When Ben Parr landed in LAX after a one-way flight from Tasmania
in mid-December, he had nothing but a backpack full of a few
essentials and the phone number to one contact in the United States
““ the Big Blue Bus.
Parr is the first international student from the island state,
southeast of mainland Australia, to attend UCLA. But the road to
getting here was much longer than the bus trip from the airport to
campus.
Due to limited resources at the University of Tasmania, a
university of just over 12,000 students and the only university on
the island, Parr had little help coordinating a study abroad plan.
It took him over six months and several trips to the mainland to
have his paperwork processed.
In addition to the stacks of paperwork, which Parr said amounted
to more than he had received in all his classes, Parr underwent
strict security screening before obtaining a visa into the United
States.
After being issued the wrong visa from the Melbourne consulate,
Parr was detained in U.S. Customs for three hours and interrogated
by Homeland Security officials.
They had to re-fingerprint him, take another mug shot and
“ring Washington” before officials got his name
cleared, Parr said, marvelling at the movie-like good cop/bad cop
routine he experienced.
To avoid confusion, the Department of Homeland Security’s
assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
advised international students in a press release to carry several
forms of identification, evidence of financial resources, evidence
of visitor status and university contacts, among other things, to
“help ensure that legitimate students don’t experience
unnecessary delays when they enter the country.”
But, only having pieced together bits of information from
various sources about traveling to the United States, Parr
wasn’t completely prepared for the grueling questioning he
received when he arrived.
Nevertheless, Parr says the strict screening process, some of
which was instituted after Sept. 11, 2001, was worth it, now that
he has arrived at his dream school.
In fact, Parr, a 23-year-old second-year political science
student, has been dreaming about UCLA since he was 12, watching the
UCLA basketball team as he was growing up on a farm in Tasmania
““ which he refers to as “Tassie.”
“I’ve always wanted to come to (UCLA); it’s a
legendary school back home,” Parr said.
And his high expectations of the city or the campus
haven’t led to disappointment yet, he said.
Unlike counselors at the Tasmanian university, Parr says
officials in the Education Abroad Program office at UCLA have been
helpful. He visits the office almost daily, obtains advice, and
uses office resources, like a telephone, that he otherwise has no
access to. His only personal means of communication is his e-mail,
which he checks periodically in Powell’s computer lab.
He is fascinated by the immensity of the university and drips
enthusiasm as he speaks of the endless opportunities he believes
are possible at UCLA.
Though he has a long journey ahead of him to achieve his career
goals in political science and media, for now, he is only worried
about obtaining the bare essentials needed to survive.
His “road map” from the Tasmanian capital of Hobart
to the halls of UCLA comes in the form of a stack of hundreds of
loose papers stuffed messily in a large shoulder bag. He said for
months he had been collecting these pieces of paper, which include
everything from hand-drawn maps from strangers offering directions
to his recently printed MyUCLA class schedule for winter 2005. He
has been “warming up” for his trek to the United States
all his life, he says, describing his travels to Sidney and his
trip around Europe.
Though he received a $3,000 scholarship to study abroad, Parr
has a tight budget and little money to spare.
His first item of purchase was unexpected. He bought a large
blue and gold UCLA umbrella to brave the unrelenting downpour of
recent days.
Pointing to a light black sweater, he says he was expecting
“sunny California” to be just that, and only brought
his sweater for warmth. Other than that, he has a few pairs of
jeans (torn in several places) and mostly shorts and t-shirts,
which he might have to put aside until the spring.
Also on his shopping list are sheets and pillows for his
two-person unit in the cooperative housing complex on Landfair
Avenue, which houses mostly international students. Right now, he
sleeps in a sleeping bag placed on the bottom bunk of his room.
Though it is rare for a student from Tasmania to come to UCLA,
it is not rare for students from the largely wilderness state to
look overseas for better job opportunities.
Amelia Fowles, a 21-year-old science student from the University
of Tasmania, attests to this fact.
She has interrupted a backpacking trip in Central America to
visit Parr.
Unless students are going into the marine research, it is
difficult to obtain a well-paying job in the island, Fowles said.
And even that is difficult when students have to compete with the
rest of Australia, Fowles adds.
She hopes to study in Chile.
The two didn’t waste any time in exploring the country as
soon as they arrived.
They rented a car and took a road trip to Arizona and Nevada and
all throughout California ““ from Mammoth to San Diego.
Though they say they miss the support system they would have at
home, both are the adventurous type.
Parr recalls “the few close calls” he had in the
rented car, driving on the wrong side of the road.
One of his best experiences at UCLA was going in person to watch
the basketball team he had watched on TV for years. He and his new
roommate watched as UCLA erased a large deficit to beat the
Washington Huskies in a packed Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.
“It was unbelievable,” he said.