Me: A list of things I’ll miss about NDSU and Fargo

the unforgettable city

On one of The Forum edition (5/4), I found an article titled “Morast: A list of the things I’ll miss about Fargo-Moorhead.” The writer has taken a decision to take another job so he has to say goodbye to the town.

He mentions some stuff about Fargo-Moorhead that might be “unforgettable” for him. I enjoyed reading this article but it makes me sad as well. Finally I left NDSU and Fargo after about 9 months of living here. That means that I left my campus North Dakota State University (NDSU).

When I got to NDSU, everything was alien. Everybody spoke in English and I wasn’t good at it at first—it doesn’t mean that I am good at it now, but I’m better. It freaked me out a lot. No kidding.

However, now I feel like I found my life here. I found many things have become parts of my life. Thus, it’s going to be difficult for me to leave after all I have done here. So, here is a list of things I’ll miss about NDSU and Fargo.

snow!

Winter
This year was my first time experiencing winter. The first time seeing snow as well. I still remember that it was like a dream to see snow. Then I saw and I couldn’t say anything but “Oh my God, it’s gorgeous!”

I don’t know why some friends of mine hate it. “I have to shovel,” that is their reason. No way! Look at the flakes! It’s just a blessing for me seeing those flakes.

My friend showed me that Fargo is the fourth coldest city in the US. I didn’t believe that until I found that my nose stuffed up. It was -16 F. It was freaking cold for me. But, my friend told me, “You’re lucky. This winter is mild. It’s not real winter this year.”
They said that this year winter was nothing. It was supposed to be at least -40F or even lower. Well, that’s going to be very horrible for me.

But I think -16F is already cold enough for me. Being in such temperature is just way different and horrible for this kid who came from such 80-ish F area.

Flatness
“The bridge at 12 avenue is probably the highest point in this area,” said one friend. I guess I agree with that because from that point, we can see how crazily flat Fargo is. But we also see some very tall buildings like the high-rise residence halls at NDSU. I bet you are going to see how freaking flat the town is from those buildings.

Alright, the point is, Fargo is flat. NDSU is just the same. Wherever you are, you can see the beauty of this earth horizon very clearly. Especially in winter when all the trees are naked, the flatness is just more real and unbelievable.

Residence life
Living in a dorm is just awesome. Getting new friends from different background, to me, has enriched my knowledge about how other people live their life and even how they think about everything.

Like other schools, NDSU has some dorms, or probably many. There are Niskanen, Churchill, Reed, Johnson, Burgum, Weible, and many more. I myself lived in Niskanen for one academic year.

In the room, I used to just talk to some roommates about lots of things from campus, classes, and even about their love stories. As an international student, I also used to ask them about English and ask them to correct mine.

For most of students, I swear to God, messing things up in their room is just common. Most of the time I went to my friends’ room, most of them are just a mess. Yet it doesn’t mean that all of students are like that. A few rooms are just freaking nice. I don’t know how they work with that. Mine? Sometimes it was good, but most of the time it was just a mess.

Football 
LET’S GO BISON! That was the first thing people taught me to do whenever NDSU Football team is playing. Anyway, NDSU Football is titled as Bison. That’s their mascot.

To me, football, American football, used to be weird thing. Lots of stopping, that was just lame. As a kid growing up with soccer, football meant nothing to me.

But when my roommate asked me to go with him to the first Bison game in the 2011 season, I just suddenly fell in love with it. American Football is just an awesome game and full of challenges, not only for the players, but also for fans.

Ever since I understood all the rules, this sport became just amazing to me. When the players bump each other, as a fan, I can also feel it. I scream when it needs so. I am happy and even sad when it feels so.

I would say that I came to Fargo at the right time. Bison won the 2011 NCAA National Championship. They won and honestly I was just freaking happy. I didn’t watch it live at the stadium, but I was on campus with many buddies watching the final game through a big screen. Bison won, I also felt that I won!

friends

The Union 
It’s NDSU Memorial Union. The coziest place ever, I guess, in all over NDSU. This is the thing that lots of campuses in Indonesia don’t have. I met lot of new friends over there. I killed lots of my time over there by taking a nap, chatting with friends, Facebook-ing, or just doing nothing. Yet the point is relaxing.

