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Dear Bhais and Bahinis,

Welcome to the United States of America and Canada. Congratulations to all of you. Please accept our greetings and a warm welcome, on behalf of all the SEBSers and friends in North America. We are glad that all you of have landed safely.

As you struggle to acclimate to different cultures, rigorous academic programs, punctuality and home sickness, we want to let you know that if you need help or advise, we are here to provide it to you. SEBS-NA’s main goal is to help our members in times of need. Brothers and sister before you have made it, and so will you. So just hang in there. Your college counselor and those international students who have volunteered to help you settle are perhaps the most resources you have for your immediate questions.

Having said that, we would like mention a few resources that you might be interested in:

1. Seven seas away from home, it is easy to get homesick. Not much can be done about it but taking with your near relatives (if they are in US or Canada) or even chatting with friends does help. Wait for Nepali gatherings, conventions, and to listen to Nepali melodies, hymn the rhythm in solitude. Nepalese gatherings take place here and there every now and then. Information on such events are usually posted in this site. www.gbnc.org, www.suskera.com, www.pardesh.com are some of the Nepali sites where information on such events is posted/discussed. If you or your parents have internet access in Nepal, make full use of this cheap but effective medium.

2. For news related to Nepal and United States/Canada you can access www.nepalipost.com which has links to most of the major news publications from Nepal.

If you did not bring many CDs from Nepal and like to listen to Nepali songs, Live 365 [link to which you can find in the music section of the SEBS site], www.gorkhali.com, www.kurakani.com, www.nepalimusic.net, www.nepalisongs.com are some of the online sources of music. You will be surprised by the love you will develop for Nepali music after you stay here for some time.

3. Tax is one of the biggest issues in North America. We will post the guidelines on filing taxes later as they become due. Most International Students Office have some free workshops where you can participate.

4. There are various phone cards that you can use to call your parents back home. Do NOT buy expensive cards that the colleges offer you. You can find much cheaper calling cards at TelNepal and HimTel. Their numbers are 1-866-835-6372 and 1-800-543-6540 respectively. There are other cards offered by Nepalese companies that are of comparable rates. Remember, these are toll free numbers so you can call them at no expense. If you stay on campus, toll free numbers can usually be dialed by dialing 9 before them. Check your phone directory on dialing instructions. When you order cards, ask them for the dialing instructions as well. Usually it is: Dial the access number, dial the pin, and then dial 011+977 + district code + number.

For local calls, do NOT use the expensive college card. You can find various cheap cards online that you can buy with your credit/debit cards. BigZoo [www.bigzoo.com] offers cards for as low as 3 cents/minutes. Call those freaks from school with whom you used to spend hours chatting and teasing! With your hourly earning you can talk to them for more than 200 minutes!

5. Course books are pretty expensive here and may run as high as $150 for a physics book or something like that. The college/university bookstore usually pays very little when it buys back. Some students prefer to keep their books themselves and sell later. Or you can donate it to SEBS Book Project and we will send it to Nepal as your donation for library. Ads for used books are usually published in college newsletters and bulletin boards. Keep your eyes on college publications. You can also buy books online at a cheaper rate.Www.amazon.com, and www.halfprice.com are some of the online stores. For clothes, Target, Best Buy, K-Mart, ROSS, Marshall, Sears and Wal-Mart are some of the cheap stores in the east coast. Similarly, in the west coast, you can find ROSS, Marshall, Sears etc.

6. Work Permit: (Applicable only to US students) If you are coming in as F-1 student then most likely you will only be allowed to work on-campus only. After one complete academic year (ie 2 semester or 3 quarters) you will be eligible to apply for economic hardship work permit. For this you must demonstrate that you and your family have suffered some unforeseeable economic crisis. If you are interested in understanding more about it, please send your queries to sebsna@sebsonline.org.

If you have any concerns or problems simply pick up the receiver and call anyone of us in the SEBS-NA team or e-mail us at the following contact number/address. Just know that you are not alone and we are here to help you.

Kiran Sitoula - 703-931-7878, sitoula@yahoo.com
Saga Onta - 503-781-8673, sonta@kittelson.com
Yubraj Acharya - 610-690-3951, yachary1@swarthmore.edu

We hope that you have an enriching college experience and we are looking forward to your active involvement in SEBS-North America. Please visit www.sebsonline.org for latest on SEBS issues and to keep track of your friends. In addition to various other wonderful resources within the site, there are batch message boards, pictures site and scholarship information. We are also making progress towards networking site http://www.sebsonline.org/networking.

Best Wishes,
Kiran Sitoula
President, SEBS-NA