Being an international student at UCLA

Being an international student at UCLA definitely has its perks.

You not only get introduced to a whole new culture but also get the chance to share your side of the global story as well.

My story is from Ankara, Turkey.

I went to an international school that had a very small graduating class, of 40. So when I came here, you can imagine the shock I went through.

There were 80,000 people on campus everyday, compared to the few people walking through the corridors of my high school.

80,000 people meant 80,000 distinct stories.

Interacting with people who were a part of this population, made me realize some misconceptions people had about Turkey”. Here are some:

In Turkey we use the metric system.

My international friends and I  read the temperature in terms of Celsius degrees instead of Fahrenheit.

Although I knew this from my previous visits to the USA, I never had to have a conversation related to the weather. But when you are in LA, you definitely have that conversation and have somebody say “It’s going to be 80F next week, we should go to the beach!”.

At the beginning when I was still getting used to the California culture, I would stare blankly at that person. Now I know what 80 F converts to in Celsius degrees. I still stare blankly at people sometimes when we are talking about temperature, but I’m on the right track of becoming a temperature converter connoisseur…or maybe not, we’ll see!

This is what a beach day looks like for us.

PS: (this photo is a proof of how international people started to get used to the Fahrenheit, they even use it on their snapchats)
I had my first thanksgiving experience in the USA this year.

I love it how people also call thanksgiving the Turkey-day.

But during thanksgiving there’s always a possibility that you are going to get asked: “Do you also eat turkey at Turkey during Turkey day? “

Wow, I have never heard the word Turkey mentioned so much in a sentence, have you guys?

Although I would have loved to respond to this sentence by saying “Yes, we do eat turkey at Turkey during Turkey day!” , unfortunately we don’t :(.

We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Turkey, but we have other holidays that involve a lot of delicious food! Try celebrating one of those holidays with me sometime.

Although I have never been asked this question, I have heard about this legend:the misconception
Turkish people ride camels in Turkey.

Although we do have some camels in Cappadocia, I have never seen anyone riding a camel casually. I can’t deny the fact that would have been hilarious to watch.

The sense of humor people have in California and in Turkey are very different.

Turks have a more sarcastic sense of humor. But as you live in California you also get a hang of their sense of humor, which makes your sense of humor even more international!

“Q: What does an USC grad call an UCLA grad in 5 years?

A: Boss!”

(I just had to put this joke in a TAB UCLA article, sorry not sorry!)

Finally, the amount of rap I have been exposed to (at first I was forced to listen to it by some of my friends…) has introduced me to a new music culture.

Although a fair amount of Turks listen to rap, I was not one of them. Thanks to my UCLA experience, I appreciate rap music now.

There are many differences between the Turkish culture and the California culture. But their combination creates a new culture, which is also unique in its own way.

This is not only about how I feel, but about how other bruins feel on campus.

UCLA enables us to exchange culture in this amazing campus atmosphere.