Connecting the Pack

Abdullah Najjar 0:00
You are listening to WKNC. This is your host, Abdullah Najjar. And in today's episode of Connecting the Pack, I am joined by Bastian Hauser. Bastian is a student from Germany, who recently came to the United States, to start studying at NC State University. And today, we will try to explore some of

some of his experience in Germany. And to further understand what brought him here to the US and lessons that he learned throughout his journey so far. So, Bastian, welcome to the studio.

Bastian Hauser 0:38
Thanks, thanks for having me

Abdullah Najjar 0:42
Absolutely. So I'd like to start off with a question that I'm sure you get asked a lot when whenever you meet Americans here, or maybe even international students, and that is the reason behind showing up the United States and and NC State. So what fueled your interest to show up to the United States?

Bastian Hauser 1:06
Let me like start by explaining my program.

Abdullah Najjar 1:09
Absolutely.

Bastian Hauser 1:10
Because I'm studying Business and international management. And I'm part of a program where you spend two years in your home country, and then you spend two years in a foreign country. And I knew that I wanted to study abroad for as long as possible.

So when I applied for the program, I already had to take the decision where I wanted to go to. And to be honest, at that time, I didn't think that didn't have a huge pro and con list. It was more of an intuitive decision. Like, I mean, like US sounds cool. I know that it's like a country that is very important in world politics, and heard a lot of cliches about Americans just heard a lot of stories and wanted to find out myself wanted to explore it. And I also thought that it's like a unique chance to study in the US because it's quite far away from home, can probably live in France, at another point, for example, or in another European country. So just wanted to get yeah

Abdullah Najjar 2:22
Yeah, that's, that's actually very interesting. And what's even more interesting is wanting to, to make sure that the cliches are actually true.

But no, this is something we will maybe we can talk about later, whether or not some of the things that you you know, preconceived notions actually match the reality of what you saw here. So that's something maybe we can talk about later. Because I'd be interested to know more about it. But so when say, let's say, when you when you first showed up here, it walk me through some of the expectations you had about the education system, and generally, the Community, College community, did you have any expectations? And if so, what did they match what you what you saw in real, real life here in the US?

Bastian Hauser 3:17
So if we're talking about education system,

Abdullah Najjar 3:20
yeah,

Bastian Hauser 3:21
I've been told that there's a lot of assignments and quizzes, and so a lot of work during the semester, which is very different from studying in Germany, because Germany,

like the most amount of like, you have one exam at the end of the semester. And that's basically your whole grade. So I've been told this, but I've still was surprised by how many things you need to do just during regular week. And also that exams aren't as important, as in Germany. So I mean, you can fail an exam and still, I mean, you could fail your final exam and still pass the class, for example, right. That I think, like one part of studying in the US, like one of the pictures you had in your heads, like huge frat parties, football games, drinking cops. Stuff like this. Turned out to be kind of accurate.

Abdullah Najjar 4:25
Wow. Interesting.

Bastian Hauser 4:28
So especially with college football. Yeah. I mean, it's unusual because my, like my home university that like 5000 students, I think studying there.

Abdullah Najjar 4:40
Oh, it's so it's a small university.

Bastian Hauser 4:42
Yeah, well, I'm from and I think how many people fit into Carter Finley stadium? 60,000. Something like this. Thanks.

Abdullah Najjar 4:50
So So essentially, your entire entire student body of your University in Germany would technically fit into one stadium here at NC State. Is that is that true

Bastian Hauser 5:03
10 times my student body? Hi, if I remember correctly, we were 5000 students in Germany. I mean, to be fair, it's Wildling. It's a very small university. That's not usual. But just having all these, like huge events, planes flying over your football stadium stuff like this.

Abdullah Najjar 5:26
Right.

Bastian Hauser 5:26
Just very new, but very, very fun.

Abdullah Najjar 5:30
So, okay, so that's actually interesting, because I, I would think that here in the United States, most students, when they go into college, they formed a sort of, they formed some level of connection to their, to their host institution, right, it's as if it's their home now. And they, you know, you can see it with the merchandise and you know, people putting on hoodies and shirts and things that have, that are exclusive to that university, you know, you see person walking around with an NC State hoodie, for example. I'm wondering if that level of intimacy that form is is with their, with their university is the same in Germany, you guys have this sort of, I guess, commodification of the university experience and this sort of connection to to the to your college, or it's just an educational institution.

