100 Days

A hundred days, can you imagine that?! A hundred days passed since that “Fahren what?!” moment I had when I arrived for the first time to the US. At first it might feel that time just flew, but thinking about all the experiences and adventures I’ve experienced, it feels like more than hundred days.

My journey so far would not be the same without all the great people I met so far. I want to highlight a great international family that I am honored to be part of.

I was lucky to find housing offered for international and out of state graduate students studying at JMU. Since the first day I’ve gotten to know a lot of people from all parts of the world, not only people living in the same building, but also others I’ve met on campus. Getting to be part of this huge welcoming family made my first hundred days a great experience.

From getting to know about other cultures, going to places and cities for the first time together, celebrating each other’s holidays (even the ones we didn’t know about before), experiencing events like family weekend and homecoming weekend together, and a lot of other memories we made, that I can not even imagine that it all happened in a hundred days.

A great experience that I won’t forget was a meeting with international graduate students and the president of JMU and the Dean of the graduate school. It was a great opportunity to know these great people, and for them to know us . The meeting that lasted for more than two hours, and we discussed different challenges and how can we as the big JMU family overcome them together.

Having an international family means having people from all around the world, which means having people from the US too! And it was so heartwarming when one of our American friends hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for those in graduate student housing. It took her two days to prepare the food to assure we got the full Thanksgiving experience. An objective that was achieved perfectly, and gave us all the sense of belonging and the feeling that we are all in this great experience together.

“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people”, a great quote by Mahatma Gandi that I totally believe, and with these great people, I had a hundred days of living in the US and all around the world too!

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