 In terms of personal life, I think as an international student, the most difficult thing for me is to make the move from whatever country you're from to the US because everything is new. An additional challenge being an international student and having to navigate not just the new experience of being in graduate school but the new experience of being in a completely different country with different kind of cultural rules, different practices and so I think that is an additional challenge. The view of them has a very international atmosphere. You may meet different people from world and they have different culture background. You have to understand to get to know their culture but understand their different habits. I think something really important to do is to not fall into the, I think a very comfortable trap of just hanging out with friends from home. If you want to feel connected to the community, you have to be active and to be brave to talk to people, to make friends with local people. I would definitely recommend making as many American friends as you can in your classes, people that you just randomly run into hallways in your department and trying to get to know about the American culture through them because the fact is that what you see about the American culture in sitcoms and in movies is not entirely true and the real American culture, the real American life is fairly different from that. To make their international student transitions easier is to get involved and open-minded. For me it came in here, I understand that the culture could be a shock and you probably don't know anyone in here but my advice is to stay positive and open-minded, get involved to any student organizations that you might be interested in, pick one of the physical activities, the sports or something that you're interested in. Take advantage of activities organized by a department. Departments will tend to organize talks, lectures, sometimes social, kind of social mixes. I think that's important to take advantage of. The first year when I entered University of Michigan, I stayed in a house with five other roommates which is none of them speak the same language as I do. Because of this, I get to know the culture in terms of American and one person is from New York and one is from Portland and there are other roommates that can speak Spanish. So because of these experiences make me not only hang out with the friends that speak the same language and with the same culture, of course I really love them too but it's really important to see the world outside of your own culture because you are in America, in the US, then why don't take this advantage to know a different culture. Participate in the international student orientation that the iCenter organizes. I think it's a great way to meet other international students. After participating in the orientation my first year, I decided I wanted to be a peer advisor at the summer orientation the following year and that was a great way for me as a second year student to meet tons of new international students who are coming in. As an international student, one of the easiest things to do to get connected is to meet up with people who share your background. There are several student organizations that are culturally central. I come from India and there are many Indian students studying here in Michigan but most of them are in the engineering department whereas I study in the physics department. So in my department I don't find many Indian students and sometimes I feel that I miss people from my country and when I got in touch with this Indian Student Association, I thought that they had a very good platform where all the Indian students here come together, share their thoughts, what they are doing and it was a very good experience. To make use of the resources at the International Center here at the University of Michigan, I think we're really fortunate because it's an international center that doesn't just care about your immigration or issues like that. It's really interested in easing your transition into the University of Michigan and they also have important workshops such as adapting to U.S. cultural values and I think those are activities and workshops that are really helpful in kind of facilitating that transition. As an international student, it's important for me to be able to have access to ethnic foods and Ann Arbor has actually been pleasantly surprising in that there's quite a few different types of markets out there. Vietnamese, Thai, Asian in general, Middle Eastern, Indian, definitely lots of choices that are all within bus ranges as well as driving. One thing that I would like to point out about international students coming into Michigan is the weather. The winters can become really, really cold so you should come prepared for that, bring enough warm clothes, have the right type of shoes. After I got here, I felt difficult to communicate with Americans because, you know, you cannot speak language sentences like on the textbook. If you prepare well in your language, speaking your English, speaking especially if your mother language is not English, if you can speak well English, you can make a lot of friends, especially American students. That will help you to be connected to the big community and your professors will understand you more and help you more while you study. Continue to take the risks that you've already taken coming to a new place. A lot of times coming to a new institution can be very anxiety-provoking. When you actually get here, you may find that the language barrier might be even more intimidating than you thought. And I think what's important is to continue to take those risks, to get to know people and to push yourself to really make sure that you enjoy your time here and you get what you want out of this place.