International Students: Mizu and Milan: Living with the Beautiful Things and Showering the Spring Sunshine

Mizu is an Egyptian PhD candidate in Literature at Hebei University; Milan is a Russian PhD candidate in Journalism at Hebei University. Here, they started a romantic journey.

With the help of Chinese friends, they know each other at international students’ department and then fall in love. They met on September 9th, 2014 and fell in love on September 23th the same year. Finally, they got married in Shijiazhuang, Hebei on November 2nd, 2015. Their story started with similar Chinese name and same time studying in HBU.

Milan graduated in Russian majoring in clothes design in 2005, then opened her own company. She studied primary Chinese in 2010 and cultivated a strong interest in Chinese culture. In 2013, she received adult education and studied English while working by doing some English translation. During this period, she participated in a Chinese competition and achieved excellent results and won a scholarship. She came to China in 2014 with studying journalism at Hebei University and published three papers. Her graduation thesis is "Chinese Image Research in the Main Russian News Website TASS.RU", and other two papers completed in Russian are published in the most famous press in Russia.

There is no end in learning and learning is not only about academic area. Milan likes to develop her own hobbies in spare time. For example, she can paint Russian face paintings. She would paint a flying eagle on Mizu’s face and at the same time, after the interview, she is very enthusiastic about painting face paintings for our reporters. Life is about consistent studying, including studying academic knowledge and studying our own hobbies.

Mizu is a PhD. student and the vice chairman of the International Students Association. He can help international students to better adapt to life at Hebei University. He likes Chinese martial arts and wants to have the opportunity to participate in international students’ Chinese martial arts exchange and training after graduation to learn Chinese martial arts in depth.

When referring to their feelings about Baoding, Mizu said: "Russia is Milan’s first hometown and Egypt is my first hometown, but Baoding is our first home.” They have been to many other cities in China and they still love Baoding most. Baoding is a city where they know and love as well as a place where they build their own family. It is not only a simple spot but also the beginning of their love. People in Baoding always greet them with enthusiasm and give them a feeling of home. Around the school, there is an owner of Lanzhou Noodles who wrote an Arabic sentence in Chinese calligraphy for Mizu and Milan, reflecting the exchanges and integration of different national cultures and Chinese enthusiasm and care for international friends.

Baoding has already become their home. Here, they have a happy future.