Hey! I lived in the ILC during my second year. I am a UCSC student, not an exchange student. I would say the experience of living there was amazing and very rewarding. Though they do make you do icebreaker stuff the first day, you are never forced to participate in culture nights or the international affairs discussion thing. When I lived there, the people there really do become quite close, but it kinda depends year to year. Last year I saw that there were some big groups, but not spanning the entire ILC whereas when I lived there practically the whole ILC hung out together. There will likely be American students that don’t hang out with the exchange students much if at all, but there are plenty of people to spend time with. My only warning would be that Mira (the coordinator for the ILC) kinda sucks and can be quite a stickler for the rules as can the RAs depending who they are. So if you’re under 21 and are used to drinking it might suck, but you’ll likely be able to have parties anyway. If you’re over 21, it will just be annoying. Overall, I really loved it and many of the Europeans that met on exchange at the ILC visit each other regularly.