Since the international students come here primarily for the quality of education that the US provides, we try to acclimatize with the culture and the surroundings of Trinity in a manner that it might become difficult for a normal Tiger to spot us as a ‘different’ Tiger!
But never the less, there are always ways by which you can spot us bang on. There they are:
1. We know a hell lot about almost every Airline. And we can have a conversation about which is better and how the other one sucks for hours (literally. Eavesdrop on our conversations when we have just returned back from home and you would come to know how bad the food was or how good an airport was. You will get to know the essentials of travelling!)
2. We talk about sports like cricket, hockey (not ice hockey, but hockey played on grass) and have world cup tournaments that seem absurd to be heard of.
3. When you enter our rooms, there is a peculiar smell that smells because of all the food that comes from our homes or the one that we cook. A smell for each country.
4. You would spot us talking for hours a night. And no, we would not be talking to a certain special one, but our homes because that is the only time that we can surpass the time difference!
5. We are huge fans of skype and will force you to use it if we come to know that you don’t
6. We don’t know how to react when our friends say that they are sad because they are far away from home! (okay kidding, we know exactly how you feel. We can’t go home more than once a year, either)
7. You would us suddenly talking in a foreign language when we are too excited about anything
8. And finally you would spot us because of the ethnic cloths that we sometimes wear
But I think, if you are friends with any one of the international students, you know that they are international and miss home because they are constantly talking about it. So read through the news feed and get to know the current happenings in our countries!
The diversity on the campus is celebrated in such a fond manner that while we celebrate the individuality that resides in each one of us, we are a part of the Trinity community at the end and all of us are Tigers (whether striped or not)!!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Why did we become Trinity Tigers?!
As I talked in my last blog entry that most of us international students come to this amazing campus from places across the world. Currently there are about 71 countries represented on the campus with the international students making up almost 11% of the Trinity population. This enables Trinity to be one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the US today. The costs of attending such a fine institution even after receiving financial aid and scholarships is very high for an international student since the currency transfer rates are usually pretty skewed when compared with the US dollar. And apart from the financial situation, we- the international students leave our homes, families and friends and come to this foreign land to spend few of the most formative years of our lives. So then what is it that helps us make this choice of undertaking this journey to come to the US when the stakes seem to be so high?
It is the education system of US. Please see the video below to get a sense of the education system that exists in most other countries (here India is displayed since I am from India) at the undergraduate and graduate levels which pushes students to leave their own countries and come to the US. The curriculum and the colleges here foster critical thinking and questioning assumptions. Break-through researches and state-of-art infrastructure that makes you believe in the impossible is what the US gives us. The flexibility and the freedom to almost create our own majors and to do research at an undergraduate level in universities like Trinity make us believe in our potential. The discussions and the lectures by the professors, most of who are the best scholars of their own fields gives us the assurance that we aren’t being cheated in intellectual property. And above all, our enthusiasm and perseverance for the subject we are studying matters the most to the professors. The international students come here to experience this liberation, we come here to experience this enrichment of our knowledge and we come here to experience this growth of our abilities that we can create better lives for our countrymen upon our return.
In many ways, the international students towards the end of their careers at Trinity become not only Trinity Tigers, but International Trinity Tigers who are Trinity’s international face!!
It is the education system of US. Please see the video below to get a sense of the education system that exists in most other countries (here India is displayed since I am from India) at the undergraduate and graduate levels which pushes students to leave their own countries and come to the US. The curriculum and the colleges here foster critical thinking and questioning assumptions. Break-through researches and state-of-art infrastructure that makes you believe in the impossible is what the US gives us. The flexibility and the freedom to almost create our own majors and to do research at an undergraduate level in universities like Trinity make us believe in our potential. The discussions and the lectures by the professors, most of who are the best scholars of their own fields gives us the assurance that we aren’t being cheated in intellectual property. And above all, our enthusiasm and perseverance for the subject we are studying matters the most to the professors. The international students come here to experience this liberation, we come here to experience this enrichment of our knowledge and we come here to experience this growth of our abilities that we can create better lives for our countrymen upon our return.
In many ways, the international students towards the end of their careers at Trinity become not only Trinity Tigers, but International Trinity Tigers who are Trinity’s international face!!
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