Lena Beutner, a Taiwanese student, and others from Cultural Connections spent six weeks learning origami, the art of folding paper. On Nov. 18, the students who folded ornaments decorated a Christmas tree with them.
International students face many holidays and breaks that are either new or unfamiliar to them. While some of them are looking forward to enjoying the holidays, others are reminded of the problems it causes because they are so far away from home.
Isabelle Rochere, a freshman general business major from Bressuire, France, said she loves winter and summer breaks because they are longer than a month. During these longer breaks, she can go home and be with her family.
“I can’t wait for this semester to be over so I can go home, but it’s not always like that. We have a lot of short holidays and breaks when the University closes the cafeteria, so we don’t have anything to eat,” Rochere said.
She also said during these breaks she needs to buy food on her own, and since she doesn’t have a car, she has to spend even more money.
“Every time I need to go to Walmart or the shopping mall, I need to take a taxi, which is not cheap. Many of my friends don’t have a car either, and I think that the University should organize some kind of transportation for us, at least once per week,” Rochere said.
Shraddha Poudel, a junior nursing major from Chitwan, Nepal, said she has to stay in Monroe since she’s taking winter classes, and she’ll certainly miss the New Year’s Eve she used to celebrate with her friends and family in Nepal.
“I wish I can be with my family, but the airplane ticket to Nepal is very expensive, so it’s maybe better for me to stay here and take the winter classes.”
Andrea McConnell, a graduate assistant at the International Office, said their office tries to help these students whenever they can, but during the breaks and holidays, students are on their own. She also said students are always able to decide whether they are going to stay on campus or not during the holidays.
“We have to treat both the international and domestic students the same, and for this reason, we are not able to give any discount to anybody,” McConnell said. “In case they decide to stay, there are always organizations like BCM, CCM or Wesley that always have some free food from time to time.”