University of Iowa

If you like travelling, plan on buying a car. You'll need some 10,000 US dollars for a new one, but you can still find good used cars for half of that. Travelling expenses drop a lot when you can use your own vehicle, since gas is still very inexpensive here. If you like Nature, the National Parks here (across the US) are fantastic! (buy a year-long pass, since the parks are spread all over!). Unfortunately, the state of Iowa is one of the flattest areas of the country, although beautiful areas are not too far away. At last, beware of the winter: the cold season is quite long (for me it was), and many people get Winter Depression, because of lack of sunlight and extended periods in-doors. If you like cold weather and snow (lots of it!), this is a great place!

my most favorite things in iowa city: my laptop (absolutely necessary) digital camera headset and microphone for telephoning via internet american credit card

I would try to travel as much as I could, I'd have liked to see more places but I didn't have time

live off campus and dont go to the bars too much

telephoning via internet reservation for flights or trips only via internet (e.g. expedia), good tip is to have an american credit card (much cheaper to book on the american homepages than on the german or austrian ones) e.g. expedia.com versus expedia.de

Be aware that public transportation is fairly limited outside of the downtown area, so if you need to go grocery shopping, for instance, and you don't have a car, you will need to plan ahead.