Iraqi students at UI adjusting to winter

IOWA CITY - The snow, they like. The sometimes bitterly cold winter climate, not so much.

Five students from Iraq are starting their second semester at the University of Iowa as part of the Iraqi Education Initiative, a program in which a handful of colleges and universities around the country are participating.

The Iraqi students at the UI, who all speak varying levels of English, are on conditional admittance as doctoral students, but their first semester was spent full time in English classes, working on communication, writing, grammar and reading skills.

They're doing well in their English classes, said Scott King, assistant dean with UI Office of International Students and Scholars, and they likely have at least one more semester of English study before they begin their academic major classes.

“I think they've adjusted fairly well,” King said. “They're very anxious to be able to get to the level of English to enter their regular courses.”

When they first arrived, they spent time learning the bus routes and finding their way around town. Recently, winter has been the biggest adjustment, with cold weather and snow a new experience for the students.

“Five centigrade (41 degrees Fahrenheit) back home is cold. But after exposing to minus 15 centigrade (5 degrees Fahrenheit) here, now we feel warm at 5” degrees centigrade, or Celsius, said Khalid Algharrawi, 31. “The good thing is we don't need to go outside a lot because we are students. We read a lot.”

Algharrawi said his children - a son, age 6, and a daughter, age 3 - enjoy the snow. They built a snowman, which the kids called an “iceman,” and like sledding, he said. He and his wife walked to the grocery store one evening as the snow fell.

“We wanted to walk in the snow,” he said. “It was very nice.”

The five students all live near each other in an Iowa City apartment complex, which makes it easy to get together and support each other, Algharrawi said.

But they're also learning plenty about American culture. King invited the students to his home for a traditional American Thanksgiving for the November holiday.

“We had pie with whipped cream in a can, and they got a kick out of that,” King said.

And while the students are all Muslims, Christmas wasn't unfamiliar to them because the holiday is recognized back home, Algharrawi said.

“We respect Jesus. We have a lot of stories about him in our faith,” Algharrawi said.

Algharrawi said the Iraqi students were spending much of their time studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language. They must earn certain scores on that test and then take the graduate college entrance exam before starting academic classes.