S4E12: Seattle Colleges Conversations with! International Student Arthur Sillah of Sierra Leone

In this our 12th (twelfth) episode of Season 4, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich interviews international student Arthur Sillah of Sierra Leone about his experience here at Seattle Colleges and about life in the United States. 

1:19 - Meet Arthur!

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Transcript

Evan Franulovich  0:05  
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show Conversations with! where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.
 

Evan Franulovich  1:10  
Everybody welcome back to Seattle Colleges Conversations With! here at, which campus is this?

Arthur Sillah  1:16  
South Seattle College. 

Evan Franulovich  1:18  
South Seattle College, best campus.

Arthur Sillah  1:22  
Best, I don't know. 

Evan Franulovich  1:23  
Have you not been to North or Central?

Arthur Sillah  1:26  
I'm a North student. 

Evan Franulovich  1:27  
Oh, what? 

Arthur Sillah  1:29  
I just come here to work.

Evan Franulovich  1:31  
You're a North student and you come all the way to South. So for those of you who don't know how far that is, that's quite a distance.

Arthur Sillah  1:38  
24 miles. 

Evan Franulovich  1:39  
24 miles. But how do you get here? What's your way to get here?

Arthur Sillah  1:44  
I drive, which makes it much easier for me to get here. 

Evan Franulovich  1:47  
You do what?

Arthur Sillah  1:48  
Drive.

Evan Franulovich  1:49  
You have a car?

Arthur Sillah  1:50  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  1:51  
Wow, look at you. What kind of car do you have? 

Arthur Sillah  1:56  
I'm using my grandparents car for now. 

Evan Franulovich  1:58  
Oh, you have family in town?

Arthur Sillah  2:00  
Yeah, yeah, my grandparents and my uncle live here.

Evan Franulovich  2:03  
No kidding. Oh, so this may answer a lot of questions - like why did you come to Seattle? We're going to get to those questions in just a minute. But before we do this is a really exciting episode for me, because I've been talking to him about being on my show for quite a while now.

Arthur Sillah  2:19  
Today we decided to do it.

Evan Franulovich  2:21  
Yes, we're doing it today. It's a gray day, so it's a good day to do a podcast. 

Arthur Sillah  2:25  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  2:26  
Do you like this weather? Are you good with Seattle weather?

Arthur Sillah  2:29  
I'm used to it now. 

Evan Franulovich  2:30  
You're used to it now. How long have you been here? 

Arthur Sillah  2:33  
On the 30th of this month, I’ll have been here for two years.

Evan Franulovich  2:36  
Two years, so you're getting close to graduation? 

Arthur Sillah  2:39  
Yes.

Evan Franulovich  2:40  
Cool. All right, we're going to talk all about that. So let's tell everybody who you are, your full name, where you're from exactly, your city, your country. Your major of course, and we just learned how long you've been here. Let's start with that.

Arthur Sillah  2:55  
So first off, my name is Arthur Moina Sillah. I'm from West Africa, Sierra Leone and I'm majoring in political science, and this is my second quarter; this is my second year as a political science student at North Seattle College.

Evan Franulovich  3:10  
Now, you said you're from West Africa. Sierra Leone, but which city in Sierra Leone?

Arthur Sillah  3:16  
I'm from the western area.

Evan Franulovich  3:18  
What's it called? 

Arthur Sillah  3:19  
West Freetown.

Evan Franulovich  3:20  
Oh, cool. What's Freetown, the capital? 

Arthur Sillah  3:23  
Yes.

Evan Franulovich  3:23  
Cool, and for those of you guys who don't know where Sierra Leone is, go check out a map. I have not been there myself, so I'm looking forward one day to maybe seeing your town. Freetown is not too well traveled, right? Not too many tourists from the United States?

Arthur Sillah  3:43  
Ah, well, in December we usually have a lot of tourists that visit from all around the country.

Evan Franulovich  3:50  
Because the weather is nice. Are there good beaches in Sierra Leone?

Arthur Sillah  3:54  
Definitely, we have a lot of good beaches.

Evan Franulovich  3:56  
Really?

Arthur Sillah  3:56  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  3:57  
Clean?

Arthur Sillah  3:57  
Clean. 

Evan Franulovich  3:58  
Nice, sharks?

Arthur Sillah  4:00  
Ah, well, I don't know about sharks.

Evan Franulovich  4:03  
Well, I don't know. You haven't been eaten, though. 

Arthur Sillah  4:05  
No, no. 

Evan Franulovich  4:06  
Do you swim? Are you a swimmer? 

Arthur Sillah  4:07  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  4:08  
Surfer? 

Arthur Sillah  4:09  
No.

Evan Franulovich  4:09  
Not a surfer. Okay, cool, and the water must be really nice then?

Arthur Sillah  4:10  
Yeah, it's really nice. 

Evan Franulovich  4:14  
You guys are real close. Well, you're maybe a little north of the equator, right? 

Arthur Sillah  4:20  
Yes. 

Evan Franulovich  4:21  
Yeah, a little bit. Well, anyway, check out Sierra Leone. Very cool. You're from Freetown. Okay, you were in Sierra Leone, you told me. Just hanging out as a kid, as a boy. Did you always have dreams of coming to the United States, or was this an idea that was planted in your head by one of your parents? Or how did that come about?

Arthur Sillah  4:45  
So I always had a dream to move here, settle down. 

Evan Franulovich  4:49  
Oh, yeah.

Arthur Sillah  4:50  
To better myself and to create a better life for myself and my family. So it's not like the idea was planted. It has always been a dream of mine to move here, and especially to advance my studies.

Evan Franulovich  5:03  
Sure, sure. But you had a lot of options. You could have gone to the UK, could have gone to Australia, but you chose the United States. Is it just because you have family here?

Arthur Sillah  5:11  
That is one reason, because I have family here.

Evan Franulovich  5:15  
 Uh huh. 

Arthur Sillah  5:15  
And the second one is, like I told you earlier, I choose the U.S. because I love it here, no other reason. 

Evan Franulovich  5:22  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  5:23  
The culture and everything.

Evan Franulovich  5:26  
Had you been here before? 

Arthur Sillah  5:27  
No.

Evan Franulovich  5:27  
This is your first time? 

Arthur Sillah  5:28  
It's my first time. 

Evan Franulovich  5:29  
All right, so getting off the plane, you've probably seen movies in Sierra Leone about the United States.

Arthur Sillah  5:35  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  5:35  
Was it what you thought it was going to be? 

Arthur Sillah  5:39  
No.

Evan Franulovich  5:40  
No, it's not what I thought.

Arthur Sillah  5:42  
Definitely, no. 

Evan Franulovich  5:43  
So how is it different than what you thought?

Arthur Sillah  5:45  
I mean, I used to watch a lot of high school movies. I can't remember the movie names, but I used to watch a lot of high school movies, and my expectations were to go to high school here, doing stuff, making friends and all that. But I didn't come here for high school. I came and went to college, which is a lot different.

Evan Franulovich  6:08  
Sure.

Arthur Sillah  6:08  
That is a lot different. So, yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  6:11  
It's true. Yeah, yeah. I would say that South Seattle College and North Seattle College, where you go to school, look a little bit more like high schools. They're not, of course. In what I mean by that is there's usually a building and there's a lot of classrooms in the building, but yeah, it's not the same. 

Arthur Sillah  6:31  
I prefer Central more.

Evan Franulovich  6:34  
Oh, really.

Arthur Sillah  6:35  
Yeah, because it's like an enclosed environment. Everyone is inside the building. So like, you can meet people and interact with them, but South and North are more open, if you understand what I mean.