Bastian Hauser 6:26
So generally speaking, not as much as in the US, you're not. Maybe also because there aren't cause like university sports aren't as big in Germany as around the US. I mean, you have merchandise from it exists that you have like merchandise from university, but maybe you have like, one shirt, one sweatshirt. Yeah. And you wear get to sleep because you got it free at the first day of study for something.

Abdullah Najjar 6:57
Wow.

Bastian Hauser 6:58
From the University that I'm from, so like, quoting University and our facuilty, kind of to college. It's called ESPN. That's the business school there. And they try to like, enforce the little more like that you have like some sort of school spirit. And that you feel connected to Yeah, your your college, or also your study program, which worked for us because we were about 100 students, or one semester study program. Yeah. So you felt, so I felt quite connected to my college and to my fellow students. But I think that's more unusual. So we also went to

Abdullah Najjar 7:46
this is gonna sound fun.

Bastian Hauser 7:49
Stuff like Sunday, there are also flex, there's one sports competition in a year for kind of business colleges or faculties or something. And I also participated in one of them. Okay. So, but that's not the rule. That's probably something that's quite unusual.

Abdullah Najjar 8:09
Interesting. Yeah. Cuz I've been thinking about that, you know, when I, when I first showed up here, and you know, in the US, I definitely felt like there's sorry, university spirit is pretty high, you know, still, at least maybe, you know, first first year students before they get super busy, but there is that certain, there's a level of intimacy that they form towards their institution that I don't think is something that that is, you know, self evident in Libya, where I come from. With with, you know, with college students back home, or even in school, so I wonder if, if, if that is something that maybe only exists in the Western world? Maybe if it's just exclusive to the United States, you know, what I mean? But, yeah no, I feel like Germany, like I said, I mean, it seems like your experiences rather the exception than the rule.

Bastian Hauser 9:11
Yeah.

Abdullah Najjar 9:12
Interesting.

Bastian Hauser 9:12
And still, like, Where was from was far not as extreme kinda not extreme, but not as much as NC State.

Abdullah Najjar 9:22
Wow. Okay, so tell me about tell us about something that you find that maybe you appreciate about the college experience here in the US that you think is worth shipping back home, to your home institution, if you actually thought about this thoroughly that is.

Bastian Hauser 9:46
So the first thing that comes to my mind is that you have some general education courses here. This was actually one of the reasons I decided to come to the US Because I think it's a cool idea that you also have to learn about little bit about sciences little about that about humanities or just things that aren't from your major. First, because I think it's interesting, and it's cool to like, learn about things from different areas. And also because I think that you can, that it will that you will benefit from just having a more broader idea. About world and not only knowing things from your specific field of study.

Abdullah Najjar 10:38
That's yeah, I think it's, that's, that's, I think it's worth maybe applying to other universities abroad, that, that do not that don't do that. Right. So what about? What about the sort of, what about sports? In general, you guys, you guys focus a lot on sports in college? Or is that something that is very much US exclusive?

Bastian Hauser 11:12
So what I noticed that I think that you have spots linked to your university, or linked to your high school, that's, like, kind of US exclusive. Yeah. Because at least in Germany, you tend to have more like a club or something. But which is open to everyone. So it does, though you have people from different schools, going to your club, but also, like later in life when some people are already working, for example, soccer club become its just club itself, it doesn't have to do anything with any high school or college or something. So I think it's separated, separated. Yeah. There are like you can participate in sports, through your university, for example, but it's often in cooperation with set clubs that you can just part of participate for free, or something.

Abdullah Najjar 12:18
Yeah, interesting. So, okay, let me see if we can maybe explore more about your involvement on campus. So what what would you say is some would you say is an entity here on campus, they you are very much involved in

Bastian Hauser 12:40
I would say the student newspaper. So I'm writing for technician. I'm pretty involved in that. I'm also part of the sailing club. Oh, okay. But like in the last few weeks have done more for technician. Oh,

Abdullah Najjar 12:57
wow. Okay, well, maybe we can start with the sailing club and then move into technician. So the sailing club, how did that start? How did you get involved with the sailing club here?

Bastian Hauser 13:10
I've been at REC fest, so well, all the different clubs. Just talk about what they're doing. And there was a sailboat. Talk to them thought oh, yeah, that's cool. Let's have a look at it. That's how I ended up in sailing club. I love it

Abdullah Najjar 13:27
Oh, and that reminds me to time, I joined the Irish dance club. I live there. Like, I saw a stand and then a couple of students talking about their Irish dance club. I was like, Yeah, that's cool. It's very spontaneous.

