Vietnam to Roanoke

Emily Do is from a small city in the south of Vietnam where she loves to play badminton with friends after school. One of Emily's  favorite Vietnamese foods is pho – noodle soup. “When I was in Vietnam,” she said, “I had Pho every morning for breakfast.”  When asked if she has any American faves yet, Emily replied that she hasn't been acquainted properly with the food here yet. 

In the photo on the left, Emily is seen with her classmate Victoria participating in a chemistry lab. Emily is featured on the right laughing with Victoria while she uses science equipment to measure a certain volume. 
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At NCS, the dormitory for international students such as Emily is in downtown Roanoke. Emily talked about how the dorm was one of the deciding factors for her when she was looking into North Cross. Along with the dorm, Emily also mentioned that her  friends introduced her to a study abroad agency, which is how she originally found out about the school. Emily also expressed that she loved the freedom of the dorm and that because of the dorm's location, it makes it easier to walk around and shop in the commercial areas downtown. Another thing about dorm life is that Emily gets to live with another international student. Emily said that she loves living with Monica, her roommate from Spain, and that they are comfortable around each other. While making new friends at North Cross has come easily to Emily, saying goodbye to friends in Vietnam is not as easy. 

“Of course it’s hard,” she said, “and I think it’s hard for not only me but also every overseas student to leave a place where we call home and say goodbye to our families and friends who had been together with us for ages.” 

Emily said that the hardest thing about leaving her home is living far from friends and family. She mentions that in her first week at North Cross she felt lonely because she “didn’t have many friends to talk with.” Though, throughout her stay here she has felt more welcomed.  Another struggle she mentioned was that she felt nervous when communicating with others because she felt that her English skills were not perfect. While she did have a few struggles, Emily stated that the school and dorm have both brought her a sense of comfort and welcoming. She said that her current favorite class is Pre-calculus and that she plans to try out some new school sports with her friends, as she said she hadn’t previously tried any in Vietnam.

Overall, Emily seems to be loving NCS so far. With a few struggles within the first week of school, she quickly overcame those barriers and created many new friendships. Emily’s journey from Vietnam to America seems to have been a rollercoaster of emotions from sad to ecstatic, and while she seems to miss friends and family from Vietnam, the new relationships that she forms at NCS will make up for those that she can no longer communicate with. 

I have personally gotten to know Emily a lot better throughout this experience and we have become better friends because of it. 

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