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On the Way here:
And a sound advice:
if you've decided to come to Gainesville, please contact us( the officers
or all of us), we might be of help ( 'been there,done that' -finding a
place to live and things to furnish it, opening accounts for bank, phone,
utilities, buying textbooks- knowing some shortcuts won't hurt)
Note:
Don't buy any insurance
policy from Romania. It's useless. The University requires you to
have insurance from a specific (type of...) provider
Go to Dentist before
comming here. If you will have problems here, you are broked. The Dentist
is EXTREMELY expensive here. If you open your mouth, this costs 50$. Just
to see what's wrong! If you really have problems you might pay as much
as 600-800$. It might be cheaper (and faster) to fly back home and solve
the problem.
Also, I can't say
that the dentists here are very good profesionals. And, don't stay without
medical insurance. An appendix extraction here is 4000-6000$ (without
insurance), giving birth is about 6000$ too (without insurance)
And if you are not
lucky, you won't find very good doctors to take care of you. Also keep
in mind that, calling an ambulance here might cost you a lot if the insurance
don't cover it.
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Once you are in
here:
- Congratulate yourself
( 'I made it!')
- Check in with UF
International Center(UFIC) and with your department (graduate student
advisor, secretary in charge with student records,financial secretary)
- Start the paperwork
for a Social
Security Number ( SSN) or a Tax Identification Number (TIN) AS SOON
AS POSSIBLE
- On short you need/have
the SSN to the first if you are going to be paid from USA sources, UF
assistanship included, Fulbright fellowships excluded;
you need the TINone otherwise
- Inquire about/apply
for a loan from your department ( unless you have with you 2 000 $ or
more)
- The bad news is
that you can be paid 4-8 weeks from the moment you arrive in Gainesville
(4-6 weeks, if you already have a SSN)
- The good news is
that among your own pockets, your department load fund and our unofficial
loan fund, you will find enough money to pay all your beginning bills
and simply survive
- For more information(
on almost any imaginable subject, 'Where to buy real FETA cheese from?'
included) contact us romanian@grove.ufl.edu
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Rent and Utilities
In most of the cases
you will NOT be able to stay in campus at your first shot. The waiting
list is very long, As soon as you are here you might want to go to Office
of Housing to be recorded on the wait list. However you can ask us to
do that for you in advance.
Thus at the begining
you will have to stay off campus. The rent is Gainesville is not so huge
as in big cities like Ney York, Boston and so on. For an one bedroom appartment
(note: here, in US, when you talk about one bedroom appartment it means:
one living room, which off-campus is pretty large, one bedroom, one bathroom,
kitchen and maybe dinner-room and closets) the prices start as low as
300$ and go up and beyond the outer limits, in the twilight zone(1000$).
When choosing an apartment consider the following:
- How close to the
University is it?
- How old/clean/nice
is it?
- Who else lives
in that area (no comment here)
- Does it have A/C?
(Air Conditioner). The climate here in Florida is pretty rough in the
summer time (which by the way is pretty long, you can go to the pool
on Chrismas if you are lucky). Not because of the temperature, but because
of the hight humidity. So, not having A/C is not an option. Besides
that, you better choose an apartment with "Central A/C", meaning
one big unit for the entire appartment. Otherwise you might have rooms
where you are freezing, and rooms where it is really hot
- What does the rent
include? (picking up garbage, phone, electric, water, pest control,
internet connection (the lucky ones)
- Is there a pool
in the complex? (usually yes :) )
- Is there a gym
in the complex? (yes about 60%)
- Is there a study
room with computers in the complex? (sometimes it is)
For more informations
on appartments, check the Links collection
page
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Utilities:
Electric and Gas
- No options here.
The only provider is GRU
(Gainesville Regional Utilities). You will probably pay something between
50-120$ here.
GRU
| PO Box 147051 | Gainesville | FL | 32614 | 352.334.3400
Phone
- No options here
too. The only provider is BellSouth. Be very carefull when you choose
your pricing plan (what phone services you want). The phone services
are very different here from those in Romania and the rest of Europe.
Don't let a salesman from BellSouth fool you. Ask us first, or you will
pay a lot of money for things that you don't need. (usually you will
pay 25$ for the basic plan + your long distance and international calls,
which, depending on how often you call home could make a total of 35
-100$)
TV
- Generally speaking,
no options here three :) The only cable provider is COX
communications The pricing plan you choose should be something like
39 $ (this is a plan without HBO etc)
You have as an option satelite TV, but the problem is that you will
move out several times and what about that big satelite dish?! You might
do that after a while.
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Internet
If you are an occasional
surfer, keep in mind that the university will give you dial-up access
with a 80-90 hours per month, which is quite enough.