So So technically, you didn't have experience in sailing. Wow. So did you Where did you guys where'd you guys go? Recently here. I'm sure you've had like some sort of experience that is memorable with them. Right?

Bastian Hauser 13:58
Yeah. So you usually go sailing on Lake Crabtree, which is 15 minutes away from campus. But during fall break, was fall break. We've been on a trip with the sailing club. We went to Beauford so at East Coast Outer banks. Oh, you know, Cap lookout.

Abdullah Najjar 14:19
I don't I don't think so. No,

Bastian Hauser 14:22
Just part of the banks. Okay. We sailed by to the Outer Banks can't it was a lot of fun. Oh, man.

Abdullah Najjar 14:31
How long did you guys stay there?

Bastian Hauser 14:34
Um, two nights.

Abdullah Najjar 14:36
That's man. I'm sure it was a wonderful experience. Yeah, I think generally speaking, I think there are a lot of places here in North Carolina that people recommend that I should go visit and as I should go camping in these places, so I think I'm sure you guys had a wonderful time

Bastian Hauser 14:56
to to go camping yet in North Carolina.

Abdullah Najjar 14:57
Not really? I should Right. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So let's, let's maybe talk about technician. So technician is, you know, student led newspaper here on campus. And you said you got involved in that. So how did you get involved in, in media and Student Media?

Bastian Hauser 15:19
So, I've wrote, I've written for some for two newspapers before coming to the US. And so I knew that I wanted to do it here. And I'm just sort of looked at the website. Before I sent them an email. Okay, I want to join you guys, can I come over, yeah come over. So, yeah, just the tenant one, I wanted to go to the new section, or just turn to the new section meeting. And yeah, that involved?

Abdullah Najjar 15:50
So walk me through maybe we can you can walk me through the nature of the work that you do. So do you what what particular? Say aspect of technician that you are? What particular position do you have with technician? Do you? Are you photographer? Do you write stories? And the or do you combine them? Both are all Can you tell me about that?

Bastian Hauser 16:18
So as of now, I'm a correspondent, which means I'm writing so I want to, like write for technician in the future. I'm not a photographer, I don't know a lot about about it. And we meet once per week, talk about things that we think that could be interesting. And if someone wants to write about a specific topic, they can just take it read an article.

Abdullah Najjar 16:47
Interesting. So what what topics have you written about and what what experiences did you have so far with technician?

Bastian Hauser 16:57
wide range of topics? So I don't like have a specific assumption.

Abdullah Najjar 17:02
Okay, tell me about the ones that you think are most interesting.

Bastian Hauser 17:06
So I've wrote about future interest was actually for culture for the Culture section. What theatre in Raleigh, I wrote an article about like, courseware, courseware such as Cengage, or Pearson just where you have to pay for it, for example, to take your exams or to submit your quizzes, things like this. Yeah. I wrote something about NC State's first that an ex student body president, what else? We had a talk about a professor was talking about implication that AI has for teaching and research.

Abdullah Najjar 17:48
Okay, let me pick up on one thing from from those this from the different things that you write about theater. So you said something about culture and theater? Tell, maybe you can share with me and the audience. What the content was, because I think that's something that is interesting to explore anything.

Bastian Hauser 18:11
So it was a play in Raleigh Little Theater, which is eight minutes away from Hill Library on campus, right? Hillsboro? No Hill Library? Oh, Hill Library?

Abdullah Najjar 18:22
Yes. So one on campus is the one on campus. Campus.

Bastian Hauser 18:26
Okay, so it's like maybe six minutes away by foot from the library. Oh, and it was a play about. You know, Stephen King's book misery.

Abdullah Najjar 18:36
Oh, yes. I know about Stephen King, but not necessarily the book.

Bastian Hauser 18:40
He wrote a book called misery. And it was the future adaption of a movie that was based on the book.

Abdullah Najjar 18:49
Oh, wow. So interesting. Daisy Chain.

Bastian Hauser 18:54
Very well done. I think I'm allowed to say it now. Because I got to stay neutral in the newspaper. I think it was a very good play. But they had like the stage in the middle of the audience. Oh, the audience was on the left on the right side of the room. And the stage was like in the middle of the room.

