That part of the world is intense! Super brave! I bet the culture your soaking up is priceless though! How long is your student exchange there for? Amazing introduce yourself post!
Welcome! Some things I've noticed people don't mention too often that could have helped me early on in my Steemit adventures are:

https://Steemworld.org/@oliviakk28
-a (nearly) complete interactive page that gives you a better overall experience and overview of what is really happening on your steem page.

https://steemengine.net/join?r=633

• Steemengine, the followers I have gained from it is unreal! I gained 225 just in the past five days. If you want you can use my referral link above not required though...

https://steemit.com/decentmemes/@dynamicgreentk/decentmemes-1520833392629

If your going to buy upvotes for post promotion try and follow grumpy cat and his rules...

https://steemit.com/grumpycat/@mikel2la1/grumpy-cat-making-a-difference

Check out Hive account@kennyskitchen and his introduceyourself post tips it is extremely helpful and informative!

https://steemit.com/steemit/@kennyskitchen/2k8asu0f

I have been having fun using https://www.decentmemes.com to create memes for the steemit blockchain. It's a smaller version of the bigger guys meme site. I have received a lot of organic upvotes large and small from this site. I invite you to try and make some memes! It connects via steemconnect to your steemit account. You make your memes there and then it posts to your page

Any questions or comments or just want to chat about steemit? Join us at
https://discord.gg/8EqZaQY