In the Union, we students can pay our school bills through Bison Connection. We can use some computers freely in the computer cluster. There are some shops like coffee shops, Bison Krunch, and some restaurants downstairs.

There is a bank and a post office. Some couches are also over there for relaxing and watching some TV shows on a big screen TV hung on the wall.

At the Union, there’s the coolest place called the Union Dining Center. We students eat and hang out there. For sure, that’s the spot where I met a lot of new friends. While eating, we are talking about everything. We can stay over there for as long as we want or just a little while.

Since it’s a dining center, of course they have food. To be honest, I still can’t eat American foods. I did eat them when I was there, but I could not even taste the “deliciousness”. I ate because I had to. That’s it.

Back to the Union, this place is just great. Lots of events are held over there. It has a big ballroom for everything. And also, the Century Theater that plays free movies every week is just making this place cooler. I loved so much this place.

Center of writers and CEC 
As an international student, having good English writing skills is just very important. To catch up with all school stuff, understanding English well is all I need. That’s why I came over to the Center of Writers at NDSU “thousands” of times.

I had them correct my papers all the time. I was very glad there’s sort of organization like that. It helped me out a lot in terms of understanding English both spoken and written. They kindly help everybody that needs help.

Other than that, there’s another organization that I belonged in terms of improving my English: Conversational English Circle. Consisting of both local and international students, we help each other out.

On one hand, international students will get their English better through the conversation in the group. On the other hand, local students will learn about a lot of new things from outside the US. I would say this organization had helped me out a lot. My English, I guess, is a lot better than the first time I got to the US.

Friends 
What I thought before I got to NDSU, I would go study and improve my English. That is it. I did not care about people around me. Once I am done, I am done. Who cares about those people?

But ever since I started my life here, I have met lots of different kinds of people. I have made a lot of friends. I know I was wrong. I figured out that people here are great. They are kind, mostly, but not all of them.

Of friends, a bunch of kids have been friends with me. I don’t know how many times I greet people a day. Some are just acquaintances, some are friends, some are good friends, and just a few are my best friends.

It has been wonderful to be friends with people from totally different cultures. I learned how they deal with their daily activity especially with school stuff: how they study, how they think about studying, how to hang out with friends in school, and probably how to act in class.

Since my English is not perfect, sometimes I had difficulties hanging out with friends. But I don’t care. Not! I do care. I care about how people react toward others with language difficulties.

Some are just always making fun of my mistakes. They don’t want to understand that there are other people from another world that do not understand them, I guess. Some are very rude. They say, “Do you understand me? Ah, no you don’t. You’re not American.”

Honestly, I don’t really care about that. But to be honest, they shouldn’t be doing that. I bet they would not be as smart as they think if they would go abroad. Alright, forget about it, and let’s move on.

Well, some people are kind and very kind. They know that some people, like me, do not really understand their conversations. They want to slow it down and just explain trivial stuff to us, which is not trivial at all but very appreciated.

“What’d you say?” This sentence can probably be my keywords whenever I talked to my friends. When I said that, they wanted to help me out and correct my English patiently.

A few of these kind kids have been my best friend. I don’t how much thanks I should give to them for all they’ve done for me. You guys, if you are reading this, you are always on my mind. I will always remember you guys. Even though probably you forget what you’ve done for me, because probably you did not do that on purpose, but I’ll always remember.

At last, Fargo and NDSU have been a part of my life ever since I got there. I can’t forget anything that I’ve done over there. Every single minute of my time over there was just precious and has changed me. A good change, I think.

This writing is done a week after I got back to my beloved country. Ever since I stepped off of the airplane, I have been missing NDSU, Fargo, and my friends over there so much.

“Rosyid, you’ll come back,” said my best friend.

“I am hoping,” I said.

“Yeah you will!”

“Time will tell,” said she. I don’t know when I come back over there. I’ll be always trying to do so. But when? I don’t know. Just time will tell.