Abdullah Najjar 19:17
Wow. It's like you're watching like a catwalk. You know, with modeling.

Bastian Hauser 19:21
Yeah. Yeah.

Abdullah Najjar 19:22
Is that essentially Wow, isn't that weird, though? I mean, that's not something we're used to. Right when we're seeing like a theatrical performance.

Bastian Hauser 19:31
No. Really close to what happened. But often it's, that's a good thing. Wow. So

Abdullah Najjar 19:38
you were in the front row?

Bastian Hauser 19:39
No, but like the audience in general is much closer to everything that happens.

Abdullah Najjar 19:46
Wow. So technically, you guys were on either side and the stage was in between the audience. It separates you to right side and left side. And okay, so that that is fascinating. Well, well, what was what was it? What were they performing about? What was it? What was the theme? I mean, you said misery is that has to do something with like sadness. It doesn't have to do anything with that, or

Bastian Hauser 20:12
So the story was about the writer who had a car accident, from when the US was cold was snowing, and had a car accident, and the nurse found him took him home because like, the roads were blocked due to the snow and she couldn't reach the hospital and stuff. And then she took him home, helped him to recover. And at some point of the player, things get kinda artifact.

Abdullah Najjar 20:40
Ah, okay, okay. Wow, okay. I've never, I'll have to look it up. But that that is. So how long did it last? How long?

Bastian Hauser 20:50
Not quite sure. Maybe one and a half, maybe two? Something around that?

Abdullah Najjar 20:55
And is that your first ever theater performance that you witness live? Or

Bastian Hauser 21:01
In the US? Okay.

Abdullah Najjar 21:04
Well, that's fascinating. And okay, so how does it? Did you? Did you when you said you pitch an idea to the editor, what you want to do? Did you have to look this up this the theatrical performance prior? Where, what how do you? How do you know say what's going on? And then see your do you do research? Do you ask around? What is your approach?

Bastian Hauser 21:32
So this particular piece or this particular article I wrote with a friend, and I don't know if she had the idea of she just picked it up from somewhere. But in this case, I didn't come up with an idea. I just thought, oh, yeah, that's cool. also run a blog about it. But for example, for example, the article about first Latin X student body president, I saw a very small photo, I think, somewhere in the library. Where was like three sentences about her? Thought oh, yeah. Okay, that sounds interesting. I want to dig deeper into that. And that's what I did and then I pitched the article under work. Yeah. Sounds interesting. can write about it.

Abdullah Najjar 22:19
Wow. That's, that's really fascinating. It's, it's, it's actually be involved and well actively involved in what's going on on campus and writing about it or even off campus, right. So you said that you became a staff writer? Is that? Is that an accurate assessment of?

Bastian Hauser 22:43
Not yet.

Abdullah Najjar 22:44
What? What would it take to become a staff writer,

Bastian Hauser 22:49
you have to write a certain amount of articles have a certain amount of editing sessions. short quiz, talk with your editor in chief. Oh. There are talks about trainings, you have to do some trainings.

Wow. So is there a current project that you are working on right now that some some piece, maybe you can't share the details. Oh you can't wow.

But I just finished an article about Surplus Sale.

Abdullah Najjar 23:19
Surplus sale.

Bastian Hauser 23:24
Like where the university itself all the stuff that the different departments don't need anymore? For you to be published in a few days. So

Abdullah Najjar 23:33
Okay, I look forward to reading that. I sure do. So what what have you generally speaking, I mean, outside of say, you're involvement in student media. What have you learned so far from being in the US for maybe three months now? Right, almost three months. Okay. Yeah, like key lessons, things they may have. I don't know what reshaped your perspective or something they was worth sharing here with the audience.

Bastian Hauser 24:13
There mean things I learned about US?

Abdullah Najjar 24:16
Yes, things that may have like, like a key lesson, you know, something? Maybe Yeah, something you learn about the US or lessons learned from being abroad, you know, being abroad for like three months. Lessons learned when it comes to maybe being away from family and friends, and things of that nature.

