They didn’t believe it at first. They didn’t believe
the idea of thousands of students running in their underwear around
a university campus at night.
But they joined in anyway.
Irish students Danielle Moran, 20, and Aisling McHugh, 21, threw
off their clothes along with UCLA students and started running into
the heart of campus in the traditional Undie Run. Moments later,
they were packed into Shapiro Fountain screaming
“U-C-L-A,” and chanting against a university they had
never heard of called USC.
As some UCLA students leave for the summer to go home or travel
across the country or abroad, other students from outside of the
Los Angeles area have made the campus and Westwood their summer
home.
“Everyone from Ireland comes to California. It has the
beach, the culture, and the attitude that’s not in
Ireland,” McHugh said in a light Irish accent.
Other students from abroad have come to study or live in
Westwood, curious about the California culture and the UCLA
atmosphere as well.
Matthias Kraetschmer, 21, a student from Vienna, Austria, found
an advertisement for the University of California summer session
classes as he was flipping through his university’s
newspaper.
As he did more research on the programs, he decided UCLA would
be the place where he would tackle America.
“I wanted to enjoy the atmosphere of the U.S. on a
university campus and see how education is over here,” he
said as he made himself comfortable on his bed in his Rieber Hall
dormitory room, where he is staying for the summer.
Though he has not yet begun his classes at the Anderson School
of Business, which will begin in a couple of weeks, he smiles in
excitement, expressing his eagerness to start learning in an
American university environment.
“I wanted to see if my level of English is proficient
enough to follow the university lectures and write essays and do
other types of work,” Kraetschmer said.
UCLA not only attracts the international, but other Americans
and Californians as well.
High school student John Geer, 17, said he came to UCLA so he
could get a head start on his college career and get some credits
out of the way.
Before he came to the campus, he said he had his sights set on
UC San Diego. After coming to UCLA as a summer student, he said he
would like to return in a year as a full-time student.
“The campus is beautiful and it’s easy to get around
Los Angeles without a car. It’s been a lot of fun coming here
and I don’t want the session to end,” Geer said.
No matter what their backgrounds may be, students seem to be not
only attracted to the academic atmosphere but also the cultural
factors of the Los Angeles and California lifestyles.
Venturing from Hollywood to Venice Beach in his first five days,
Kraetschmer said he made sure to take advantage of the California
culture. And though it has been a culture shock for him, it has
been a useful learning experience as well.
“I’ve tried to further interact with others to
enlarge my horizons with this exchange of culture,”
Kraetschmer said.
He added that he noticed every other student he has met living
in Rieber has been international.
Though McHugh and Moran said most Irish college students choose
to spend their summers in cities such as San Diego and San
Francisco, the two friends said they wanted to get away from what
would have been a similar Irish community transplanted to a
different country.
They were uncertain where they would be living once they came to
Los Angeles, but Moran said they knew one thing for sure: They
wanted to come to UCLA.
And as they clinked their mini Coronas together in their
summer-boarder room in the Sigma Pi fraternity, they said they
simply came to Westwood to party.
“It’s a different way of life. Everything is
different. Everything is cool. It makes you never to want to go
back home,” McHugh said.
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