To give a little more insight on my international friends, I figured I’d just tell you about them-
Andrea: He’s this endearing, tall, lanky Italian with very Italian fashion. My favorite pieces of his are his red skinny pants and his purple sneakers. It makes me happy that he actually has the guts to wear something creative like that. When I went to the mineral baths last month, I went with three Americans, an Australian, a Finn, and Andrea. The girls came out of the dressing room in bikinis, the boys came out in swim shorts, and Andrea came out in his blue Speedo and swim goggles. Oh Italians. His English was pretty terrible when I first met him, but it has improved tenfold after hanging out with the native English speakers.
Paul: Paul is from France, and it’s pretty obvious as soon as he opens his mouth. Between his thick accent and soft-spoken voice, holding a conversation with him is, uhh, interesting. He’s great though, despite the fact that he mistook me for a French girl from Brazil. He is friends with Jaakko through their German class, and after I told him we were dating, he went to talk to Jaakko about it. “So how is your French girlfriend doing?” Hahaha, Jaakko and I now joke that he has a French girlfriend stashed away that he sees when I’m not around.
Valentin: The quiet Belgian who brought me Belgian beer! Yes! I met Valentin in my intensive German class, and he’s in my German class this semester as well. He is very soft-spoken with a thick accent like Paul and he’s an absolute sweetheart. He’s got crazy thick hair and he plays the guitar. I still haven’t heard him play yet, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that he is really amazing. I tease him about his long fingernails he uses to play J. Valentin’s English has also improved since I’ve met him, and his German is better than mine. He says it’s because he speaks French, but I think it’s because he’s an eager learner. He always carries his pocket English and pocket German dictionaries with him.
The Americans: Kate, Ben, Tessa, Mark, Mike, and Kayla. They have become my good friends as well. It’s always nice to be able to talk really fast and use slang sometimes. Kate, Ben, Mark, and Mike are all from Kansas. They’re here for the Architecture program, as are Andrea and Leigh. Tessa is from Montana, and Kayla is from North Carolina. These people are my home away from home, even if we aren’t from anywhere near each other. Kate lives in between 309,475,498 (not a real number) cornfields and Tessa goes to rodeos. It makes me laugh to think that I’ve never experienced so many things in my own country and I’m out exploring the rest of the world instead.
The Australians: I’m lumping them into one category because it just seems right. Alex, Anna, Jake, Leigh, and Cassie are four of them I’ve come to know as friends. Leigh is the craziest, most metrosexual man I have ever met. He’s so bubbly; I thought he was gay for probably a month before I found out. I hang out with Alex and Anna a lot; they’re chill, down-to-earth people. Jake is the aforementioned beer lover. He parties hard, but he’s always fun to hang out with. I randomly bump into Cassie from time to time because she lives in the same “building” that I live in (by “building” I really mean two buildings with an adjoining staircase). I enjoy seeing her randomly as I’m passing by and she’s out smoking a cigarette.
Man, people here smoke a lot. I’ve traveled to Europe before and seen it, but I’ve never had so many friends that smoke before. When they’re at a party and go out for a smoke break, the whole room literally empties. When we cook dinner together, which we usually do about one every two weeks, they always smoke in the kitchen with the windows open, but I feel like I’m getting lung cancer from second hand smoke when I go to dinner! Between the smell of whatever concoction they’ve brewed and all of the cigarette smoke in the air, Febreze has become a good friend of mine.
Some of my aforementioned friends
What I’ve noticed about meeting international students: Be nice, but not too friendly. Many cultures are taken aback by over-friendliness during a first meeting (I’ve experienced that firsthand, some take it as insincere). Speak slowly and clearly, but don’t talk to them as if they have mental disabilities. One American I’ve met here speaks to some international students like they’re dumb just because they cannot understand her when she speaks a mile a minute. I know it’s frustrating that she cannot get her point across immediately, but I know the other person feels worse. You can see it on his/her face when it happens. Other than that, just be yourself. Personality traits are more noticeable than cultural ones.
