An American Experience

Food

🍔 🌭 🍕 🍪 🍗 🍬 

The U.S. is famous for food and it's a huge part of American life, culture and the student experience.

McDonalds 🍔 Subway 🥪 Dunkin' Donuts 🍩 Pizza Hut  🍕  Burger King 🍔 Wendy's 🍟 Five Guys 🍔 ShakeShack 🍔 In'n'Out Burger 🍔 Taco Bell 🌮

You'll find all the famous fast food places in every city across, so wherever you are studying you'll be able to pop in and grab your favourite meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Deep Dish pizza  🍕  is a huge favourite in Chicago.
Bagels 🥯 in New York are some of the best in the world.
You can find BBQ 🥩 and all kinds of meat in the South.
🍲 Ever tried Clam Chowder? No? The head to the Northeast (New England in particular) to grab a bowl!
If you have a sweet tooth then maybe you need to head all the way over to Florida to try some traditional homemade Key Lime Pie 🥧 - one of the most well known desserts in the entire world.

You shouldn't just live on fast food however, make sure you are eating it as a treat as part of a full balanced diet!

Sports

The American people love Sports. From the professional teams at the top level down to the College leagues and divisions, millions of people turn out every week come rain or shine to cheer on their favourite team. 

American Football 🏈 Baseball ⚾ Basketball 🏀 Ice Hockey 🏒 - The classic American sports that dominate weeknights and the weekends both on TV and in stadiums. 

If you are a fan of Soccer ⚽ (or Football), you're in luck too. The Soccer fanbase in the U.S. is growing fast. The skill level of teams in the U.S. has grown massively over the last 10 years and nowadays most of the big U.S. cities having a professional team in the top division. Chicago Fire FC are the home team in Chicago with their stadium holding 60,000 fans every week!

American Football 🏈  is the nations favourite sport. Many of the college stadiums have capacities of over 80,000 people and on match day the entire campus and student community gets caught up in the spirit. Whether its face paint, hats, jumpers or a homemade flag - you're sure to love it too!

Be a tourist!

Spread across the country are some of the most iconic landmarks and attractions on the planet. Every year hundreds of thousands of people come from all over the world to visit these places.

The Statue of Liberty 🗽 The Golden Gate Bridge 🌉 The Grand Canyon 🏜️ Yellowstone National Park ⛰️ Lake Michigan 🏞️ Niagara Falls 🌊 The Empire State Building 🏙️ The Chicago Cloud Gate (Bean) ☁️  - just to name a few!

You'll have seen most of the landmarks already as they're in hundreds of huge Hollywood movies - romantic scenes being filmed underneath them or scenes where they're completely destroyed by aliens.

Depending on where you choose to study you may be able to easily visit these places, if not then you can take a road trip to visit the dar away ones! 

Make a list and tick them off! How many will you see?!

American holidays and festivities

Thanksgiving 🦃 and Halloween 🎃 are holidays that are celebrated in America like no where else in the world.

On Thanksgiving you'll spend all weekend with your friends hanging out and eating way too much food. Your college food hall will be serving up Thanksgiving meals including huge servings of turkey 🦃, mashed potato 🥔, gravy, green beans 🥬, corn bread, sweet potato 🍠 and yams, all with lashings of cranberry sauce 🍇. Not forgetting the traditional and delicious pumpkin pie 🥧 for dessert!

On Halloween you can put maximum effort into your costume 👻, head to a party or watch some scary films 😱 with your friends! In the build up to the night and on the night itself there will be candy 🍬 everywhere you go. Go trick or treating and pick up bags of candy 🍭 from your neighbours!

These traditional festivities will make you feel like a true American!

Take a road trip 🚗

Roads trips are a huge part of the American Dream and Route 66 is one of the most famous roads 🛣️ in the entire world.

It's a trip that allows you to experience everything that the country has to offer and is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Even if you don't have the time or budget to go somewhere far away in the U.S., even if you only get over to the next city along, you'll be in a totally new place with new people, food, culture and landscapes.

If you don't drive, don't worry! You can still take part in a little bit of Route 66 by using buses 🚌 and trains 🚆 !

Even if you don't care about Route 66 and just want to travel around a little bit and experience different parts of the country you can still do it. You can travel via any means you want and head in any direction.

Nature

As the U.S. is such a huge country, the landscapes vary dramatically from the West to the East coast. 

You'll find some of the most beautiful places in the world right on your doorstep. From mountains ⛰️, vast plains 🌳, glaciers 🧊 and dense forest 🌲. All the different landscapes are filled with different animals, peoples and cultures. 

There are 424 National Park sites in the U.S. - spreading across 84 million acres. There are National Parks in every state so you'll never be far away from the beautiful outdoors. 

If you enjoy adventure, hiking 🥾 and camping ⛺ or just want to spend more time outdoors then America may be the perfect place for you. 

Shopping

Whatever city you study in, whether it's Boston or Chicago during your time with ONCAMPUS, or anywhere else in the U.S. after - you're shopping options will be almost limitless 🛍️🛍️🛍️

You'll be able to do your weekly shop in a huge supermarket with aisles as far as the eye can see and that sells everything you can think of 🛒🛒🛒. You'll be able to try foods and treats that you have always dreamed of. 

Huge Malls can be found in every town and city. Malls are a giant complex of shops, food courts and activities likes cinemas, bowling, laser tag and arcades. You and your friends will be able to spend an entire day exploring the mall, buying things that you need or just fancy.

The American home of high-end shopping is of course New York. Head to Times Square to see the famous advertising screens, to Macy's - one of the biggest department stores in the world and then to Fifth Avenue - possibly the best street for shopping in the entire world. 

Theme Parks

If you're a thrill seeker then America is the place for you. Just like food, America does amusement parks and theme parks bigger and better than anywhere else in the world 🎢🎢🎢

There are currently around 500 parks spread across the country which vary from huge attractions owned by companies such as Disney and Universal to smaller regional parks in smaller cities and towns. 

Some of the most visited parks are Walt Disney World, Six Flags, Disneyland Park, Magic Kingdom, Cedar Point, Universal Studios, Epcot and Knotts Berry Farm.

You might have to take a train, plane or bus to get to one of the big ones.