Pieter-Bas Bentinck, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Post #1: Campus and Atlanta
Dear reader,
Since August 11th 2015, I have been calling Atlanta, in the state Georgia in the USA, my home. For the Fall semester, which lasts from mid-August until mid-December, I will be doing my minor at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). In 2013 I started my bachelor of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology and after a long process of applications I got accepted here through Global E3.
Atlanta is a huge city in the south of the United States and the Campus of Georgia Tech is right in the center of it. The downtown area, where the business center and some of the major sports arenas are located, is only a mile away and midtown, where they some nice bars and restaurants, is even closer. Nevertheless, walking isn’t very common, except for when you walk to classes on campus (although even there they have a bus network that runs quite regularly).
Other than that cars are the big thing here, partly because gas is really cheap. But even if you do not have a car, Ubers are sometimes even cheaper than public transport when you want to go around town.
However, even though cars are relatively cheap, it is not really necessary to leave campus a lot. This is because there is so much to do here. For example, when you study at Georgia Tech, you are automatically allowed access to the sports center, where you can do pretty much every type of sports you want. You can join the club teams or you can form a team yourself and join the intramural competition. This is a competition within the university that takes about half a semester, during which you play a game per week. You can choose between 4 sports and once it is done, a new phase with four different sports will start. For the first phase, we signed up for ultimate frisbee with a group of friends.
Another big thing at Georgia Tech is, just like many other US colleges, college football. Georgia Tech has a really good team and there is a lot of things going on whenever they have a game. During home games, which are about every other week, it is quite common to go ‘tailgating’ before the game. Tailgating officially means having a little party around the back of your car. People will bring beers and barbecues (and in extreme cases even complete tents with TV-screens etc.) before they take off to the game. Because you live so close to the stadium at Tech, bringing a car doesn’t make sense, but the rest comes down to the same. Once you get to the game eventually it is the typical American experience with cheerleaders, mascots and marching bands so even if you aren’t really into sports, it is a great experience.
That’s it for now. There is still a lot I haven’t told yet, but that will come in the next posts!
Cheers,
Pieter-Bas
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