Evan Franulovich  6:48  
That's true. Yeah, these are a little more traditional campuses where, like, lots of lawns, pathways to walk around in. But if you go to, like, the Alki cafe. There's a lot of students hanging out there, and the cafe at North is really big.

Arthur Sillah  7:03  
Yeah, yeah, it's really big. 

Evan Franulovich  7:05  
Yeah, yeah, So you can meet students there. But you're right, it is all different. Central is a lot more, but it's downtown. It doesn't feel like a campus as much. You know, it's like buildings among other buildings. 

Arthur Sillah  7:18  
You can't even tell. 

Evan Franulovich  7:19  
Yeah. I mean, I love all the campuses personally, but I went to a community college as well, and South feels similar to the community college that I attended. I went to a school in Texas, so it feels a little more like that. But yeah, did you even know what a community college was when you were in Africa? 

Arthur Sillah  7:37  
No.

Evan Franulovich  7:38  
No, so how did you learn about it?

Arthur Sillah  7:42  
Okay, so after high school, I went to football college for a four-year degree.

Evan Franulovich  7:48  
In Sierra Leone?

Arthur Sillah  7:49  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  7:49  
Oh. 

Arthur Sillah  7:51  
I was just sitting down, when my grandma one day told me, 'your uncle in the U.S. is going to apply for you to go to a community college. After that, you can transfer to a four-year college'. I'm like 'okay, that's cool', since that has always been my dream to move here.

Evan Franulovich  8:07  
Yeah.

Arthur Sillah  8:07  
Well, I didn't know which college he was going to apply to. I just knew that he was living in Seattle. 

Evan Franulovich  8:13  
All right. 

Arthur Sillah  8:14  
So after he told me that. I went online and did some research about the community college. He called me and told me, 'Oh, I'm going to apply to the Seattle Colleges for you'. I went to the websites of the colleges, North and Central. Ultimately, I went with North, because of the distance. It is a lot closer to where I live. So yeah, that's how I learned about community college. 

Evan Franulovich  8:40  
Interesting. All right, cool. Had you been in school back in Sierra Leone with anybody that you knew that left to be an international student? Did you know anybody else who had done it?

Arthur Sillah  8:54  
Mostly from high school? No.

Evan Franulovich  8:56  
No?

Arthur Sillah  8:56  
No.

Evan Franulovich  8:57  
You're the only one? 

Arthur Sillah  8:58  
For now. Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  9:00  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  9:00  
I'm the only one.

Evan Franulovich  9:01  
You're the only one.

Arthur Sillah  9:02  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  9:02  
So you're in Freetown. Did you go to a public or a private high school?

Arthur Sillah  9:09  
For preschool, I went to a private school.

Evan Franulovich  9:12  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  9:14  
I went to a public school called Old Boys in junior high. In high school, I went to a government school.

Evan Franulovich  9:24  
Okay. Did you wear a uniform? 

Arthur Sillah  9:26  
Yeah, we had to wear a uniform. It is called 'the Prince of Wales'. You should look it up. 

Evan Franulovich  9:30  
What's it called?

Arthur Sillah  9:32  
Prince of Wales.

Evan Franulovich  9:33  
Shout out to Prince of Wales. Nice. Good school?

Arthur Sillah  9:36  
Yeah, it's a good school. The Queen went there for a visit in the 90's. The prince also went to school there.

Evan Franulovich  9:45  
Wow, that's cool. Did you get to meet them?

Arthur Sillah  9:49  
No, that was in the 90's.

Evan Franulovich  9:51  
No, yeah. You probably weren't even around. So, you went to this school. Did you have a counselor at your school that talked to you about international education at all, or did nobody, none of the teachers, ever mention it?

Arthur Sillah  10:10  
I didn't know anything about international studies. My uncle had the knowledge of that. 

Evan Franulovich  10:14  
Right. So, what does your dad do for a living? What's he do for work?

Arthur Sillah  10:18  
He's a businessman.

Evan Franulovich  10:19  
Okay. What kind of business?

Arthur Sillah  10:21  
He's into mining.

Evan Franulovich  10:22  
Oh, wow, cool. Any particular thing does he mine? 

Arthur Sillah  10:27  
Gold, diamonds, 

Evan Franulovich  10:28  
Nice. Okay, wow, And that must be outside of the city?

Arthur Sillah  10:34  
Yeah, outside of the city. 

Evan Franulovich  10:36  
So did you travel outside to the, did you go to the mine often?

Arthur Sillah  10:41  
No.

Evan Franulovich  10:42  
No? 

Arthur Sillah  10:42  
No.

Evan Franulovich  10:43  
Never?

Arthur Sillah  10:44  
Just once. Usually not all the time, just once.

Evan Franulovich  10:48  
Wow, because that's quite an experience. Is it an open-pit mine, or is it like a tunnel where you guys go?

Arthur Sillah  10:55  
It's an open-pit mine.

Evan Franulovich  10:56  
Open pit, cool. Interesting. All right, great. And then, did you ever travel outside of Sierra Leone as a kid? Like, did your dad take you on vacations to Paris?

Arthur Sillah  11:08  
No, not much as a kid. No (inaudible). Just traveling around Sierra Leone. We went to other districts, like Bo and Kenema. Yeah, more like the southern part of Sierra Leone.

Evan Franulovich  11:22  
Okay, cool. As a student there, did you play sports? 

Arthur Sillah  11:26  
Yes. 

Evan Franulovich  11:27  
What'd you play?

Arthur Sillah  11:29  
We played hand tennis, and we played soccer as well. 

Evan Franulovich  11:32  
Of course, yeah. You know, the Africa Cup is coming up next year in Morocco. How's, what are Sierra Leone's chances? 

Arthur Sillah  11:43  
Man.

Evan Franulovich  11:48  
Not a strong team?

Arthur Sillah  11:50  
Not a strong team, but we'll see. (Inaudible). We're going to win. Let's see.

Evan Franulovich  11:55  
All right. Well, I know like Cote d'Ivoire has a really strong team. Senegal, they're both close to you. So, yeah, Nigeria has a pretty strong team sometimes.

Arthur Sillah  12:04  
Exactly.

Evan Franulovich  12:04  
Cameroon. 

Arthur Sillah  12:05  
You can't tell though. Who knew? Like Saudi Arabia was going to beat Argentina.

Evan Franulovich  12:09  
Right.

Arthur Sillah  12:10  
Who would know?

Evan Franulovich  12:11  
No one.

Arthur Sillah  12:12  
Let's see. 

Evan Franulovich  12:13  
But Morocco, you know, it's their home turf. They're an amazing team. I'm thinking that's going to be tough to beat Morocco.

Arthur Sillah  12:20  
They might still lose to Sierra Leone. 

Evan Franulovich  12:22  
They might, you never know.

Arthur Sillah  12:23  
You never know, exactly.

Evan Franulovich  12:24  
Come on, Sierra Leone, you can do it. Cool. Well, one thing you guys should know is that I just looked in my database over the last six years, our only student from Sierra Leone. So we are excited to have him. One thing is, we love the diversity he brings to the campus. You know people are most Americans, I'm guessing. Don't even know where Sierra Leone is exactly. Do you have a lot of American friends, domestic students or people in the community?

Arthur Sillah  12:50  
Not a lot of American friends. I know a lot of people, since I moved here and as an international student. Now I know a lot of people from different countries. 

Evan Franulovich  13:01  
Oh, yeah, cool.

Arthur Sillah  13:02  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  13:04  
Do you travel within the US at all? Have you, like, been to California? Have you been to Oregon?

Arthur Sillah  13:09  
I just went to Portland. 

