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The unique and challenging nature of studying abroad has been well documented in the Student Voices blogs, but this piece is different from all of them. This is a real-life record of the first few weeks of an international student who is planning to stay here for four whole years.

It has been a summer full of tours, reading and socializing. But the prospect of returning to campus for a new semester is a compelling one.

Inhale. I close my eyes and try to mute the sounds around me. Moving my chalk-coated fingers ever so slowly around the pole, I make the micro-adjustments for my next attempt.

���˿��� actually flew beneath my radar at first—I had not even known of its existence until I began filling out college applications last fall.

My name is Serena Francisco, and I am a rising junior and a double major in philosophy and Diplomacy & World Affairs.

At 8 p.m., I receive a text from my new friend Swanki, a Nigerian medical student studying at a college near mine in Nanjing. He texts me saying that he’s outside my dorm waiting to pick me up so we can grab food and later visit Xuan Wu Hu (Nanjing’s largest lake).

I’m Margot Heron, a rising junior with a double major in Critical Theory and Social Justice and Spanish, and this summer I am working as an intern for

Hey y’all! My name is Liz Frissell and I’m a rising sophomore at Occidental. This summer I’ve been working for , the largest nonprofit organization in the state.

Nina is a sophomore Diplomacy & World Affairs and Theater double major who is passionate about international relations and activism through performance. She also works at the Hameetman Career Center as a Career Peer Adviser.

If you asked me last August what I’d be doing over spring break, I would’ve probably said something typical and vague, along the lines of going home and hanging out with old friends. I would have never predicted how I’d actually spend my spring break—in Dublin, Ireland with the womxn’s rugby team.