The Interview.

The Interview with Elizabeth Rovnenko, a Russian student in Riga Technical University (RTU) and just my best friend since childhood.

 - Why did you decide to come and study in Latvia? What do your parents think about your decision?

- Actually, you know, it was a spontaneous decision. I was studying at the courses to prepare to my final exams in school. The head of this institution has contracts with different universities and some of them are abroad. So once the representative from RTU came to Russia and spoke to all students who want to try to pass entrance exam. There was some kind of test and also the oral part in form of an interview. I listened to her and thought "Well, why not? Nothing will happen if I try". As you can guess, I easily passed all these things and then the representative called our director and said I need to decide if I want to study in RTU and give them the answer and some documents. So, I said “yes” and now I am studying engineering economics and management, in entrepreneurship and management program. As for my parents... Of course, they are on my side no matter what. We were thinking a lot about studying abroad, making a list with all possible pluses and minuses. We decided that it's a good possibility to practice the English language, for me it probably became the main reason to study in Latvia and of course there’re a lot of Russian people and Russian speaking people, so that's how I still can stay in touch with my roots.

- Riga Technical University

- Oh, I think it is very important and very good, that your parents support you. So, what difficulties did you have in your first year of being there?

- Difficulties? Hmm, it is hard to say straightaway... On my first days here, the hardest thing for me was speaking English. I am not a shy person, but I was too afraid to speak with foreigners, afraid that I will not understand them, or on the contrary. Now it became a funny story for me, but almost the whole first week I avoided my neighbors in the dormitory and tried to speak English as less as possible. So, I think it depends on adaptation. If it is easy for you to switch between different languages, specifically in Latvia, Riga, you probably won't have any problems or difficulties.

- It sounds really funny because I thought that usually you meet and communicate with people freely.

- Actually no. For me it is hard to meet new people. A lot of time has to pass to make me closer to a new friend. And also with my old friends we have a lot between us, and maybe I just don't trust new people in my life, so I don't know how to explain but for me it's really hard and I'm trying to change myself, trying to let more new people in my life. That's it.

- What differences do you see between studying in Latvia and in Russia?

- Unfortunately, I can't answer this question because it's my first higher education experience, in Russia I studied in school only. And there are a lot of differences between school and university.

- Okay, well. There are many international students in RTU, aren’t there? What countries do most of them come from?

- Oh yeah, there are many students from different countries. Mostly they are in Riga on Erasmus. It is a student exchange program that allows students to study in another university for one or two semesters. Therefore, every semester it is possible to meet someone new and it is quite hard to say from what country there are the biggest number of students. I guess most of them are from Germany, France and Italy. As for me, I have friends from the Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Slovakia and so on.   

- Liza with her friends

-  Did you get into sort of a situation when it was necessary to be like an ambassador for your country? I mean, has there been a situation, in which you needed to clarify erroneous stereotypes or assumptions about your home country? How did you handle that situation?

- When I meet new people and they find out I am from Russia their first impression is like "wooooow, Russia" and the second one is every time about vodka, ha-ha. So, as you can guess every time I try to change their mind about this stereotype, that not everyone drinks it and it is wholly personal decision.

- What do you like the most and the least about being there, and why?

- Latvia is pretty similar to Russia, so I do not feel like it's totally different from my life before university. Of course, the best thing is travelling. I have a residence permit here and can travel without any additional documents throughout almost the whole European Union. But the most horrible thing for me is the weather here. It's absolutely different climate. There is the Daugava river and also the Baltic Sea not so far and it means huge humidity. It is my second year already but I am still not used to it.

- So, if I am not mistaken you started to travel across Europe more than you did before. How does your experience in the university help you to communicate with diverse cultural groups? If so, can you cite specific examples?

- Yes, you are right. Before studying in the university, I have never travelled abroad. But from Latvia it's easier, especially with the residence permit as I said before, so in summer and during my studying I've been to Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic, of course I’ve travelled across Latvia and also there a lot of plans in my mind about where to go next. It is the most awesome part of being here. You get more experience, a lot of memories, new meetings and that is amazing.

- You can’t even imagine how I envy you, girl! Hope I’ll get a chance to visit you next summer and we come somewhere together. Anyway, here is my last question. What do you miss the most about your home country?

- It is the last question but it will never be the least one for me because the answer is just the people. I miss my parents and friends, I'm so sad that I can't meet them every one or two weeks as almost all of my friends do because they’re studying somewhere in Moscow or near our hometown . I can't talk to my friends personally, not with social networks or Skype, or whatever, I can't hug them, or just go to a cinema or a cafe together. We did it numerous times before my leaving but I miss such moments a lot.

- Oh, I miss such moments too, and really hope to see you as soon as possible. Anyway, I want to say thank you for the answers! It was pretty fun and interesting to know all these details of your student life abroad. 

- It was a pleasure for me to take part in such a project. Thank you for an invitation! And as we say in Latvian: “Čau, visu labu”*!

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                                                                                         * - “Пока, всего хорошего!”