BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN

Facing new teachers and classes is enough to give most students a few butterflies each September. Imagine going back to school in a foreign country while trying to communicate in an unfamiliar language.

About 85 international students attending Laurentian University will take on the challenge when classes start at the school next week.

LU's international students attended orientation seminars last week on how to deal with everything from culture shock to their academic advisors. They were given tours of the campus, went on a Cortina boat cruise and attended a barbecue at Robertson Cottage.

Jose Landaverde, 21, took time out from eating hamburgers and potato salad at the barbecue Friday afternoon to speak to Northern Life. He will spend a year studying commerce at LU as an exchange student from his university in Queretaro, Mexico.

“I'm not worried about keeping up my studies in English because I think you have to be open. Every day you learn something new. This a whole new experience. You have to be willing to do your best,” he says.

So far, he's enjoyed his time in Greater Sudbury.

“This is a really nice town. It's kind of small, but at the same time, it's nice because of the nature. The people are cool. Laurentian has a very good environment,” he says.

“We went to Laurentian beach. The weather is really cold for us, but we swam. We went to the mall and we went downtown. Last night we went to the night club. So, we're just chilling out around the city.”

Landaverde's new friend, 20-year-old Charly Siller, is from Mexico City. He's entering his first year of engineering at Laurentian. His father got a job at a local construction company, so his whole family immigrated to Canada two weeks ago.

“I like engineering. I want to become an industrial engineer. I think engineering is the most complete career. It incorporates adminstration and mathematics. It has a little bit of all the careers,” he says.

“There is more opporunity here for me as an engineer, but maybe I could go back to Mexico to work one day. I don't know what I'm going to do yet.”

Yosuke Kaneda, 23, will study commerce at Laurentian for a year. He's already completed three years of his economics degree at Saitama University, which is located near Tokyo, Japan.

The young man says he came to Greater Sudbury because he wanted to experience life in a foreign country.

“First, the studying is the most important thing. That I should say. But I'm thinking about going to the night clubs in Canada. I'm also looking forward to some events like Thanksgiving and New Year's. Our culture is very different.”

He's impressed by Canada's beauty.

“There are a lot of lakes, and it's beautiful. There aren't a lot of lakes in Japan. And all of the lakes we do have are dirty. Not like here. It's beautiful and clean. We can swim in the lakes here. But in my country we don't. It's polluted.”