For many students, leaving home to attend college is a major adjustment. This significant change of scenery can be magnified if a student attending college is in an entirely different country. This was the transition that senior Hindi Alotaibi encountered early in his St. Edward’s academic career. Alotaibi, who is from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, initially found this change to be a challenging task.

“It was very, very different,” Alotaibi said. “It’s not even comparable.”

Since 18, Alotaibi has considered himself an adventurous traveler and always had a fascination with exploring the United States. It wasn’t until he traveled to Austin where he unexpectedly stumbled across St. Edward’s.

“I was basically exploring the city and I got lost here,” Alotaibi said. “I found out that it was a university so I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll apply here.’ It was fate, of course.”

But even through the challenge of moving, Alotaibi remained positive about the change by simply being himself.

“I thought it would take me a long time [to adjust],” Alotaibi said. “For a moment, I believed that I would never have any friends… but it happened really quickly. I learned the basics and got adapted to the culture and made friends. I would call them family.”

Though he has made a new home and many friends here in Austin, there are still many aspects of his life in Saudi Arabia that Alotaibi misses and often thinks about.

“Family is what I miss the most,” Alotaibi said. “I’m very close [to my family.] I receive texts from them every morning, every time I leave class. I mean, when I’m away from my phone and I come back, I find a lot of texts and calls and stuff like that from them. So, I’m very close to them.”

Since the distance to home is quite a long one, Alotaibi says that he only gets to see his family about twice a year; sometimes, even just once. In particular, Alotaibi says that he also misses his pet camel, Jalahad, that he’s owned for about six years. “It would be amazing [to have her here].”

Alotaibi says that Austin has surely impacted him as a person during his time here and that St. Edward’s is an extremely unique place.

“Austin is a great place,” Alotaibi said. “Every person I meet, they care about respect. My favorite thing [about St. Edward’s] is that everyone is connected in a way… we have a strong bond and that’s something I like. Every university should have this kind of strength in the community.”

Alotaibi plans on graduating either next fall or next spring and will continue to pursue his degree in chemistry, which will then be used to spread his knowledge to those back in his home country.

“[My plan] is to basically to continue [my education] and get my masters and hopefully my [doctoral degree] and go home,” Alotaibi said. “Improving my education back home is my passion.”