Rachel TepperThis semester, I’m in Prague, participating in a Jewish Studies program through Charles University. I knew going away that I would miss my brothers, friends and random acquaintances from Wash U. I also knew that I would miss campus and the comforts of going to a university that caters so much to its students. But I didn’t expect missing (read carefully, it might be the only time you ever see these words in print) how laid back and down to earth the people are at Wash U.
For whatever reason, I am currently rooming with some of the whiniest, most spoiled kids I have ever met in my entire life. Their main activity consists of complaining about how small our apartment here is. Personally, I couldn’t care less about the size of our apartment. I’m in a city for four months with the highest per capita beer consumption in the world, a liberal attitude towards casual sex and recreational drugs, and I don’t have the stifling concern of my GPA, since grades during study abroad programs at Wash U don’t count towards one’s grade point average (These were listed not to suggest the sort of lifestyle I’m living here, but rather to shed light on how simple it would seem to not worry about mundane details).
Furthermore, Prague is a gorgeous city, with so much to explore, and no end of interesting places to discover. However, my three roommates choose instead to spend their time towards efforts of trying to find a new apartment, a living space they will be spending all of the next four months in.
Now, I don’t mean to sound self-righteous, and I recognize that I am certainly no better than many, but I am finding it easier and easier to understand why people in other countries are sometimes disdainful of Americans. We come here on programs created for us, get instantly set up in an easy and convenient living situation, and then get upset because our apartment isn’t exactly what was promised to us. Seriously, grow up. Stop whining about how other apartments are bigger than ours and how we got screwed over, because there are probably families here who would be happy to have this apartment for a permanent place to live. How spoiled and selfish do you have to be to make your daddy call the Washington office for the program just because you don’t like your apartment in an admittedly poor city?
The purpose of studying abroad, at least as I understand it, is to explore new cultures and see new things, to get a perspective outside of your own, broaden your horizons and open your mind. Doesn’t that seem a bit at odds with spending your first week in a foreign country trying to find a bigger apartment than the one you were set up with by the program? Keep in mind that this is coming from me, Matt Shapiro. I make no pretensions at, well, not being pretentious, and I know that, coming from Highland Park, Ill., and going to Wash U, that I am not exactly totally free and clear of Arrogant American Syndrome.
I whine plenty (for example, this column), and I have a pretty short fuse, especially when I feel that something is not fair. But the way these three stooges have been acting just seems so out of hand to me. Not only are they obsessed with their pursuits, it’s all they talk about. When we wake up, they talk about how we should have more room to get dressed. Around dinner, they’ll complain about how we should have a full kitchen. Honestly, the only reason I’m writing a column about this is because I can’t think about anything else around here without being bombarded by some new complaint about our “unacceptable” living situation.
I in no way anticipated the enormous sense of entitlement that each of my roommates would possess. Their primary concern at all times is their own personal comfort, but they think nothing of leaving banana peels or dirty dishes on the living room table. Rather than walk around this beautiful city, they would rather whine about our apartment or desperately look for American girls on other programs. With this sort of me-first, screw-everyone-else attitude, the contempt with which so many around the world hold Americans is not at all surprising. We’re seen as the egomaniac among nations, and our college students, unfortunately, seem to be doing an excellent job of perpetuating that uncomfortable and unnerving stereotype.