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Question: Describe a friendship you have made with a local student (from your host country), or someone who is a resident. How has this relationship influenced your experience? How do you communicate, and are there are any language barriers? Have they spoken about any things that surprised them about America’s customs?
Written by: Leslie Dias
The great part about the University of Navarra is the attention that they give to international and exchange students. To administrators, it is really important to welcome foreign students into their community.
They achieved this by creating an International Committee which consists of a body of students who work closely with the incoming international students to help them with the adjustment to life at the university and to living in Spain in general.
Through this program, I have met many other local and international students that have been here for more than this past semester.
One student in particular who has been a really good friend to me comes from a northern city in Spain called Bilbao.
As a member of the International Committee, she goes above and beyond to include the international students on campus. She is always inviting us to different events the university is holding and encouraging us to attend the events that the International Committee runs, such as our day trip to San Sebastian.
A few weekends ago, a group of international students and I wanted to go to Bilbao to see the renowned Guggenheim Museum.
Being from Bilbao, my friend jumped at the opportunity to bring us to her home city. Instead of going out the night before, she went home to get tickets for us and met us at the bus station in the morning. She got us passes to the museum and guided us through the museum on our own personal tour.
After showing us the best exhibits, she took us around the city and we went shopping and stopped at a great local restaurant.
In order to make our bus at the end of the day, she helped us navigate through the metro system in order to make sure that we got back to the bus station in time to catch the last bus to Pamplona.
Her friendship has shown me the kind of hospitality that I would want to show the international students who come to Bentley. It can be an overwhelming experience sometimes to realize that you are in a foreign country with people you have only known for a month. Friendships with local students help international students tremendously with adjusting to the different lifestyle in a foreign country.
I hope that when I get back to Bentley I will be able to provide the same kind of hospitality to others that the entire International Committee at Navarra has shown to me.
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