As an Indonesian international student, being far from home and away from familiar aspects of my culture has made me struggle with feelings of disconnection.
It turns out that many other international students face similar challenges with cultural adaptation. This sense of disconnection can be described as a persistent loop, often due to the difficulty in building and maintaining connections with local students. To address this issue and create a more meaningful experience, it is necessary to start early by helping international students find commonalities; this, in return, fosters social ease and encourages meet-ups with other students.
Viewing natural places and scenes can be a tool to help reduce feelings of isolation; hence, drawing back to cultural and personal experiences enables international students to regain familiar points in a new environment.
There are six components in Intertwined:
- Flora and Fauna card
- Question cards
- Maps
- QR code to map
- Prompt sheet
- Rulebook
In Intertwined, players are required to take each card from the Flora and Fauna and Questions deck. After reading each card, players are encouraged to story-tell their–cultural and personal–experiences relating to the species in the Flora and Fauna card. Underneath each question card, players can complete side quests. Once done, players are encouraged to guess and mark down on the map where they think the species are in Auckland CBD. Additionally, they can sketch or note down their thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, in the end, all players are encouraged to explore the city to discover the locations where the species might be.
Explore the webpage for a digital copy of the map!