If you are addicted,
if you need a fast line like dsl or cable, check the
links page for more information
Mobile phone
Do you really need
it?! If yes or you are addicted, do the background search yourself because
I can't take any chances giving you any advice. It's hard to choose, it's
hard to say. Anyway, as a funny fact and as a difference between Europe
and USA, here you pay even for the calls that you receive. It might look
like robbery, but that's the way it is.
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Credit Cards
You will need them;
baddly. You won't find many people carrying cash here. At the beginning
you will be able only to get ATM and debit cards. That's because you have
no credit history yet. And you will have shortly somekind of credit history;
and keep in mind that, if you are late with your bills, you will have
bad credit. And this is bad :) Having bad credit means geting credit
cards with 200$ credit limit, which are useless if you want to buy a computer
from the internet, for example. Try to have a maximum number of 3 credit
cards, because there is a monthly fee that you are suppose to pay. And
if the minimum monthly amount that you have to pay is 30$ and you have
4 credit cards, this means another 120$ waisted. Also, check the offers
on credit cards, how long is the grace period, how big is the APR (purchase
rate), what is the cash limit, the late fee and so on. When you aplly
for Credit Cards, check the internet to get an idea. You can apply on-line.
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Driving Licence:
Its not a big deal.
20$ fee, a bunch of standard questions that never change (in the manual
you get both the answers and the questions), you will drive only in their
driving area (not on the town's streets) , 2-3 stop signs (you have to
really stop the car, not just reduce speed), parking (lateral and regular).
Note that, here, there is not such a thing as parking backwards. It might
sound funny, but so far I've only seen Romanians doing that. The parking
places are pretty large here, you can park a trailer in a regular parking
place.
You will also need
your driving license to prove that your are over 21, so you can get into
a pub, discoteque or buy a bottle of wine or some cigarettes. Otherwise
you will carry the passport all over (or get a Florida ID) which is not
recommended.
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Having a Car and
Driving in Gainesville
You will probably
want to have a car as soon as posible. Usually you won't be able to walk
all the way to the shopping place or whatever. Even if this is a small
town, the distances are quite some. So, you might be able to buy a car
after several months. You will have a hard time finding a car with non-automathic
gear box. So get use with it. Till you have money for a car, get a bike.
Driving here is a
pleasure. Drivers are very relaxed, streets are large and well marked.
You should keep in mind that pedestrians have always priority here, and
a stop sign means a STOP sign. You won't find many Yield signs also. The
speed limit varies very much, so be carefull about this. If you do something
wrong you will pay a lot of money (over 100$). And you can't "negociate"
with police officers here. If you don't do anything wrong or if you are
reasonable (no more than 5-10 miles over the speed limit) they might stop
you once in a few years :)
And don't park in
the wrong place. Their towing companies are full of zeal, and the fees
to get your car back is over 100$. And don't say "I'll be out of
the car for only 5 minutes". It takes about 15 seconds to tow away
a car.
Another piece of
advice:
Never drive without
insurance.It is not only that police might give you penalty of 200$, but,
if you have bad luck and scratch another car you pay a lot of money (here
people usually don't repair an old car, because it is cheaper to buy another
one; and this is due to the cost of repairs, not to the price for a car
:) )
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Forbidden Area
- The "DON't Section:
- Don't forget where
you came from.
- Don' forget that
you came here to study (as a matter of fact you won't have the chance
to forget that).
- Don't touch people
:) If you do so by mistake, say sorry, say excuse me, say something.
You were used to hug your friends when you were seeing each other? You
were used with kissing friends and on the cheek? Forget it! Americans
are somehow obsessed about sexual harassment and sexual meanings. Something
that mean nothing to you might be found offensive or be misinterpretated
by them.
- Don't put your
hand on somebody's shoulder just to ask him something. It doesn't matter
if the two of you are both males or females; you could be easely suspected
of not beeing straight.
- The personal intimate
space of Americans is, as the country itself, bigger than ours. When
you speak with somebody, don't stay at 30 cm distance off; make it 100-200
cm's; it's better. (Of course, this will not be the case with your lover
and/or wife :) )
- Don't use the words
that you heared in American movies (the @#*^ or bip class). They are
not so commonly used at the day time. Although it is not the same when
people go out in the evening. You will find out soon that the movies
are harshly censored here (like in our old communism times). When somebody
curses or uses interdicted words on TV you will hear a ......(this means
hear nothing). When there is a love or semi-erotic scene, even if it
is a decent one, in the best case you will see a blurred image. They
call that "Editting the movie to fit the screen". Funny, isn't
it?
- When you teach.
don't stay close to your students; don't say "Nice shirt you have",
even if you like that shirt. This might be a case of sexual harassment
too. I know it's silly. But that's the way it is.