Evan Franulovich  13:12  
You did?

Arthur Sillah  13:12  
Yeah, I drove there with my family. 

Evan Franulovich  13:14  
What do you think? 

Arthur Sillah  13:15  
Yeah, it was good. Long drive. 

Evan Franulovich  13:17  
Yeah, yeah. Portland is cool town. 

Arthur Sillah  13:19  
Yeah, we also went to Maryland and Mexico. 

Evan Franulovich  13:21  
Oh, okay, right on. To do what, just look around?

Arthur Sillah  13:26  
Yeah, just to look around and to visit family and friends.

Evan Franulovich  13:28  
Nice. Which city?

Arthur Sillah  13:32  
Baltimore.

Evan Franulovich  13:32  
Ah, yeah, the big city of Baltimore. What do you think of Baltimore? Because east coast is very different than the West Coast.

Arthur Sillah  13:40  
First, it's like a six hour flight. 

Evan Franulovich  13:42  
It's a long way. 

Arthur Sillah  13:43  
I'm not a fan of traveling for long. 

Evan Franulovich  13:45  
Might as well go back to Africa. I mean, six hours is a long flight.

Arthur Sillah  13:48  
Like 16 hours.

Evan Franulovich  13:51  
Yeah, it's a long way. 

Arthur Sillah  13:52  
I didn't know that the flight was 16 hours. Wake up, go to the restroom, go back, sit down. Like that's boring.

Evan Franulovich  14:01  
So from Freetown, you must have had to fly to Accra, or did you go directly to Paris?

Arthur Sillah  14:07  
No, we went to Liberia first. 

Evan Franulovich  14:08  
Oh, you went to Liberia? 

Arthur Sillah  14:09  
Yeah, to pick up some other people. From Liberia we went to Brussels.

Evan Franulovich  14:16  
Oh, okay, Brussels. Okay, that makes sense. Which airline were you on? 

Arthur Sillah  14:19  
Brussels? 

Evan Franulovich  14:20  
Oh, Brussels. Makes sense, and then Brussels to?

Arthur Sillah  14:25  
Washington, D.C. 

Evan Franulovich  14:25  
Oh, you had to go to D.C. first, and then D.C.? 

Arthur Sillah  14:29  
To Washington. 

Evan Franulovich  14:31  
Dude, that's a lot of stops. No wonder it took you so long to get here. 

Arthur Sillah  14:36  
Exactly.

Evan Franulovich  14:37  
You must have been happy to arrive.

Arthur Sillah  14:39  
I mean, I was. I was happy to arrive. Well, that's a long flight.

Evan Franulovich  14:43  
That is a long flight. Did you experience jet lag? 

Arthur Sillah  14:49  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  14:49  
How long?

Arthur Sillah  14:51  
Like a week. 

Evan Franulovich  14:52  
A week?

Arthur Sillah  14:53  
I was just, you know, sleeping.

Evan Franulovich  14:55  
Oh my gosh.

Arthur Sillah  14:56  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  14:57  
Yeah. International students, if you're coming for the first time. Especially if you're from Africa or the Middle East or Europe, or anywhere in those time zones, it's a big change.

Arthur Sillah  15:08  
That's an eight-hour time difference.

Evan Franulovich  15:09  
Oh, is it only eight hours?

Arthur Sillah  15:11  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  15:11  
That's not too bad, but that's a lot. Yeah, whenever I go to Africa. Going to Africa, I don't have a hard time. I adjust pretty quickly, but coming home is usually tough. 

Arthur Sillah  15:21  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  15:23  
Nice. All right, so you had started university, but you didn't finish in Sierra Leone.

Arthur Sillah  15:32  
I had a decision to make. I was almost done with my second year of university. Should I transfer to the U.S.? You know, opportunities only come once, so I had to take the opportunity to come here and start all over again

Evan Franulovich  15:45  
Right. Okay. Well, let's get into your visa process, though. Because you know, I travel to Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal. All these countries, difficult to get a visa. Sierra Leone, even more difficult, from what I understand. So let's talk. You got your I-20 from us. How long did it take for you to get a visa appointment?

Arthur Sillah  16:11  
It took like, two, three months. 

Evan Franulovich  16:13  
Yeah, it takes a while. 

Arthur Sillah  16:14  
I can still remember, I got my I-20 somewhere between early March to June. 

Evan Franulovich  16:18  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  16:19  
Around that time.

Evan Franulovich  16:19  
Right.

Arthur Sillah  16:20  
Then I had a visa appointment on October 10th.

Evan Franulovich  16:24  
Right, yeah, and this was in Freetown?

Arthur Sillah  16:27  
Yes. 

Evan Franulovich  16:27  
Okay, cool. Did you work, in every country, or almost every country there's Education USA offices. Did you work with Education USA at all? 

Arthur Sillah  16:36  
No.

Evan Franulovich  16:38  
You didn't? You guys should know if you're in Sierra Leone or anywhere in West Africa. There are Education USA offices, usually in the capitals, free to people. They usually have libraries. They have computers that you can use. Sometimes they give seminars on what it's like to apply to go to the United States. Sometimes they help you make decisions on what university would be a good fit for you. So yeah, Sierra Leone, check it out. We hope that they'll tell you about community colleges, and then once you figure out what a great deal community colleges are. 

Arthur Sillah  17:16  
Come to Seattle. 

Evan Franulovich  17:17  
Come to Seattle Colleges. Yeah, that would be good. Now did you apply to any other schools, or your grandfather? You said, Right? 

Arthur Sillah  17:24  
Uncle.

Evan Franulovich  17:24  
Uncle, oh. He applied for you, but only Seattle Colleges, or did he apply to other ones too?

Arthur Sillah  17:29  
Only Seattle Colleges.

Evan Franulovich  17:30  
Only Seattle College?

Arthur Sillah  17:32  
My family lives here. 

Evan Franulovich  17:33  
Cool, very nice. What does your uncle do? 

Arthur Sillah  17:41  
He works in pharmaceutical.

Evan Franulovich  17:41  
Oh, okay, cool, nice. All right, and he lives up near Shoreline, up near North Seattle?

Arthur Sillah  17:48  
Lake City. 

Evan Franulovich  17:49  
Nice. Yeah, nice area, cool. So, well, I have so many questions actually, so let's go back to the visa. So you got your appointment. You show up to your appointment. Had you prepared at all?

Arthur Sillah  18:03  
Yeah, I practiced a lot with my uncle. We spent all night the day before the visa interview going through the questions, like: 'Where are you going?', 'What college you're going to?', 'What's your major?', and 'Why did you choose this major?'

Evan Franulovich  18:20  
Right.

Arthur Sillah  18:20  
A lot of random questions.

Evan Franulovich  18:23  
Did those questions actually get asked to you, or were they completely different?

Arthur Sillah  18:28  
Yeah. I mean, I was expecting the visa interview to be intense. I just went in there answering, 'What's your name?', 'Why did you choose the Seattle Colleges', blah, blah, blah. That's all they asked. 

Evan Franulovich  18:43  
That was it? 

Arthur Sillah  18:44  
That was all.

Evan Franulovich  18:46  
We never know what to expect. 

Arthur Sillah  18:47  
Okay, come back next week and collect your visa. Like I was expecting much more, you know.

Evan Franulovich  18:56  
Right.

Arthur Sillah  18:58  
Well, that's all they asked me.

Evan Franulovich  19:00  
Did they want to see any of your paperwork?

Arthur Sillah  19:02  
I mean, they already filled it in. So, yeah, they just needed to, like, confirm, like, you're the person going to travel.

Evan Franulovich  19:09  
Sure. Did they take a long time? Was this like five minutes, ten minutes, three minutes? 

