As expected, Bocconi is incomparable to Texas A&M University, College Station. Bocconi’s campus is much smaller and all my classes are in the same 1 building. This has made the first week of classes much less stressful for me. Furthermore, I love how welcoming the individuals at Bocconi and Milan are. A lot of people here surprisingly do not speak English; however, they still try to help. There are a lot of differences I have noticed between Italian and U.S. culture. Public transportation is used far more here, students are usually more dressed up, and almost everything is closed in Italy on Sundays. As of now, I am loving the Milan weather. I never sweat and it hardly rains. I definitely am not missing the College Station humidity but I do miss wearing t-shirts and shorts to class every day.
My name is James Miller, and I am a Management Information Systems Major from Burleson, Texas. I am currently taking part in a study abroad with the Business school at the University of Nottingham. When first deciding to go to college I asked countless people about their advice for attending college. Almost every person I talked to said they wish they had taken the opportunity to study abroad, so I decided to make use of the opportunity the business school offers. I chose this specific program because I had never been outside the United States before, so to make that process easier, I decided to go to a country that spoke English. When I was finally enrolled, I was incredibly excited to take the opportunity to travel and learn a little bit more about the world.
I arrived in the United Kingdom on September 2nd. Before arriving I had messaged a former student from A&M, so I met up with her. Her name was Jennifer Smith, a former student from Texas A&M and Mays Business School. She offered to take my bags while I traveled around London, where I saw several historical sites. My favorite had to be the Tower of London, a fortification next to the river Thames with a rich history dating back to the 11th century. While walking around the city, I started to notice the differences between cultures. In big cities across the US there always seems to be a sense of urgency, but even in London, it seemed very relaxed. Another cultural difference was the pubs. After work, every day, people would leave work to immediately go to a pub to relax. Which is crazy to me as a college student. After running around London for the week, I decided to go and cross off a couple of items off my bucket list by visiting Stonehenge and the Roman baths. When I got to the city of Bath I met a German in one of the hostels. We traveled and talked extensively about politics and cultural differences. This opened up another perspective about the world that I had never thought about. After traveling to see these incredible sights, I went back to London to grab my bags and head to my home for the next semester. Upon arriving, I met another former student Matt Triggs. He took me around Nottingham and gave me a list of famous sights to visit. After I spent a couple of days in Nottingham, I decided to travel up to Edinburgh in Scotland before school started. When I arrived, I traveled to the local castle, where I learned about the incredible history that Scotland had to offer. After visiting locations around the UK, I headed back to Nottingham and moved into my dorm for the semester.
When I reached campus, I was welcomed with open arms by the University. It turned out that I was there a couple of days early, so I took the opportunity to explore campus and see where I am currently living. The University is different and offers a good amount of diversity between campuses. Recently I met some of the other international students, some of which are from South America and the Middle east. It was great to compare our life experiences and bond over being in a new place. Though we haven’t known each other for very long, we go daily to the University pub (which A&M would never have) to hang out. I am currently signed up for the Waterpolo team (which I’ve never played), and the Italian society (because Italian food is good). Classes haven’t started yet, but I’m excited to meet more students and see how they compare to Texas A&M.
