Mohammed Rashid studied English as a second language (ESL) at Fanshawe for six months and just recently returned to his home country of Saudi Arabia to apply what he learned.

Where are you from? What did you used to do before you came to Fanshawe College?
I am from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. And now I'm taking a six-month vacation that is just finishing, but there I was a personnel manager in a hospital. I work for Saudi German Hospitals Group. We operate six hospitals and we have three under construction: one in Dubai, another one in Egypt, and one in Sudan. So right now in Saudi Arabia we have five hospitals running, as well as one in Yemen. I started working with this group 27 years ago.

Why did you decide to come to Fanshawe?
When I was in Saudi Arabia I looked into studying English. And I had some countries to choose from such as Britain, America, Australia, Venezuela and Canada. I had one friend from Canada who told me about Canada and about London. I don't need a big city, I needed a smaller city, a quiet city and he told me about Fanshawe and showed me the website.

What did you enjoy the most about your life in London?
This is a good city for me. It's a quiet and beautiful city and I think the people here are friendly.

Is there anything from Canada that you wish you could bring home to your own country?
Yes, yes, yes. I want to bring back the system where pedestrians have the right-of-way over cars, where drivers have to stop and let people walk. This is a good system and I hope I'll see it in my country someday. In Saudi the cars drive too fast and don't care about other people and the people walking really need to watch out for the cars.

What was the most difficult or challenging part of your life in London?
It wasn't difficult it's just that I was homesick for my family. But other than that the people were good, the weather was good, life is good here. Saudi is really warm all the time so this was good for me and I experienced some new weather. But to be honest, I really liked winter at first, but not anymore. I think four months is enough (laughter).

Is there anything you missed about your home country while you lived in Canada?
I only really missed my family. I have a big family and this is the first time I went away from home for such a long time. And of course I had to send them a lot of clothes, video games, and board games to my children back home. My oldest son is 24 and he's already finished college and he has a job. And the youngest is one year six months old now.

What is one special memory that you think you never forget from your time in Canada?
I don't think I'll have just one special memory; I have a lot of good memories. But Niagara Falls was very beautiful and of course my friends here. I'll need a long time to talk with my family and tell them all about London and Canada.


What will you do after you return to your home country?
I'll go back to my job and start looking after my family again. My vacation is over (laughter). I want to say thanks to everyone in Fanshawe and I hope we will stay in touch. The best thing in life is to meet new people and make new friends. I'm happy to go back to my country but I'm sad to say goodbye to my friends here.

Each week the Interrobang will profile an international student who is attending, or attended Fanshawe. International Students who would like to be involved or find out more please contact Daragh C. Hayes at dchayes@fanshawec.ca