Arthur Sillah  19:18  
It's like five to ten minutes.

Evan Franulovich  19:20  
Five to ten minutes, super fast. Were there other people there applying for student visas at the same time as you 

Arthur Sillah  19:26  
Yes, and the day that I went, there were like 25 to 50 people there. I was lucky, I was the only one granted. 

Evan Franulovich  19:37  
Only one?

Arthur Sillah  19:38  
The only one, I was the only one granted.

Evan Franulovich  19:41  
Wow. 

Arthur Sillah  19:42  
How did I know? Because when coming outside, the security guard said: 'You are the only person coming outside, smiling and being joyful. All the other people that came out, they were frowning and crying, and you're the only one coming out, happy, smiling, so for now, you're the only student that has been granted'

Evan Franulovich  20:01  
Wow, that's pretty lucky. Well, good for you, good for your preparation. Good to know where Seattle is. Sometimes they'll ask you, like, why do you want to go to Seattle? And if you don't even know where Seattle is, that's a big red flag. 

Arthur Sillah  20:16  
Exactly.

Evan Franulovich  20:17  
But you did some preps. That's really good. Guys, do you know where Seattle is? If you know that Seattle's in Washington, you got to understand there's Washington, D.C. 

Arthur Sillah  20:26  
And there's Washington.

Evan Franulovich  20:28  
And there's the state of Washington. If you get those two confused, you'll get your visa denied, I promise you. Well, that's really cool. So you got your visa, and then how long after you got your visa, before you got on an airplane.

Arthur Sillah  20:41  
It took me 30 days. 

Evan Franulovich  20:43  
Oh, okay. 

Arthur Sillah  20:44  
Because of the visa, you have to wait 30 days before the start of the quarter before you can travel here. 

Evan Franulovich  20:49  
Right, right, right. 

Arthur Sillah  20:50  
That was like the longest 30 days of my life.

Evan Franulovich  20:54  
Well, you must have a lot to do. 

Arthur Sillah  20:55  
Exactly. I was just home watching movies. 

Evan Franulovich  20:59  
No.

Arthur Sillah  21:00  
Get up, play soccer, come back, shower, watch a movie and then sleep. That was the longest 30 days of my life.

Evan Franulovich  21:06  
But didn't you have to go and, like, shop for clothes or?

Arthur Sillah  21:10  
I mean, I'm going to the U.S. I didn't actually need to bring a lot of stuff. There's everything here.

Evan Franulovich  21:15  
That's true, but it's more expensive here. Not too bad?

Arthur Sillah  21:19  
Not too bad.

Evan Franulovich  21:21  
It's a lot cheaper in Sierra Leone, right? I mean.

Arthur Sillah  21:24  
Yeah. I mean, in dollars, it is much cheaper, but in León, it is much more expensive.

Evan Franulovich  21:30  
Gotcha, yeah, all right. So you get here, you get off the plane, it's lot different than you thought it seemed to be. You probably didn't meet, we know for sure you didn't meet any other students from Sierra Leone. But did you meet other students at your orientation from the region? Like, were there any students from Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia.

Arthur Sillah  21:51  
During the orientation, there were a lot of Asian students. So basically, I was, like, the only African there.

Evan Franulovich  21:59  
You were the only African student?

Arthur Sillah  22:01  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  22:01  
Yeah, yeah. North doesn't have, I mean, North is our second largest international population. We want to see those numbers climb here at South and at North. Because they're both great places to go, and we definitely want to invite more students from this region. Sierra Leone, come on guys. We want to see you guys here, if at all possible. Yeah. So listen to this carefully, because he's been through the process. A lot of students and I meet in West Africa, they're like, I'm not going to apply to a community college because I won't get a visa. That's absolutely not true. Here's a good example of that. 

Arthur Sillah  22:36  
I'm one. You just need to apply to Seattle Colleges, get your I-20 and apply for visa. You can't tell, anything can happen.

Evan Franulovich  22:44  
 Right.

Arthur Sillah  22:44  
You're definitely going to get that visa. So just apply, don't think about it.

Evan Franulovich  22:48  
Well, we're not going to say 'you definitely will get a visa'. What we will say is that, if you do your research, if you know where we are, what you're doing, you have a good plan, how you're going to use that information when you come back, those are all good things.

Arthur Sillah  23:02  
Yes.

Evan Franulovich  23:04  
Well, really nice that you have family in the area. I'm assuming they must have picked you up at the airport. 

Arthur Sillah  23:08  
Yeah, they picked me up from the airport.

Evan Franulovich  23:11  
Right. If you have family, that's wonderful, because then they help with rent and food, because they're providing that to you. Do you have your own room?

Arthur Sillah  23:21  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  23:21  
You've got a good deal, wonderful. 

Arthur Sillah  23:24  
I'm lucky with that part. 

Evan Franulovich  23:25  
Yeah, you don't have to worry. Just tuition and fees, and you're good. Now with tuition and fees. Have you been able to apply for any scholarships to help pay for that?

Arthur Sillah  23:34  
Yeah, I got a scholarship in spring. 

Evan Franulovich  23:38  
Oh.

Arthur Sillah  23:38  
The NSC granted me like $5,000 for tuition and books. It is also for housing and other stuff. It covers everything.

Evan Franulovich  23:38  
Which scholarship was that?

Arthur Sillah  23:43  
It's only available at North Seattle.

Evan Franulovich  23:50  
That's my thought. It's the it's the leadership one, right?

Arthur Sillah  23:58  
It's called the NSC grant, not Seattle College grants.

Evan Franulovich  24:04  
I'm gonna need to know more about this later. That's really cool. When do you apply for it?

Arthur Sillah  24:09  
In spring. I applied the day they send the email out, and the other week they responded to me. I was granted with $5,000.

Evan Franulovich  24:17  
What do you have to do to apply for it? Is there like an essay?

Arthur Sillah  24:21  
No, you just need to fill out the form. They ask questions like, 'Why do you need this?'. That's all. There's not a lot of steps. 

Evan Franulovich  24:29  
Pretty easy. Wow, did you apply for the Foundation Scholarship?

Arthur Sillah  24:34  
Yes, I did also apply for that. I was unlucky, and I didn't get it.

Evan Franulovich  24:38  
But you can apply every year, so don't forget to reapply. You're going to be graduating soon, though, so maybe it doesn't make sense for you to apply. What about,  Phi Theta Kappa, or one of the honor societies? 

Arthur Sillah  24:52  
Say that again.

Evan Franulovich  24:53  
So do you know that there's an honor society called Phi Theta Kappa, if your GPA is high enough, they'll invite you into it.

Arthur Sillah  25:01  
I think I've received that email before.

Evan Franulovich  25:04  
Yeah, but you didn't join. 

Arthur Sillah  25:07  
Ah, I was going to respond to the email, but like my mind.

Evan Franulovich  25:13  
Just check it out. Check it out. The nice thing about Phi Theta Kappa, there's a number of really great reasons. I have a podcast with three of their officers that you should definitely listen to, but there's just a lot of great reasons to join that organization. They have jobs, sometimes they have scholarship money, sometimes just a lot of really great reasons.

Arthur Sillah  25:35  
They have a lot of scholarships that they give out.

Evan Franulovich  25:38  
Now, another thing that we have available is Project Baldwin. Are you involved with Project Baldwin?

Arthur Sillah  25:44  
Yep, I'm part of Project Baldwin.

Evan Franulovich  25:46  
Yeah. Can you tell everybody what Project Baldwin is? 

Arthur Sillah  25:49  
Well.

Evan Franulovich  25:56  
Okey.

