Nic's NSE Experience

My name is Nicolas Whisnant from Columbia, SC. I am a junior exercise science major at the University of South Carolina who is going on exchange to Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado for the Spring 2021 semester. This was made possible through National Student Exchange (NSE), a program where students from around the United States are able to study at different schools in the program in the US. I am super excited about this opportunity and look forward to everything I will learn from this experience. 

 My exchange from Columbia, SC to Grand Junction, CO was almost 2,000 miles away so it was easily the furthest I have ever been from home. And so I could have my car while on exchange my dad, brother and I decided to drive which was 26 hours! We left on a Friday afternoon and drove through the night until we got to Kansas City, MO where we explored the city for most of Saturday. We were able to ride their train system and try some of their famous barbeque. It was a really awesome place that is one of my favorite cities that I have been to. After that we stayed the night in Topeka, Kansas and the next morning we were back on the road until we arrived in Grand Junction. The ride through Kansas and the first couple hours through Colorado were extremely flat and then the mountains appeared and were ginormous, way bigger than any of them out east. My dad and brother flew back to SC the day after I arrived in Grand Junction and I went to stay with a couple that I know from Church that live h