I was an exchange student at UCSB for 1 year. The US government caused me a lot of visa issues because I didn't have $25,000 cash, which meant that I couldn't g

I was an exchange student at UCSB for 1 year. The US government caused me a lot of visa issues because I didn't have $25,000 cash, which meant that I couldn't get a job and had to pay $900 in fees for a visa application that was eventually denied. Due to family issues, I also wasn't getting support from my parents that year. AS CAB (the Associated Students Community Affairs Board) gave out free hot dogs on Tuesday nights to people who attended a lecture. The Engineering department had companies coming to give careers talks, where they gave out free pizza. There were free concerts by Storke Tower on Thursday lunchtime where free ice cream was provided. CAB also organised a breakfast for homeless people (including the legendary Pirate) in the park on Wednesday mornings. KGCC is a Korean Christian group that has food at every event. The ISA International Student Association has cookies on Friday afternoon every week, and ISI (International Students Inc, a Christian group) has a proper meal once a month. Two other people (one from Europe, one from Asia) were attending all these activities, so we soon became friends. One of them heard about free pizza being given away at the store at Buchanan when it's closing time. So we went down there, and sure enough, there was food. Every day! This went on for weeks. But one time, we came too late. All the pizza and daily sandwiches, each wrapped in plastic, were already put inside a black trash bag. That was my introduction to dumpster diving, which continued for the rest of that year. The weird thing was that because my rent was pre-paid, I wasn't homeless - just completely broke. Transport wasn't too much issue because hitchhiking up and down the coast was quite easy. I slept outside in LA during one of those travels, but after that, my dumpster diving friend told me about CouchSurfing. I now host the weekly CouchSurfing meetup, and have a guest staying today. So short-term accommodation was free too. Meeting people at the homeless breakfast made me realise how was to their situation, though. There's nothing like praying "Give us today our daily pizza" and "Thank you for this food", when God is really the only one taking care of you. America is a land of extremes. There are some incredibly wealthy people, but there's also poverty right next door. I think that situation breeds crime. My situation now is much more comfortable - I earn much less, but I feel totally safe not locking my bike when I go into a convenience store.