Arthur Sillah  25:56  
I don't know much about the Baldwin Project, but I'm part of it.

Evan Franulovich  25:59  
You're part of it, yeah.

Arthur Sillah  26:00  
But one thing I can tell you is, if you need help with things like funding and stuff, they can help you.

Evan Franulovich  26:07  
Project Baldwin is an organization dedicated to helping men of color succeed. They want to see men of color, and not just African American or African, could be Middle East, could be Latin America, but they just want to mentor. Offer ways to network. Sometimes they'll help you find work or internships. It's more than just maybe having some financial support, but there's all these other great reasons to do it, and you just meet a lot of their cool students. Do you know Giovanni from Jamaica? 

Arthur Sillah  26:43  
Yeah I know Giovanni.

Evan Franulovich  26:45  
Good guy. He was on the podcast. He loves Project Baldwin. So yeah, he talks a lot about it.

Arthur Sillah  26:51  
I think he also works there.

Evan Franulovich  26:53  
Yes, yeah he does. Occasionally they have positions available. So definitely check it out. Now I said men of color there is going to be, from what I understand, Project Maya, or something similar. That's dedicated to women of color to help them succeed. So keep your eyes open. You can always stop by the Project Baldwin office and ask them about it. If you're a female of color here already, but if you're in Africa right now, and you're getting ready to come to Seattle Colleges. Remember that it's there, so when you arrive, you can make connections. If nothing else, you'll meet great people and be able to do that stuff.

Arthur Sillah  27:33  
And we have a great community here to support you with whatever you need. You just need to reach out to them. 

Evan Franulovich  27:39  
You guys do like social stuff too, right?

Arthur Sillah  27:41  
Yeah, yeah. Even on, I think, on Friday next week (inaudible), we all go together and play games.

Evan Franulovich  27:50  
Oh, cool.

Arthur Sillah  27:50  
Eat food and enjoy ourselves, and that's all. Then we go back home. We usually have, like a basketball team.  (inaudible). At times we go fishing. 

Evan Franulovich  28:01  
What? 

Arthur Sillah  28:02  
Yeah, it's a lot more fun. 

Evan Franulovich  28:04  
Have you met King? Do you know King?

Arthur Sillah  28:06  
From North? 

Evan Franulovich  28:07  
He's a big fisherman.

Arthur Sillah  28:08  
Yeah, yeah. He introduced me to the Project Baldwind when I first came here.

Evan Franulovich  28:12  
If you guys haven't met King, you should, because he knows everybody. Seems like he's at a North as well. He's on my podcast. You can listen to his episode, from Angola. Yeah, I understand. He's a big fisherman. So, I should have you guys. I live on a lake, so I've invited him up. King, where are you? But you guys should come up and go fishing.

Arthur Sillah  28:32  
Yeah, we'll find time to come up.

Evan Franulovich  28:34  
Definitely. I've got a little canoe. I'll just throw you guys out in the lake and you guys go fish all day, if you want.

Arthur Sillah  28:41  
That's a date. 

Evan Franulovich  28:42  
That's a date, man, anytime. Seriously. So that's really cool. You get here, you start your classes, but first, before you start your classes, you have to go through orientation. You did yours at North. What kinds of things, for those of you who haven't arrived yet, what kinds of things can you expect at orientation?

Arthur Sillah  29:03  
Well, when I was back home in Sierra Leone, we had an orientation for college. So everyone goes there, they show you around the campus, talk about the campus history, your professors and the different departments. After that, you can go walk around the campus, see your classrooms and everything. So I pretty much had an idea. Then, when I moved here, it was the same thing again. We all met at the international office, got a little name tag. They talked about a lot of different things that can help you in the future. And after that, we walked around the campus. Saw different things. So, yeah.

Evan Franulovich  29:50  
Yeah, and they feed you.

Arthur Sillah  29:57  
 Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  30:01  
What do you think?

Arthur Sillah  29:56  
(Inaudible). 

Evan Franulovich  30:24  
When you did it it was probably middle eastern food,I'm guessing.

Arthur Sillah  30:23  
Yes.

Evan Franulovich  30:24  
They had like falafel and hummus and that kind of stuff. Good stuff, I thought. They used to do pizza. So for those of us, who have done a number of orientations. We we're getting tired of pizza. We're were like, 'Can we do something else?'. So they started bringing in this Middle Eastern food. Which is great for students that are looking for halal, kind of options maybe, that kind of stuff. Alright cool, so your first quarter, what kinds of classes did you take?

Arthur Sillah  30:38  
I took ISD 200 at Central, then English 101, and then Math 98, immediate algebra, again.

Evan Franulovich  30:49  
Cool, cool. And were they good classes?

Arthur Sillah  30:52  
Yeah, they were good classes.

Evan Franulovich  30:55  
You got good grades. 

Arthur Sillah  30:56  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  30:57  
Nice. Good student. When you applied. I can't remember if Sierra Leone is on the list or not, but did you have to do an English proficiency test?

Arthur Sillah  31:07  
Yeah, that, Yeah. I had to take the IELTS exam. 

Evan Franulovich  31:10  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  31:10  
Yeah. I took the test and I got the grade 6.5.

Evan Franulovich  31:14  
So that's good enough.

Arthur Sillah  31:16  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  31:17  
So, if you're from Sierra Leone, or maybe one of the Francophone nations there in West Africa, you'll probably need to provide some sort of English proficiency example, like IELTS or Duolingo or whatever. Yeah, cool. So you didn't have to go to our English proficiency school; you got right into it. English 101, though, how difficult was that class? Because, you know, we're American-English

Arthur Sillah  31:46  
Well, I had to meet a lot of people from the Student Learning Center. I can't actually remember the word.

Evan Franulovich  31:58  
Right.

Arthur Sillah  31:58  
I had a lot of help from those people.

Evan Franulovich  32:01  
They're like, tutors.

Arthur Sillah  32:02  
Yeah, tutors. And the English one was not, like, quite that hard. I just had to do, like, a lot of reading and explanation..

Evan Franulovich  32:10  
Right.

Arthur Sillah  32:11  
So it was not that hard.

Evan Franulovich  32:12  
So don't worry, it'll be fine. 

Arthur Sillah  32:14  
You'' be okay. 

Evan Franulovich  32:14  
You'll be okay. Cool. And then my question to you is, after you get accepted, they'll give you a pre-arrival checklist, right? 

Arthur Sillah  32:28  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  32:28  
And one of the things on that checklist is a, it's saying, I'm coming, I'm going to be a student. It's a pre-arrival, what's it called? 

Arthur Sillah  32:28  
Checklist?

Evan Franulovich  32:29  
No, it's on the checklist. It's just escaping me because I'm getting old. It's a thing you send them that says, I'm coming, I'm going to be there, I got my visa, whatever. Intent to Enroll Form.

Arthur Sillah  32:55  
Oh, Intent To Enroll. Okay I know.

Evan Franulovich  32:56  
So you filled out the Intent to Enroll Form?

Arthur Sillah  32:59  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  32:59  
Yeah, yeah. So when you submitted that, did you hear from an advisor after that, or because they set up your classes for the first quarter, right?

Arthur Sillah  33:09  
Yeah, yeah. So after I submitted that form, I got an email back from the advisor saying, 'Once you are here, you get to meet up with an advisor to set up your classes and to settle in.' So yeah, once I was here in the U.S., that was the first thing that I did.

Evan Franulovich  33:22  
But you heard from them before you arrived, right? 

Arthur Sillah  33:25  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  33:25  
Okay. And did they tell you what your class schedule was going to be, or did they ask you for preferences? How did that work? How did they select your classes?

