As students take advantage of Family Weekend activities and invite their families to campus, international students may not be able to convince their families to descend on Eastern from their home countries.

Despite the distance, the Internet and video chatting apps such as Skype allow students who study abroad to converse with their families and friends back home with relative ease.

Cathrin Klapp, a junior psychology major, Skypes with her family back in Germany about once a week and writes messages on her father’s Facebook after creating it for him.

She also said this is her first time being away from home for an extended period of time and homesickness has afflicted her.

“There were some days where I was (homesick) but I think I’m a person who adapts very easily to new situations,” Klapp said.

Soryeong Park, a sophomore economics major, remains in communication with her family back in South Korea every three days, and she does not anticipate becoming homesick because of previously living away from her family during a five year span.

Kevin Vicker, director of the office of international students and scholars, said a lot of the students do become involved in different groups where there are common interests and culture.

Klapp is not too involved in campus activities yet, but she has started to go to ballroom dancing lessons once a week and play tennis.

“I’m just going out of the orientation phase so I needed time to get used to my classes,” said Klapp. “I already had two exams today.”

Park, however, is only staying at Eastern for a semester and does not foresee having the time to participate in groups on campus.

Both Klapp and Park talk about the normal college things one would talk about when communicating with family back home – classes, campus life, friends and the food.

Sunrose Maskey, a freshman psychology major from Nepal, is on the other end of the spectrum – he talks more with his friends than with his family.

Since his schooling began, he has stayed with his family for only a year.  And back in Nepal, he has participated in and created numerous family events, so this is not a new thing for him.

Both Maskey and Klapp intend to partake in Family Weekend activities with friends.  Park intends to make a long phone call back home.

Family Weekend at Eastern starts this Friday with activities such as Sinbad, Chinese acrobats and an open house at the observatory being offered.

Jason Howell can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].