PIA KARLSSON (interviewed by Audrey Tinsley)

A: Where are you from?
P:Stockholm, Sweden
A:What University do you study at and where is it located?
P:Örebro University in the city of Örebro, Sweden.
A:What specialites do you study at home?
P:Work and Organizational Pyschology.
A:Did you take time off between Sweden's form of high school and University? If
so, what were you doing?
P:Yes, I took time off. I worked in the tourism industry for a little as well as
at a kennel and in a research lab that did embrylogy and genetics.
A:Have you traveled abroad before? Where? How has this impacted or changed you?
P:While I was taking time off, I travelled all around the world. My favorite
places to visit where Cuba, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and Spain. I was able
to see how different types of societies work and interact with people that
expanded my horizons and I was able to share aspects of my life with the people
I came across.
A:Why did you decide to come back to the United States?
P:I had the opportunity to get something more out of my education and I wanted
to keep travelling so I decided to come here.
A:What are your main interests while being in the US?
P:I want to learn about things here not through books but by going off campus
and seeing the real world.
A:Where would you like to travel to?
P:I want to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
A:What are the biggest differences between Georgetown and the your hometown?
P:The lack of public transportation is the biggest difference.
A:What is your focus of study while here in the US?
P:I am studying communications here.
A:Did you have any overall notions of Americans or Texans before you got here?
Have they changed any?
P:Not so much because I had been to the United States before but I do have a
better image now because of my interactions with people on campus. They are not
all as patriotic as I was expecting and not all Republicans.

CEDRIC BAURANCE (interviewed by Jenni Anderson)

J: Where are you from?
C: Erquinghem-Lys near Lille
J: What university do you study at?
C: Charles De Gaulle University in Lille
J: Have you traveled before?  Where?  How has this impacted you?  Changed you?
C: I have only traveled to England twice, but for one day each time.  I have also gone to    Belgium, but this was not really different.
J: Why did you decide to come to the U.S.?
C: It has been my dream since I was a child to come to America.  I am also very interested in learning the English language and I did not want to learn British English.
J: What are your main interests while being in the U.S.?
C: I want to study English and am very interested in discovering another political system different from France.  I also want to meet other people from different cultures.
J: What are the main differences that you have found between the French and the U.S. political systems?
C: We have a President that takes care about international issues and when he’s elected he names a prime minister who takes care of our national affairs.
J: Where would you like to travel to while you are here?
C: I would like to go to Houston, San Antonio, Dallas…and Los Angeles…to see the sky scrapers.  That was part of my dream as a child-to see those buildings and we do not have them here in Georgetown.  I am going to Austin next weekend.  I would also like to go to Mexico, mainly just to see and discover another country.
J: What was your overall perspective of the U.S. before you came here?  Has this point of view changed at all?  If so, how?
C: I imagined very big cities and I thought that the people here would not like the French.  I thought I would be lost and would not be able to understand what people were saying.  When I told my friends back home that I was coming to Texas they all were laughing because they said I would be with the cows and that I would not be able to understand the English because Texans have an accent.  But that was not really a problem.  My English has improved since I arrived and I understand more.  Texans are very very nice and I have felt comfortable here.

Editors: Sue Mennicke
Beth Bankowski
Erin Peterson