Arthur Sillah  33:34  
Well, they select your classes depending on your major. 

Evan Franulovich  33:37  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  33:37  
Yeah, but before selecting classes, you have to take a placement test so they can test your skills in, like, math. They do this to know if you know a lot of math or not, and to see which one you are most comfortable starting with.

Evan Franulovich  33:49  
Right.

Arthur Sillah  33:49  
I took the placement test and I started with Math 98. After that, I sent it back to the advisor, and there were, like, a lot of class options for me to select where I wanted to start.

Evan Franulovich  34:00  
Oh.

Arthur Sillah  34:00  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  34:00  
So you had a little say in what you were taking?

Arthur Sillah  34:03  
Yeah. There were a lot of classes. 

Evan Franulovich  34:04  
I did not know that. That's really, I learned something every time I do this show. So that's cool. So they give you and then they came up with a final schedule for your first quarter?

Arthur Sillah  34:12  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  34:14  
So you already had it when you got off the plane.

Arthur Sillah  34:16  
Yeah. So you just have to follow that schedule.

Evan Franulovich  34:18  
So cool. Did you have to change any of the ones you initially chose, or did you pretty much stick with the ones you got?

Arthur Sillah  34:26  
So, I had to take a Spanish class, which was out of my major. I also had to take an IT class, because I needed to have a little background in it. So I did, like, IT and Spanish, and I'm planning to take French.

Evan Franulovich  34:46  
You already speak French?

Arthur Sillah  34:49  
I did when I was in preschool. I have a little bit of knowledge about it. I'm going to take French this winter.

Evan Franulovich  34:56  
Easy. No problem. What about Spanish? No Spanish, I'm guessing? 

Arthur Sillah  35:00  
No Spanish.

Evan Franulovich  35:01  
No, no. Yeah, but it's similar to French, so I mean, kind of. Well, that's cool. And then for the second quarter, you were on your own for choosing classes, right?

Arthur Sillah  35:11  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  35:12  
And at what point do you have to start choosing your classes? How did you choose your classes? Can you walk through the process of choosing your own classes for subsequent quarters?

Arthur Sillah  35:25  
Okay, for the first three quarters, my advisor planned everything for me. I had a problem with selecting my classes. But after those three quarters, I am now figuring out if I still want to major in political science. That's why I took the IT class, to see if I like it and if I can do computer science instead. But at the end of the quarter, I decided to continue to study political science.I can always get a degree in computer science. So it doesn't matter whether you start with this or that major, you can always get a degree in whatever you want. So, the major you're studying for your associate degree doesn't really matter. After that, I decided to take the IT and the Spanish class. Then after that quarter, I met with my advisor. And there's this thing called planner in your CTC, your canvas. After that you just select the classes. Automatically, each quarter, you just go in there and register for those classes. That's all.

Evan Franulovich  36:33  
And are all your classes during the day? Or do you take any night classes?

Arthur Sillah  36:39  
All my classes are during the day. I like taking classes after ten, which is like 11. 

Evan Franulovich  36:45  
So you sleep in? 

Arthur Sillah  36:47  
so I can get a lot of rest, yeah.

Evan Franulovich  36:50  
Cool. Well, that's kind of nice that you can arrange your schedule that way. I know sometimes people want to take a night class. You have no night classes? Do you have any classes on like, Friday or Saturday?

Arthur Sillah  37:04  
I don't take any classes on Fridays or Saturday, but, there are a lot of classes available. The IT class that I took was around six to 8pm.

Evan Franulovich  37:14  
That's cool. 

Arthur Sillah  37:15  
So yeah, I had to take that night class, and the campus was safe. Everything was okay.

Evan Franulovich  37:20  
Right. North Seattle's in a good part of town. I mean, actually, all our campuses are really safe, in my opinion. So you shouldn't have a problem anywhere you go. It's pretty nice. Wow, that's cool. So what do you do for fun in Seattle?

Arthur Sillah  37:36  
I play soccer. 

Evan Franulovich  37:37  
You do, club team? 

Arthur Sillah  37:41  
I do Drop-Ins at times. (Inaudible), which we usually play together on Fridays. 

Evan Franulovich  37:48  
Oh, cool, nice. 

Arthur Sillah  37:50  
Apart from that, I do photography. 

Evan Franulovich  37:52  
Oh, really.

Arthur Sillah  37:53  
 Yeah, walk around the city, take pictures.

Evan Franulovich  37:57  
Do you have a DSL? Or do you have a phone? 

Arthur Sillah  38:00  
No I have a camera.

Evan Franulovich  38:04  
Very cool. Do you have an Instagram you want people to check out? You don't have to, if you don't want to.

Arthur Sillah  38:11  
I have an Instagram which is shots by Arthur. So it's S, H O T, S, B, Y then A, R, T, H, U, R.

Evan Franulovich  38:20  
There you go, check out his work there. Very cool. See, you have a preference. Do you like doing portraits of people, or do you like more architectural type stuff? What do you do? 

Arthur Sillah  38:32  
See, since just started. I do a lot of portraits and street photography, and I like a little bit of nature. 

Evan Franulovich  38:40  
Cool.

Arthur Sillah  38:41  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  38:41  
Love it. I like doing.

Arthur Sillah  38:44  
I'm also into cars.

Evan Franulovich  38:44  
Oh, yeah, lot of cars in the United States. It's kind of a cool place for cars. But sometimes when I travel in Africa, sometimes I'll see a car and I'm like, I can't buy that car in the United States. You guys have some cool cars that we don't have, which is wild. 

Arthur Sillah  38:45  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  38:46  
Food, let's talk food. You're from a great part of the world for food. How's the food in the United States?

Arthur Sillah  39:05  
To start, Sierra Leone has the best jollof. So let's forget about Nigeria or Ghana. You just have the best jollof. No argument about that. And for food and spices, Sierra Leone has the best food and spices. That was, like, really, one of the problems I had when I went fishing. That's why I like eating food at home, but at times I wanted to go out and eat. I had a lot of struggles finding restaurants serving food from Sierra Leone. I didn't have a lot of expectations. So yeah, but I found one, and ever since I found that one, I've been there, like, every single week.

Evan Franulovich  39:49  
What? 

Arthur Sillah  39:49  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  39:50  
What's the name?

Arthur Sillah  39:53  
It's Dijah's Kitchen.

Evan Franulovich  39:56  
And it's in the north part of Seattle?

Arthur Sillah  39:58  
No around shoreline.

Evan Franulovich  40:00  
Okay, we'll check it out, guys. That's really good to know. I'm always looking for legit food. 

Arthur Sillah  40:06  
Dijah's Kitchen. 

Evan Franulovich  40:07  
But yeah, you know, we get a lot of listeners from Nigeria and Ghana. They're going to hear what you just said. 

Arthur Sillah  40:16  
They can argue.

Evan Franulovich  40:17  
That's awesome. Very cool. Okay, well, what about clubs or like, activities that you've done? Did you go to the Halloween party recently?

Arthur Sillah  40:28  
I didn't, but I wanted to go, but I traveled.

Evan Franulovich  40:31  
But what other activities have you done? 

Arthur Sillah  40:37  
Hm.

Evan Franulovich  40:39  
If any?

Arthur Sillah  40:40  
I've been to the game show at South Seattle. They have, like, a little kid Game Center. 

Evan Franulovich  40:46  
Cool, yeah.

Arthur Sillah  40:47  
I've been there.

Evan Franulovich  40:49  
International Programs they'll usually do like, three or four activities a quarter. One of the popular ones is the Seattle Mariners game. 

Arthur Sillah  40:58  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  40:58  
Did you go to the baseball game? 

