there are small vehicles available to help the people with disability to move from one place to other. I really hope to see this provision to be implemented in India very soon.

This are some of the few experiences that have grabbed my attention and have helped me develop myself academically, politically, culturally etc. This experiences have taught me many relevant and perspective changing lessons which will be helpful in different areas and different phase of life.

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