Winter break is around the corner and soon we will be done with finals, going home, and enjoying good food and good times with friends and family. What would you do if family and friends were almost 10,000 miles away?
That is the question that many international students at Ole Miss are faced with. Stay in Oxford? Go home? There are many variables that make these students decisions. Is it a financially viable option? Is the time spent traveling worth the time that they would be at home? Will life in Oxford be easier than going home?
Many of the international students live in Guess Hall on campus. To much disappointment, Guess Hall will close on December 11th and reopen January 2nd, forcing these students to relocate to another dorm on campus for 3 weeks.
“It’s not really easy to international students to move every time,” said Ahra Lu, a transfer student from Korea. “I decided to go to a friend’s house.”
Without much information being shared by the Office of International Programs to the students, many are left without direction and need to make plans for themselves over the six-week break. Studying seems to be on the agenda for many international students who will be staying here for winter break. Some are choosing to leave Oxford and experience other places in the United States.
Other international students are traveling home, choosing the comforts of their own beds and the culture that they are more familiar with. “I am going home. I want to see my friends and family,” said Sayuri Nishinaka, a transfer student from Japan. “I miss my family and friends. I miss my boyfriend, too. As much as I like Oxford, it’s not as good as home.”
Approximately 3% of the student population at Ole Miss is international students and that number triples when talking about Ole Miss faculty, according to Tayla Burns and Jean Robinson of the Office of International Programs.
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