Overcome Difficulties

As an international student of UCSB, I faced a plenty of difficulties in daily life such as different food, not suitable for the climate here, and difficult to integrate into the social circle here. I have always been very interested in the culture and knowledge of US and want to understand the them through the establishment of friendship with native students.

Things didn't go as smoothly as I tried to communicate with local students. Because my English is not good enough, I can not communicate fluently with local students in English as I speak my mother tongue, and I can not express myself clearly and quickly. This fact frustrates me and loses the motivation to keep trying.

One day I suddenly thought that international students are not just from China, but come from all over the world. They came to this school for the first time just like me, facing the unfamiliar surroundings and strangers. After a class, I started to talk to the Frenchman named Alex sitting next to me. We found each other like to watch a popular TV series called “Game of Throne”. We started to talk excitedly about the characters in the series and the future direction of the story. In the process, we found more common points of interest. In the following days, he introduced me to his local friends. Because of the common interests like film and music, I quickly integrated into their social circle.