Bastian Hauser 24:40
I think one of the thing is that you realize which behaviors of yours are just culturally shaped. So think about a good example. So are you I'm not, I'm not always punctual so I can choose the typical gym

Abdullah Najjar 25:06
I think it's an interesting moment of silence, you can you can think it through, maybe I can, I can share, I can share something from my, my perspective here, maybe it resonates with you. So I've been, I've been abroad for a while. I've been I've lived in Lebanon for a while with family and friends and I've lived in, in the US for a short while, five months, and then I came back, my time in the US that lasted for five months was was three years ago. Now I came back. So a lesson, I think, a lesson that I learned was, or one of the lessons is that the cultural shock, or the longing for the sort of life that you had back home, or the sort of intimacy that you formed, with your home country is definitely not going to go away. You will, it's not like, you will hold like 100% adapt to this newfound environment, you will feel a connection to your home country, every now and again. And you shouldn't resist that, you should, you should allow yourself to feel that that's the sort of emotion, right the, the tendency to, to want to experience sort of previous life, you should allow that sort of emotion to consume you. Because if you were to resist that, it would be would be unnatural, you know, like, be true to your emotions. Not do not allow yourself to resist the emotions that you feel about the life back home or sort of structure that you had, it's fine, it's fine to feel these emotions. But what's what's even more important is to understand these emotions and to understand it's a natural thing, you know, we will all go through that. But always remember that what you're doing here, we're what what brought you here, essentially, is the tendency to want to put yourself in discomfort to put yourself outside of your comfort zone and to experience something new. Because that's, that's, I think, where true growth lies. So even though you will feel a longing for your home country, and in sort of stretch to you had, it's also important to experience discomfort every now and again. It gave me because that's were true, true growth lies. So yeah, I think that's the lesson I learned. But I'm sure that that's something that resonates with you as well. Right?

Bastian Hauser 25:31
Yeah, for sure. And you also said something a bit about culture shock. Yeah. And yeah, yeah. So that's probably also a lesson I learned. I think that's it, that might not be the case for you. Because Germany is, I mean, Germany and USA, both Western countries. So when I first came here, it didn't have a huge culture shock. And I was like, okay, stoplights are looking funny. Everybody said, Everybody's driving a truck, but it was like a huge culture shock beginning. That's funny. But I would say maybe, like the culture shock comes the other way around. So like, the longer you here, the more you discover differences, as opposed to Okay, in the beginning, everything's new, then slowly, you get used to it and stuff like this. Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna stay here for another one and a half years. So we'll see if that actually turns out to be true. Completely wrong.

Abdullah Najjar 29:26
Yeah, you're gonna test that? Well, that's yeah, no, I think the longer you spend, the longer you stay in a different environment, the more you start to understand what the environment is all about, right, the more you start to understand the differences and nuances of this, this environment provides. No but but yeah, it's really interesting that you would you know, even though it is a Western country, I'm sure you know, there's a lot that you will discover throughout your day here. So since they're approaching a sort of end are episode here recording, I would like to wrap up by asking you this question. What is the what is the thing that you would recommend an international student do at NC State before they graduate or before they leave?

Bastian Hauser 30:31
I mean, I'm a bit biased. But I think that it's actually a good idea to join student media. Yeah. Because because you get to talk to so many people you wouldn't otherwise have talked. So yeah. I learned about all crazy sorts of clubs that exists. I got projects from the library, you just get in touch with many, many more things than you would usually do just for you, maybe your study program or one club or something. So, I mean, it's always a good idea to get involved. But I think, especially if you're reporting on things that happen on campus campus, of course, we learn far more about campus and you would just through in your daily life like that. Can you confirm that?

Abdullah Najjar 31:20
Yeah, no absolutely. I mean, being involved here got me. I got to know you from student media. And I got to know another international student here from Student Media. And I also learned many things about Sumeet it that I never thought I would learn about like the the story of one of our former journalists here, who unfortunately passed away in Libya country that I come from, you know, goes to Libya as a photo journalist, documenting the war and unfortunately, passed away. So there's definitely I totally agree. I mean, there's definitely a lot to that you will learn from being involved in student media. So that's, that's, I would also recommend international students to get involved. But yes, anything else you want to add Bastion at? Maybe a message to maybe like something about travel or recommendations?

Bastian Hauser 32:17
I mean, try it. I mean, it's basic, but try to go to the North Carolina Atlantic coast. Really beautiful.

Abdullah Najjar 32:24
Yeah, that's good. Well, Bastian, I want to thank you for your time and for this conversation. It was a pleasure having you here.

Bastian Hauser 32:30
It was a pleasure being here. Thanks.

Abdullah Najjar 32:32
Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai