Rose Smouse came from South Africa to study Linguistics at the University of Florida. She experienced many things since being here that helped shape her view of the United States.

“The first week you get attention because people know that you have just arrived and you know you need to know where the stores are and things like that,” she said. “But, once the university started you are all on your own. You hear things like people making offers, 'Call me anytime,' then when you start calling people and really need help, it's not there.”

Another major difference she noticed was the diets people ate here, which took much adjusting to get used to.

“Constipation, for starters, because other kinds of meat was so expensive we ended up eating chicken all the time, and lots of spaghetti and very little vegetables because they are expensive," Smouse said.

The food changes was not so much that the diet she ate back home was not available, it was just more expensive to her here.

“At home our diet is 90 percent vegetables and the remainder is meat. A lot of people have more vegetables than meat, as compared to here,” Smouse said. “I mean, here you have chicken that's cheap. You can get a whole week supply for less than $5 and yet you can't get vegetables for $5 that can last you for the whole week.”