Editor’s Note: This is the first in a four-part series examining how international students adapt to living in the United States. This article discusses how international students deal with homesickness.

As students prepare for Finals Week and the summer break that follows, more than 2,800 international students are also making plans for break. But unlike their peers, these students can’t look forward to their mom’s cooking or seeing their childhood friends.

“The last time I went home was almost a year and a half ago,” said Sze-Kay Yau, who is looking forward to her dad coming to see her graduate in May.

This is a common experience for many international students, just one of the hurdles they face studying at Iowa State.

“Newcomers feel lonely, homesick, helpless, overwhelmed, fearful [for] safety, unsure of themselves, less competent, angry, fearful of the unknown and unfamiliar and confused whether to discontinue study in the United States,” said Abul Shuvo, president of the Bangladesh Student Association. “The human manners, sexual orientations and social events were all different from my culture, and I was shocked to experience things I have never had.”

Priyanka Murthy, an ISU student from India, had similar feelings when coming to the United States.

“The hardest thing about leaving home and coming here is dealing with the homesickness,” said Murthy, senior in economics. “It also feels strange to look around and see different people who are not from your country.”

Alok Thakur, junior in electrical engineering, said it’s hard to see parents move their students in or out and to see other students have family visit for the weekend.

“Small, little things remind you that you can’t go home,” he said. “[International students] do get together over the holidays, but nothing beats home.”

Students said another challenge is making friends with people from different cultures.

Yau, senior in graphic design from Hong Kong, said it’s hard to find American friends because the cultures are so different, and it’s also hard to understand slang words.

Helping international students cope with these hurdles is one of the goals of the ISU Student Counseling Center. The SCS helps students deal with their feelings, strengths and options to develop new perspectives and coping skills, according to the center’s Web site.

Ron Jackson, staff psychologist at the ISU Student Counseling Center, said international students may think they have met a good friend through class only to have it end once the class is done.

“Americans are superficially friendly and open, but it’s hard to get to know Americans,” he said.

Another frustration international students feel is loneliness. International students make up less than 2 percent of the ISU student population and some countries, like Jamaica, have only one student at Iowa State.

But despite the cultural differences, Shuvo, junior in electrical engineering, said Ames and Iowa State are good places to live and learn.

“I chose to graduate in electrical engineering from Iowa State because [it] is rich in the field of engineering, and personally, I like Ames as a better place to live than my hometown,” he said.

Yau said she appreciates the small size of Ames in comparison to her hometown of Hong Kong because “the relationship between people is closer here than in a big city.”