Milk Investigation 1

By Jessica Eason

International students are forced to learn how to survive being homesick in a whole new world. Plattsburgh State has about 400 international students from over 50 different countries worldwide.

Many students find different ways to coup with missing home, along with trying to adapt to American culture.

Ibraham Mkondera, a freshman from Tanzania said when asked what he missed most about home “back you find people around all the time, here you never see anyone unless you’re on campus. It is so quiet it doesn’t even look like anyone lives here.”

Daniel Asaad, a freshman from Egypt agreed with Mkondera. “It’s different here. In Cairo where I am from there are 20 million people, there are always people all around, unlike Plattsburgh.”

Some students are used to the city life and Plattsburgh to them is the complete opposite. Plattsburgh is a small city with about 25,000 residences it puny compared to the great metropolitan areas that students are coming from.

Aki Shima, a senior from Japan experienced homesickness her first year at Plattsburgh. Shima said that the first three months away from home were the hardest for her.

Junior Aude Ferrachat, an international student from France expressed “I’ve always wanted to come to the States.”

Unlike many students Ferrachat said she’s never really been home sick, she has always wanted to come to America, and dreams are coming true. But, Ferrachat does miss home sometimes.

The culture shock adds too many of the students homesickness. Culture shock is a condition of disorientation affecting someone who is suddenly exposed to an unfamiliar culture or way of life or set of attitudes

Asaad experienced culture shock when it came to American food. Asaad said that the food in America is spicier, and not as sophisticated in. “In Egypt yes we have the fast food restaurants, but the local food is different it takes more time to prepare it.”

Mkondera spoke about how in America he does not have the same freedoms as he did back home. Mkondera explained how he carries his passport around with him everywhere, since he is scared of people mistaking him for someone else.

Ferrachat said that she didn’t really experience culture shock when coming to America. “We watch American television, and movies, so it wasn’t that big of a culture shock. There are so many American influences in Europe, I think its way harder for the Chinese and Japanese students.”

Shima said that it was so stressful being in a new country, where everything around her was different from home.
Ferrachat says she missed home on those days when she has a lot of work to do, or those days when she is tired of trying to adjust to American culture then she wants to go home.

Shima said when asked what she missed most about home, she responded with her family and the food. She also said that ever single aspect of American culture was different from Japanese traditions.

Mkondera says he experiences homesickness when, “sometimes when you just sit around and dream about home and wonder what you would be doing there that’s when I’m home sick.”

With new technology international students are finding it more convenient to stay in touch with family and friends from back home. Video chatting programs like Skype are easy to use and free of charge.

Shima said that she used Skype to stay in contact with her parents, and used it at least once a week. Mkondera uses Skype only to chat with his friends. He calls his parents when he wants to talk to them.When Asaad was asked home often he calls home, in a sarcastic tone he replied with, “they call me every day on Skype.”

When Ferrachat was asked how she stayed communicated with family she responded with, “It’s easy, most of my family is on ichat, we keep in touch that way.” Ichat is Apples program for video chatting.

The International students find many ways to get over being homesick. Shima stated that she got over being homesick because she had friends to help her out. She said that having friends from Japan who knew what she was going through made it easier on her too.

Ferrachat has visited Montréal to help out with missing her culture. She said it was nice being able to speak French, Ferrachat also said Montréal had a European feeling to it, making her feel at home.

When Asaad can’t stop missing being back home he uses partying to get his mind of it.

Mkondera uses another method to deal with missing home, “I start doing other stuff, if I just think of them too much I call them.”