Reading Week for International Students

The end of the semester is coming fast through many university campuses, but what stresses the most out the students. is the exam season a period where they must focus on everything at the same time.

Finishing up class work, final projects, late assignments, and studying for the exams overall. The accumulation of work is what drags universities to give them a free time, or as Ana Hernandez, an international student from Honduras, puts it.

“They give us this little break for a week to catch up with our work, but we really use it to relax and tried to calm down” said Hernandez when talking about reading week.

The week break, or better known as reading week, is a short break for students to catch up on their work. To try to finish off or advance as much as they can for the end of the semester.

But as it’s known, many students also use this break period to relax and focus on their outside campus work, or as Andrea Escober an international student from Honduras talks about.

“I’ll be around here in Fredericton, and I’m working two full time shifts and I’m also taking some time to work on my thesis and catch up in some schoolwork” said Escober.

Working double shifts to save money for the winter break or get presents through the late days of the holiday season, but the influence of reading week on students doesn’t stop there.

Other students have organized plans for their free time during reading week, some of them involve travelling somewhere else with their friends, or as Daniel Calvo a international student from Honduras puts it.

“Well with my friends we like spoke one with each other and we all came to an agreement to share an RB&B and go to Halifax to have some fun during the weekend and like two more days, four days in total.” Said Calvo.

Through the idea of traveling along with friends to other cities and get to know new parts of Canada, it has become part of the many activities that students get involved during reading week.

As they have the enough access to free time that allows them to organize trips and schedule their workload, as the city if Halifax is known to attract tourists from other provinces.

But the influence of reading isn’t left out only through the idea of traveling around with friends, the people that preferred to just stay on campus had their own activities planned.

As the idea of the rest week, as Andrea Escober puts it.

“I feel it’s a must, I feel like it’s necessary to an extent to have some time to rest and catch up with all the work is more or less the calm before the storm.”

A calm Before the storm, a needed rest, or a vacation planned through a single week. As many students must cope with the stress if the first half of the year ending.

They focus themselves in achieving the final grades that they need or arrange percentages to get through their classes without the fear of failing or losing any credits of their academic score.

The reading week was the needed break that all of them were waiting for, as the year also comes to an end ad the idea of going back home becomes an issue that must be dealt with sooner.

It’s a greater concern for university students that need to schedule their return and their plans before they are allowed to leave campus. The break allowed them to get everything in check before the end.