- Usually, American
teachers make copies of their e-mails (paper copies) and keep them in
their files. Why? The same as above: sexual harassment issues. When
you reply by e-mail to a student that asks you to meet him in order
to explain something to him: Don't say "I'll be glad to meet you!",
choose a pulic place in the University if you don't have an office or,
if you have one, keep the door open at all times and keep the distance
(this doesn't meen not beeing friendly or beeing extremely cold)
- When you teach
and you don't know the answer to a question don't just say something
just to give the wrong information; say "I'll check and give you
the information next time".
- The education system
is very different here. Although getting a MS or a Ph.D degree here
is much more difficult to get than in Romania, the level of the undergradute
school (facultatea de la noi) is pretty low, especially when you deal
with freshmen. So, a lot of students might find it difficult to solve
a very simple problem like 3/4=x/6 what's the value for x? This happens
because of their highschool. Highschool here usually means fun, good
grades,fun, fun fun, fun fun fun. If you are amused or annoyed by these
things, don't make it public, don't make fun of them; they are really
sensitive and take it as a personal failure. If you are friendly with
your students you can have a very good time teaching. They are usually
very open and funny (with a sense of humor I mean). If you are harsh
and distant and they don't like you, they will give you bad callification
when they evaluate your work; and it will be ridiculous to have a "B"
for teaching. Also, you have to be professionaly prepared, but this
is logical anyway. If they really don't like you, they might as well
go to your advisor or to the teacher who you are teaching for, and tell
him that they don't understand your English, that's why they can't get
good grades. The funny thing is that sometimes this happen even in the
case of teachers from England, or other native English speakers. In
this case , they "don't undestand the accent."
- The rassism is
still an issue here; like a ghost. In what sense? Skin issues are used
as an excuse for personal failures. For some people is easier to believe
that they failed because they are green, or orange or whatever. Avoid
using words like "black"; you should say a very long word
like "afro-american". Don't say like in Karl May' s books
"red skin"; it is offensive. And the you might try to forget
about colors like black and white :) The orange is the official color
here anyway (a very uggly kind of orange, I don't really know how they
produced it)
- Don't use the word
"toillet:; it's vulgar; you should use "restroom" or
"lavatory"
- Don't say "I'm
sweating";it's vulgar too. Say "I am perspiring"
- Don't say "I'm
eating". Eating is a physical act, like sweating. You should use
"I am having dinner", or lunch or whatever.
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Having Fun
- If you are a very
dynamic person, you will get borred really soon; even if this university
is rated as one of the top universities considering the fun capabilities
of the town. Facts:
- Pubs, discoteques
and every place where alchool is served close at 2PM
- The indigen beer
is too light, all the beers are too light, the imported beer is expensive.
- If you are a smoker,
be prepared: both phychological and economical wars against you. If
you smoke outdoors, people feel that they have the right to know when
you plan to quit smoking. They also might ask you if you know that you
can get Cancer (I thought it was Gemini...), that you will die (don't
we all do that?!), that this is not healthy (really?). Don't get upset
or angry, just ignore it or have fun. Even if you will see the same
person in a pub in the middle of the night, smoking a lot and beeing
completely drunk, (the common way of having fun and beeing "cool"
in US is getting extremely drunk or even worst) don't get upset. On
the other hand, here it is a price comparison, random pick: Viceroy,
20 cigarettes, price in Romania 0.5$, price here 2.60$...3.2$. Did that
make you have an idea? I think yes.
- You won't find
too many theaters here, actors are not first class.
- The music in discotheques
is really bad. Hip hop, R&B, rapp, hip hop, hip hop. I don't know
why is that, but people seem to like it... The music from the radio
is better and the music from TV is slightly better. So dance alone,
dance in the car, dance on the streets, dance at our parties, or suffer
the consequences :)
- The sport facillities
are really great and better than that: FREE. If you are a student of
course. Great gyms, great soccer fields, great tennis courts, great
beach-volley courts and so on. And there are a lot of them also. So,
you can compensate the above minusses in a healthy way
- The city surroundings
offer a lot; parks, lakes, aligators, lot of green stuff, nice landscapes,
canoe, scuba-diving and so on. The Beautifull Orlando is at only 200
miles distance, Saint Augustine (the Ocean is there, and this is also
a great old spanish style town) about the same, the golf at half an
hour or so, ....
- A lot of good,
nice looking things here, including palm trees, orange trees; also zillions
of insects and lizards, and the most sacred animal in this town: The
Aligator. Advice: don't take aligator's name in vane :)
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Miscellaneous:
- Don't keep beer
cans or alcohol recipients opened in the car. It is against law.
- Don't drink alcohol
in front of your appartment or in a public place (street, park, beach..)
It is against the law also :)
- Don't be afraid
to ask. Americans are really nice and polite people
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