Written by Jefferson Reese '15
SANTA CLARA, Calif.- Freshman Zeina El Tawil (ZET) from Cairo, Egypt, freshman Danielle Zinn (DZ) from Herzliya, Israel, sophomore Daniella Silva (DS) from Vancouver, Canada, sophomore Nabila Farah (NF) from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and junior Delphine Rouvillois (DR) from Grenoble, France, took some time to speak with Santa Clara Broncos (SCB) about their experience at Santa Clara University being from countries outside of the United States.
SCB: How has your tennis experience at Santa Clara been?
NF: My tennis experience has been great. I feel really fortunate of to have the opportunity to be able to combine both academics and the sport I love at a great school. Practices and tournaments have been excellent so far.
ZET: My experience has been great so far. We played several tournaments during the fall, which helped me get a feel of college tennis but what I've been waiting for the most is the season. It is my first collegiate experience ever and I'm really excited and looking forward to it.
DR: My tennis experience has been an amazing journey. It has allowed me to meet great people and make friends that I will keep for life! I love the travel part a lot, to further explore the country. I was able to improve my tennis thanks to all the resources we have access to (the coaches and staff entirely dedicated to our program, the facilities, and the support from the athletic department). It's been a challenging experience, but it's been an exceptional experience in every area of life beyond the game of tennis.
SCB: What similarities does Santa Clara have to your home?
DS: Even though I live in Canada now, I was raised in the south of Portugal. The Santa Clara weather is very similar to what I was used to in Portugal and much better than Canada! Also, the California laid-back way of life is very similar to Portugal.
DZ: Santa Clara is a very warm place, everyone around is very nice and it feels like home as much as possible.
SCB: What differences?
DS: The food here is very different to typical Portuguese plates. Also, Santa Clara is a little bit farther away from the beach compared to where I lived in Portugal. Obviously, here we speak English all the time rather than Portuguese!
ZET: I'm from Cairo, Egypt, which obviously is in a totally different part of the world. It's very active, busy and a little chaotic as a city whereas Santa Clara is much calmer and much more organized.
SCB: What has been your biggest challenge moving to the United States for college?
DZ: My biggest challenge was to live far away from my family and friends and learning to be more independent.
NF: Missing my family. I am really close to my family and friends back home. My entire family always finds excuses for getting together. I got really homesick my first year but fortunately it's better now.
DR: Learning the language and the cultural barrier, as well as learning the American University system, it is very different from France. Being away from my family and my three sisters has been challenging as well
SCB: Explain how you have learned about different cultures from one another.
NF: We have such different cultures but we are so much alike at the same time. I love to ask them questions about their countries, customs, their lives back home, everything. I'm certainly going to visit them someday so I will learn much more that way.
DS: Being such an international team we have all learned some words and phrases from each other's languages, which is really fun. Also, I have learned a lot about different ways of life, food and music from each of my teammates' cultures.
