More and more often, people report on a special species of students around campus, commonly called “international students.” They behave strangely, preferring salad over hamburgers, filching your seat in class, or even walking for distances of more than two minutes. As you can see, there are several subcategories of these peculiar creatures you should be aware of in case of an encounter:

The communicator:

• Communicators tend to stop in the middle of a walk, expecting you to talk to them as a reaction to the usual “How are you?” or “What’s up?” If so, don’t be surprised when they even answer honestly, telling you how bad their day was and sharing the whole bunch of feelings they have experienced since they woke up.

The nutrition expert:

• Nutrition experts are never seen in Springs but highly prefer GDH. There you will find them most frequently gathered in front of the salad bar, enjoying some water without ice, celebrating a tea ceremony, or gazing at the rich fruit offered at GDH.

(Fun fact: Writing this article I tried to find the translation for the German word “ernährungsbewusst.” It means “being conscious about living on healthy food” – It doesn’t exist in English…)

The adventurer:

• Maybe the most annoying of all these different subcategories is called the ‘adventurer.’ The adventurer sneaks in the classroom, ignoring the naturally given seating arrangements, puzzling professors, and, worst of all, their class mates. They arrive for class very punctually just in order to filch your seat. Suddenly, your place is gone and the fight for the recapture starts, forcing you to choose between either getting up at least 15 minutes earlier or abstaining from your breakfast.

The sauna lover:

• Sauna lovers live in their rooms, without making use of the air conditioning and driving their American roommates crazy by turning off the air conditioning in the middle of the night. Another way to identify them is by listening to their complaints about freezing to death in the library or in classrooms: they also always carry some form of jacket with them.

The socializer:

• Socializers try to twist your arm to meet with you in front of the dorm in order to walk together to class, have lunch or dinner, or even to go to church (OFF CAMPUS) together, talking all the way. A huge crowd of more than three people on a walk can easily be identified as a group of socializers gathering together, chatting, laughing, or even philosophizing on the quest for happiness or the meaning of life.

The athlete:

• Athletes walk everywhere instead of driving by car. Where the average student would drive by car, for example, to go from the dorm to GDH, athletes will walk on their own feet. Moreover, you can identify them by their complaints about missing sidewalks and drivers who ignore the crosswalks. To be honest, part of this could be the natural lack of a car. Nonetheless, they seem to enjoy walking.

Now that you know how to identify them, watch out! Maybe you are lucky and you will discover one, or even several, of these rare creatures. Although they seem to be weird at first sight, they just want to be loved!