Australian student adjusting to Viterbo, United States

Can you imagine spending 20 hours sitting on a plane, to go to a university that you never even visited? That's exactly what Viterbo freshman Cameron Johnson did on his way to the United States from his home in Melbourne, Australia. Lumen set out to interview Johnson to see what his to America was like, and how the adjustment to life in La Crosse has been so far.

"The worst part of the trip to America was the plane ride," Johnson told Lumen. "It took over 20 hours to make it here, and I needed to switch planes twice. It was just really boring. I mostly watched movies and tried to sleep as much as possible. I was just glad when I finally got off of that plane."

This isn't Johnson's first time coming to the United States. With his Australian basketball team they traveled Los Angeles, Seattle, Alaska, and Hawaii. "We spent most of our time in Alaska, and traveling to all the different cities was a fun experience. That helped get me interested in possibly coming back to spend more time and not only play basketball, but attend school in America as well."

Johnson, who plays on the basketball team here at Viterbo, found out about Viterbo in an interesting way as his basketball coach in Australia is former Viterbo head coach Ron Popp.

"But basketball isn't the only reason I chose to come to America," Johnson said. "I thought it would be a good opportunity to study abroad, and experience a whole other culture while attaining my degree."

When Johnson first saw the Viterbo campus he took note of it being a nice, small campus, although it looked out of place within the surrounding area. "Viterbo's campus is a little smaller than university's in Australia, where they seem to be typically bigger. There aren't as many universities back in Australia so typically they are larger."

And what are some of the differences that Johnson has seen in the classroom so far?

 "The classes here aren't harder than back in Australia, but here there is a lot more work that needs to be done. There is also a lot more time that needs to be devoted to homework I feel like. The biggest difference that I've found in the classroom is something that I've been working to understand since I got here, and that's learning to speak ‘American.'"

The dialect that Americans use is a lot different than that of Australians Johnson said, but he is doing a lot better at understanding some of the different phrases students and teachers use around campus. "It helps that back home we watch a lot of American movies and television, so it's made the transition pretty easy understanding most of the dialect differences," Johnson said.

Some of the biggest differences he has found so far have to do with traffic rules and the food here in America.

"The whole driving system is a little different because in Australia we drive on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, so here it is backwards. It feels like the speed limits here are a little slower, but we also measure our speed in kilometers per hour, as opposed to miles so I'm not quite sure of the conversion rate yet and we can't turn right at red lights which is a new concept to me. In Australia there needs to be a green right arrow, or a green light for us to turn right."