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Rhea Lereya, an international student from Turkey, celebrates the holidays by visiting Christmas markets, malls, annual parties and family get-togethers. Most importantly, she spends time catching up on everything she missed while she was at Syracuse University.

“I took the risk of going to a very faraway place. All of (my friends) stayed there,” Lereya said. “I really started a new life here, so it’s really scary for me to go back and see what I missed out on or what they did while I was not there.”

For international students, going back home during winter break brings up a mix of emotions, said Meriel Stokoe and Juan M. Tavares, faculty from the SU Center for International Services. While some stay on campus, the majority of international students return home to celebrate holiday traditions with family.

Stokoe and Tavares are from Great Britain and the Dominican Republic, respectively, so they understand what it is like to be far away from family close to the holidays. To help students feel more connected to a community at the university, Stokoe and the SU Center for International Studies host events like crafting sessions, museum field trips and ice skating.

It is normal to be homesick as break approaches, and this feeling is exacerbated for international students, Stokoe said. Shrishti Saha, who is from India, said once everyone around her starts talking about going home, she starts thinking about home more and getting homesick.

“My wish is that domestic students check in with their international student friends,” Stokoe said. “That could be as grand as inviting them home for Christmas, or it could just be a text message. Just check in with them, so they don’t feel lonely.”

Every time Saha returns home after a semester, her mother either picks her up from the airport with a bouquet or leaves flowers as a surprise in her room. She can always count on coming back to tradition and familiarity.

“Syracuse is just so small compared to home, and I’m just so used to being surrounded by a lot of people who have a similar background to me,” Saha said. “(Going home) is a different sort of comfort – it’s people that share the same cultural background and history.”

Besides homesickness, winter break brings up a mix of emotions. Saha said it is a bittersweet combination of happiness, excitement, nervousness and more that she can’t even put words to.

For Lereya, her first semester at SU was “pretty tough,” adapting to a new language and a new culture. She wanted to return home frequently.

“I do not speak my own language when I’m here, so it was really confusing for me,” Lereya said. “And then I got pretty used to it. I have my friends now, I have a settled life … I don’t feel the need to cry. I don’t feel as homesick as I did.”

Now a sophomore, she is looking forward to the holiday break. She usually spends her time away from the university, sometimes traveling to Amsterdam and London. This year, she is excited to go home.

Vianca Sawant, from Mumbai, India, decided to attend college abroad because it was normal at her high school. With peers going to Australia, Europe or England, she chose a school in the United States because she liked the idea of being independent.

When Sawant comes home from SU, she is greeted at the airport by over 20 family members. Upon returning to India, she celebrates Hindu religious traditions like poojas, or ceremonial rituals, with her family.

“I wasn’t there for Diwali back home but all my cousins and my family met up,” Sawant said. “When we go back home, I get to meet all my cousins and everybody that I didn’t see for a long time and just catch up. It feels much needed.”

Shrey Dewan grew up in Dubai and India, and also sees winter break as an opportunity to relax and learn about what his family and friends have been doing. Because of the nine hour time difference between Dubai and Syracuse, it’s sometimes impossible for Dewan to call his family every day.

“It’s just trying to squeeze in as much time as I can,” Dewan said. “It can be really stressful … There are times where (I go) a few days without talking to them because they get busy, I get busy.”

For Adriana Haydarova, keeping in touch with family and old friends is difficult because her parents work for the United Nations, so they move to a different country every few years. She described it as having to start her life “from a blank page” whenever she moves.

Originally, Haydarova is from Uzbekistan, and she visits her parents in Belarus over break. The winter break is tough, she said, because of the amount of traveling she must go through to get home.

She gets homesick seeing parents pick up their children and drive to hometowns that are in neighboring East Coast states, while she has to take three flights and do 24 hours of traveling.

“It definitely puts you in a very independent space and it makes you stronger, because, I mean, you’re on your own in a country,” Haydarova said. “It’s not something that I regret. It’s something that makes me stronger.”

Like Haydarova, Lereya said being an international student has brought her unique challenges, but also growth. Living so far from home forces international students to get out of their comfort zones, she said.

“I believe that if you do not take risks in life, you’re not gonna succeed. And that’s what I did. I wanted to take a chance. I wanted to take the risk,” Lereya said. “I’m speaking in a language that I never thought I would speak in my daily life — and I’m doing it right now.”

Published on December 13, 2023 at 11:49 pm