A correction was added to this article April 2.

Because of a reporting error, Alek Pochowski’s first name was misspelled in the March 24 article “From pea pizza to afternoon naps, students discover other ways of life.” The Daily regrets this error.

Would you like the option of ordering Chinese food at a McDonald’s or putting cream cheese and peas on a pizza? What about having a three-hour break in the afternoon every day when everything closes down for people to rest?

These are just some of the unique experiences ISU students are having while abroad. Counting those who went on school-sponsored Spring Break trips to other countries, Iowa State has 373 students living in 25 countries this semester.

With the multitude of students abroad comes a variety of different perspectives of foreign countries. Differences are seen not only in lifestyle, culture, language and academics, but in smaller aspects of the countries. Changes in food, gestures, manners, media and fashion are just some of the little things that may sneak up on the students.

Nicole Laugesen, junior in apparel merchandising, design and production, is studying fashion design at the London College of Fashion in London. She is one of 17 ISU students attending the college.

The transition into the new culture is not tough, Laugesen says, but adapting to British “humor” and the media is.

“For example, some mainstream newspapers such as The Sun are known for their ‘page three’ nude photographs,” she says. “Television is not censored. No FCC regulations we’re used to in the states — that’s for sure.”

In Seoul, South Korea, Joe McGrath, senior in marketing, is taking classes in business and Hangeul, the language of Korea, at Yonsei University.

Before arriving in Seoul, McGrath stayed in Tokyo for four days, hitting up some of the hot spots and realizing how hard it was to fit in — literally.

“The entire time I was there, I was more concerned with the fact that I was relatively enormous compared to the sea of Japanese around me,” he says. “None of the clothes fit, I hit my head on every door, and I almost did not fit into my hotel room.”

McGrath says since arriving in Seoul, he’s attracted a lot of attention.

“Korean people always stare at me, kids love to ask me for candy, and everyone wants to practice their English with me,” he says. “It is kind of fun to be the different person for the first couple of weeks, but like all things it gets old, and now I totally ignore all of the “Hak Seng” (students) staring in awe as I bite into a candy bar on the subway.”

Jessica Kreifels, senior in advertising, doesn’t have to deal with the hubbub of a giant mega city — she’s studying in C ceres, Spain, a town she says is about the size of Ames.

“It’s been easy to figure out the city and know where everything is,” she says. “Things are really laid back here, and people aren’t rushing around everywhere like in the United States. Punctuality is really not that important here, either.”

Simple gestures are looked upon differently in Spain — yawn and stretching are thought of as rude. Kreifels also says the act of forming a line when waiting for something is not common in Spain.

“They’re big on cutting and budging wherever they want,” she says. “Also, the crosswalks don’t have many stop lights, so it’s just expected for the cars to stop when you start walking across the white lines they call ‘zebra lines.'”

MaryJune Jackson, senior in management, has also found herself in a small town — Paderno del Grappa, Italy. Here, Jackson says she feels very welcome. She can go to a cafe or pizzeria and have the workers greet her by name.

Jackson says she has noticed Italians don’t go out and drink very much. Their driving skills, however, are something she’s frightened of.

“They drive like maniacs compared to the United States,” she says. “They pass when there doesn’t seem to be enough time, they fly down hills and around curves while not in their lane. I’m praying every time I ride in a taxi.”

James Megivern, senior in finance, is studying business and French in France and says he has found himself in a situation dealing with dialect.Photo: Courtesy/Ashley Nicole Hunt

Ashley Nicole Hunt and friends stand in front of Stonehenge, in England.

“Classes with other French students can be challenging because of the language,” he says. “Teachers speak fast. [But] the students are very nice and helpful.”

Megivern says in France, everyone speaks at least two or three languages.

“You literally feel stupid if you don’t speak at least two fluently,” he says. “A lot of the young people speak English.”

Organization isn’t as important in France as it is in the United States, Megivern says. Classes starting 15 minutes late is common, as well as lots of student chatter during class.

About 6,000 miles away, Gregory McGrath, sophomore in mechanical engineering, finds the opposite to be true in Monterrey, Mexico. He is studying at Tecnologico de Monterrey.

“The professors at Tec de Monterrey are really strict with being late and absences from class,” he says. “If a class meets three times a week for an hour each time, you can only miss six classes the whole semester, and being late twice counts as one absence. If you miss more than this many classes, you can’t take the final exam.”

Although many of these students agree they were at first a little shocked by the transition into the new culture, their experiences abroad have been well worth any bit of homesickness, confusion or shock.

“I will admit, I had a meltdown when I couldn’t use the phone to call home,” Jackson says. “I thought to myself, ‘If I can’t complete such a simple task as making a phone call, how can I survive for three months?'”

Jackson, who has been to Italy before, says she enjoyed it so much she decided to go back.

“When it was time to leave, I cried because I knew I was going to miss all the friends I made and all the places I’d been,” she said. “Thank goodness I decided to come back for another semester.”

McGrath says he will miss the simple aspects of Mexico’s culture.

“At the beginning, it was nice to do familiar things such as go to church or eat at a few of the American restaurants here, but I suddenly learned that every experience I had was a new one,” he says. “Ordering a meal from Chili’s in Spanish is a bit different, being able to buy alcohol, even candy is different here, and everything has chili powder on it. But after a while, I started to enjoy these differences, and it’s things like these which I will miss when I go back to the United States.”