A lockdown, even a lockdown light, can be extra hard if you are an international student or staff member. MONDO, our university’s international community, invites you to a weekly virtual Coffee Break to exchange experiences or just have a chat.
All international students and staff of our university are invited to an online chat session on Blackboard every Friday at 10.30 a.m. Behind this initiative are the International Staff Office, the International Students Office and the Antwerp Doctoral School. “The present circumstances can be even harder on people from abroad, especially if they only arrived in Belgium recently and didn’t have the opportunity to make many friends yet”, says Erika Leunens from the International Staff Office.” That’s why we’re having this weekly chat session for the international community. Participants can join for the entire session, or just pop in to say hello. Belgian students and staff members are welcome to join in too.”
Conversation topics vary widely, from how the lockdown is going in their home countries to what to eat that night. Erika and her colleagues, who take turns in hosting the sessions, can also help out with practical problems, like how to get their residence cards extended. Erika: “Every Friday we see about five or six people, mostly PhD students. Some attendees have become regulars, but there are always new faces too. The chat is supposed to last half an hour. But sometimes we forget the time and keep talking for a full hour.”
“Nice to talk”
One familiar face is Seyed Reza Omranian, who is originally from Iran and has been working as a postdoc researcher at our university since November. “The lockdown is the hardest thing”, admits Reza. “I had only been here for a few months when it started. And although I have nice colleagues, I hadn’t created a social network yet. I live by myself, in a building with other people. But I am extra careful to keep my distance: if I got sick, I wouldn’t know how to manage on my own. I do have one good colleague/friend who I go for walks and bike rides with. We talk every day. But I am a very social person: I would love to see more people and make new friends. Corona makes that impossible.”
For Reza, the weekly chats are a welcome distraction. “It is not enough to break the isolation, but at least it is something. Since I have lots of online meetings, I usually only manage to join in for twenty minutes or so. We ask each other about our week or make some small talk. There are no big discussions, but that’s okay: it’s just nice to talk.”
To participate in a chat session, just click on this link, which can also be found on the MONDO Facebook page.
MONDO also offers the opportunity to be put in contact with a fellow student or colleague, a buddy to have virtual contact with. Read more about it.