Even houses here have a far more temporary character than in Germany. You build them to live in for ten years, and if you dislike some feature or another of your house after a certain time, then it is often cheaper to destroy the house and build a new one. At least as a graduate student, one is taken more seriously than at a corresponding level in our German system. Equally, the relationship between professors and their students is more friendly and more collegial than in Germany. Here they attach great importance to the motivation of students and colleagues.
Reputation plays a big role here.
There are so many international students here. I really enjoy that. Sometimes I wonder why there are only so few foreign students at German universities. It's so valuable to get to know people from other countries and to experience their attitudes and their ways of life. I hope that these excerpts have to some extent shown my impressions about my life here in Champaign.