Arthur Sillah  41:00  
Not yet.

Evan Franulovich  41:00  
Not yet. Next spring, maybe. What about the winter one where they take you up into the mountains?

Arthur Sillah  41:06  
I wanted to go, but I didn't have a lot of time to go. Well, definitely this winter.

Evan Franulovich  41:12  
Yeah, for sure. 

Arthur Sillah  41:13  
Now I'm going to like every little activity they host. 

Evan Franulovich  41:17  
Not a lot of snow in Sierra Leone.

Arthur Sillah  41:18  
Yeah. We don't even know what snow is. We just see it in the movies.

Evan Franulovich  41:22  
Have you been up to the mountain yet?

Arthur Sillah  41:25  
We went to Mount Rainier last weekend. 

Evan Franulovich  41:26  
Oh.

Arthur Sillah  41:27  
With my friends.

Evan Franulovich  41:28  
Yeah, so it's the first time you've ever seen snow? 

Arthur Sillah  41:31  
No.

Evan Franulovich  41:32  
Okay, when was the first time you saw it?

Arthur Sillah  41:36  
It was 2023.

Evan Franulovich  41:38  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  41:38  
Winter. I saw snow. 

Evan Franulovich  41:39  
Okay, cool. 

Arthur Sillah  41:40  
That was my first day.

Evan Franulovich  41:41  
Yeah, it's good. Gotta go see the snow while you're here. I mean, it doesn't snow much in the city, hardly ever. Actually, you have to drive up to the mountains. There's about an hour or so.

Arthur Sillah  41:52  
Yeah, (inaudible).

Evan Franulovich  41:54  
Depending on traffic for sure. Yeah, that's cool. All right. Do you hear that? That means it's Trivia Time. Bom. Bom, bom. Yes, this is the part of the show where we ask you five questions. If you get them all right, you're on our wall of fame. If you get them wrong. Well, you're gonna get made fun of by the Nigerian students. All right. But before we do that, I forgot to do this earlier in the show, I do a little getting to know you. And this is just you get two choices. Just tell us which one you would choose. The first one is coffee or tea?

Arthur Sillah  42:29  
Tea.

Evan Franulovich  42:30  
Interesting. You're one of the first that has said tea. Tea is kind of big in Sierra Leone.

Arthur Sillah  42:35  
Yeah, we drink a lot of tea. No, like we have coffees we really don't drink coffee. 

Evan Franulovich  42:40  
Interesting. Was Sierra Leone, British? 

Arthur Sillah  42:44  
Yeah, (inaudible).

Evan Franulovich  42:47  
Dang, those British. Oh, all right, mountains or beach? 

Arthur Sillah  42:51  
Beach.

Evan Franulovich  42:52  
Beach, all right, cool. Early Bird or night owl? We know the answer to this already.

Arthur Sillah  42:58  
I'm a night owl.

Evan Franulovich  42:59  
Yeah, as I thought, Books or movies?

Arthur Sillah  43:03  
Books.

Evan Franulovich  43:04  
Oh, how about texting or phone calls?

Arthur Sillah  43:10  
I'm a big texter.

Evan Franulovich  43:11  
Okay, you're one of the first that said texting. So that's interesting, cats or dogs?

Arthur Sillah  43:16  
Dogs.

Evan Franulovich  43:17  
Yeah, do you have a dog back home? 

Arthur Sillah  43:18  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  43:19  
Yeah?

Arthur Sillah  43:19  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  43:20  
Cool. One or two?

Arthur Sillah  43:23  
Three.

Evan Franulovich  43:24  
Three dogs. What kind of dogs are they? 

Arthur Sillah  43:26  
There's only one breed where I'm from.

Evan Franulovich  43:29  
Oh, there's only one breed. What?

Arthur Sillah  43:32  
I don't actually know the name of the breed. Just look for African dogs. You will know.

Evan Franulovich  43:38  
This is the one.

Arthur Sillah  43:38  
Even though that's the one.

Evan Franulovich  43:39  
It's supposed to be a bigger dog?

Arthur Sillah  43:42  
Yeah, no doubt, big. 

Evan Franulovich  43:43  
Mean? They'll eat you? 

Arthur Sillah  43:44  
No.

Evan Franulovich  43:49  
No, okay.

Arthur Sillah  43:50  
 They'll bite you.

Evan Franulovich  43:51  
They will bite you. Okay, be careful. All right, city or country?

Arthur Sillah  43:56  
City.

Evan Franulovich  43:58  
Adventure or chill at home?

Arthur Sillah  44:02  
Adventure. Depending on which people I'm going with. I like to just stay home, chill.

Evan Franulovich  44:07  
Cool, summer or winter?

Arthur Sillah  44:11  
We have two seasons. 

Evan Franulovich  44:12  
Yeah, that's right. 

Arthur Sillah  44:14  
We have the dry season and the rainy seasons. I prefer the dry season. It rains a lot.

Evan Franulovich  44:19  
Okay, what about Seattle? We have kind of four seasons.

Arthur Sillah  44:21  
I love summer here. 

Evan Franulovich  44:22  
Summer is beautiful in Seattle. All right, cooking at home or eating out?

Arthur Sillah  44:28  
Cooking at home. 

Evan Franulovich  44:28  
Oh, I thought for sure you were gonna say eating out. So, yeah, cooking at home. That's great. All right. Now for the five trivia questions. First question is, we are in the state of Washington. If I drive north, I run into another country. What is that country?

Arthur Sillah  44:48  
You should drive north, Canada. 

Evan Franulovich  44:51  
Canada. Nice job. Very good. Now in Canada, there are two languages that are official. What are the two official languages in Canada?

Arthur Sillah  45:05  
What is it, English? 

Evan Franulovich  45:06  
English is one.

Arthur Sillah  45:07  
 Spanish?

Evan Franulovich  45:08  
No, 'Francais' is the French. 

Arthur Sillah  45:18  
Oh, now I know.

Evan Franulovich  45:20  
Now, here's question number three. If I drive south from Seattle and I just keep driving for a couple days, I'll eventually hit another country. What country will I hit if I drive south?

Arthur Sillah  45:31  
Mexico. 

Evan Franulovich  45:32  
Mexico. Good, and what language do they speak in Mexico?

Arthur Sillah  45:38  
Spanish. 

Evan Franulovich  45:39  
Yes. Spanish. Nice job. Very good. All right. Now, question number four. You had said earlier that you play soccer. You're a soccer player. You might not know this, but we have a professional soccer team here in the city of Seattle. What is the name of our professional soccer team? 

Arthur Sillah  45:57  
Sounders.

Evan Franulovich  45:58  
The Sounders. Have you been to a game? 

Arthur Sillah  46:01  
No, but I watched The Club World Cup.

Evan Franulovich  46:04  
Oh, yeah. Cool. Well, maybe in the future, you go check out a Sanders game. Cool. All right. Last question. I mentioned books or movies. What was last movie you saw?

Arthur Sillah  46:20  
I'm still watching Naruto. Don't judge me. It's an anime movie.

Evan Franulovich  46:23  
Oh, anime. I have a lot of students that watch anime. You should start an anime club, it's so many people that watch it. What do you like about anime? I think they all kind of look the same.

Arthur Sillah  46:34  
Different. There's a lot of different stuff. 

Evan Franulovich  46:36  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  46:37  
Yeah, all right. For the one I watch, I'm currently watching. It teaches you a lot about patience, discipline and about a lot of other stuff.

Evan Franulovich  46:46  
Huh, I guess I need to give it a more of a try. Anime. 

Arthur Sillah  46:50  
I recommend  Naruto.

