Well, sevenstrokeroll, I can't see anything in your excellent rendition which differs radically between what I've been doing in UK and Europe for the last 20 years and what you chaps do in the US of A!
Just 20 years ago for the NFT (Nav Test) in Uk for the grant of a licence we always had to go to an "unfamiliar" a/f, and many of those had "air/ground" radio or none so one had to join overhead and fly the "pattern" in your terminology. And it helped if you had worked out before you arrived how you might join that so as not to mess with other traffic.
I suspect that a big problem nowadays it that most students fly to or from "controlled" environments so expect to be told what to do! From the Brit perspective, if that's what you've been used to it can be very difficult, even dangerous, when flying to France where by and large no-one talks to anyone and if they do it's in French!!!