Evan Franulovich  46:51  
All right, cool. Well, you didn't make the wall of fame. He did pretty well. Nice. Have you been to Canada yet? By the way.

Arthur Sillah  46:53  
No. 

Evan Franulovich  46:53  
Think you probably have to have a visa, right? 

Arthur Sillah  47:02  
I don't think so. 

Evan Franulovich  47:03  
No?

Arthur Sillah  47:04  
Because last time I just needed a signature from my advisor, and I just showed them.

Evan Franulovich  47:10  
And you're good to go. Yeah. If you are an international student here at Seattle Colleges and you're thinking about crossing the border into Canada, definitely talk to your advisor first. Get the signature. Definitely check into your nationality. Canada does require visas from some countries. Check it out. That's really good. Well, cool. Well, we're almost to the end of the show. We only have a couple things left to do. The first thing, and this is going to be news for me, because I haven't heard your language. We asked you to say like, 15-20 seconds in your first language. So what's your first language? 

Arthur Sillah  47:45  
Krio.

Evan Franulovich  47:45  
All right, I'm excited to hear this. So yeah, and you can just say anything you want. You say hi to your family back home, or you can give encouragement to students back in Sierra Leone, or whatever you want to do.

Arthur Sillah  48:21  
(Speaks Krio).

Evan Franulovich  48:24  
Now that sounded almost like English.

Arthur Sillah  48:35  
I mean, it is mixed with English. Like English and broken English. 

Evan Franulovich  48:40  
All right. 

Arthur Sillah  48:41  
Mixed together.

Evan Franulovich  48:42  
well, I kind of followed along. So that's great. Cool. First time I've ever heard it, though that's nice. Other languages in your country, though, I'm guessing there must be a number of tribal languages?

Arthur Sillah  48:56  
I think we have 50-60.

Evan Franulovich  48:57  
Oh my gosh, that's crazy. And when you go to school, you're required to take English?

Arthur Sillah  49:04  
Um, yeah.

Evan Franulovich  49:05  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  49:05  
Everyone speaks English.

Evan Franulovich  49:07  
Okay, and do they make you take another language, a second language? Like, did you have to take Latin or German or something?

Arthur Sillah  49:12  
No, you just need to learn your tribal language. 

Evan Franulovich  49:16  
Oh, you do?

Arthur Sillah  49:17  
Composito. 

Evan Franulovich  49:19  
Wow, okay. Last question. You're the old man now on campus. You've been through it. You are a veteran, as wise man. What kind of wisdom can you share? Like if there are students back in West Africa and Sierra Leone specifically, and they're thinking, 'Oh really like to be an international student too'. What kind of wisdom would you give them? Since you've been through it.

Arthur Sillah  49:48  
It's great to start. It's great to start. Once you are here, you're going to have the community that will support you in anything you need. Just know it's safe. The community is safe. So anything you'll need as an international student, whenever I need help or when I need someone to talk to, I always reach out to my community, which is the International Programs. If you just walk in and say that you want to speak with an advisor, or you need a counselor. There are a lot of things here for you to do. A lot of friends you can meet, places to go.

Evan Franulovich  50:25  
Don't be shy. Just get out there. Lots of support. Absolutely. 

Arthur Sillah  50:28  
Talk to people. 

Evan Franulovich  50:30  
Talk to people important.

Arthur Sillah  50:30  
You never know who you will meet out there. 

Evan Franulovich  50:32  
Cool. 

Arthur Sillah  50:33  
Just talk to people.

Evan Franulovich  50:34  
Free town, safe?

Arthur Sillah  50:36  
Safe, yeah, free town is safe. Yeah, it's safe.

Evan Franulovich  50:40  
So if I go and just walk around, no problem?

Arthur Sillah  50:42  
Do you know that if you Google the top countries that are happy to help strangers, Sierra Leon is top five.

Evan Franulovich  50:51  
That's awesome. 

Arthur Sillah  50:51  
Sierra Leon is top five. We are always happy to help strangers. 

Evan Franulovich  50:55  
Oh, wow. 

Arthur Sillah  50:56  
Google it.

Evan Franulovich  50:57  
I'm gonna Google it. It wasn't too long ago, I was in Rwanda. Have you been to Rwanda? 

Arthur Sillah  51:03  
No.

Evan Franulovich  51:04  
Amazing, super clean, the people are super friendly. I even walked around at night. And, you know, I stick out a little bit. Because, you know. But, yeah, no problems at all. It was super safe. So I'm looking forward to going to Freetown, experiencing that.

Arthur Sillah  51:19  
The beaches, the mountains. 

Evan Franulovich  51:20  
Oh yeah, definitely go to the beach. Cool. 

Arthur Sillah  51:23  
You should go to The Lion Mountain. 

Evan Franulovich  51:26  
What's The Lion Mountain? 

Arthur Sillah  51:27  
The Lion Mountain?

Evan Franulovich  51:27  
Are there lions?

Arthur Sillah  51:30  
So, we got the name from a Portuguese exloplorer. So, it was 'Serra Leoa'. 

Evan Franulovich  51:36  
Ah, I got you.

Arthur Sillah  51:37  
Back in the days there were lions in the mountains. The mountain was shaped like a lion. 

Evan Franulovich  51:43  
Okay.

Arthur Sillah  51:44  
Laying down. 

Evan Franulovich  51:45  
Gotcha. 

Arthur Sillah  51:48  
(iaudible).

Evan Franulovich  51:49  
Makes sense, yeah. Well, that's a good point. Do some people speak Portuguese? 

Arthur Sillah  51:55  
No.

Evan Franulovich  51:56  
Okay, that was a long time ago. 

Arthur Sillah  51:58  
That wasn't in the 80-90's.

Evan Franulovich  52:00  
So it's not like Sao Tome or Angola or whatever. Okay, cool. All right. Well, because King, you know. He'd like to speak to you in Portuguese, he's Portuguese. Guys, thanks for being here. It was really great to talk to you. We've only run into each other at the front desk. So this is my biggest visit with you. Really good, got to know you. Come up fishing,

Arthur Sillah  52:23  
Definitely. I'm going to come up.

Evan Franulovich  52:25  
Do you have a poll? 

Arthur Sillah  52:26  
No.

Evan Franulovich  52:26  
Okay, I think I have a poll you might be able to use, but we'll figure something out. 

Arthur Sillah  52:30  
Yeah, okay.

Evan Franulovich  52:32  
All right, guys, thank you for joining us. We're here every Wednesday. Seattle Colleges Conversations With!, don't forget to like, subscribe and share with everybody you know. Counselors, teachers, other students, anybody.

Arthur Sillah  52:47  
Anybody, just like, share, subscribe for more.

Evan Franulovich  52:52  
And we're hoping you guys in Sierra Leone, in some of those countries, right next door. We want to see more application. We want to see you guys on campus. We need someone to back him up on this whole jollof rice thing.

Arthur Sillah  53:04  
I need more Sierra Leon folks here. Come on, guys. 

Evan Franulovich  53:07  
Otherwise he's all by himself.

Arthur Sillah  53:08  
All by myself. 

Evan Franulovich  53:09  
It's dangerous. It's good. Take care guys. Thanks so much. 

Arthur Sillah  53:15  
See you around.

Evan Franulovich  53:15  
Bye bye.

Evan Franulovich  53:18  
Conversations with! is painstakingly crafted for you by the Seattle Colleges International Programs
 department and supported by the lovely folks here on our campus. This show is produced and edited by me, Evan Franulovich. We welcome your emails and questions about coming to Seattle Colleges. Please reach out to us via our website or just give us a rating and a review on Apple podcasts as this helps
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