Humans of St. Norbert:

“This is my second time living in the United States. I’m in an exchange program through Tsuru University, which is my home university in Japan. The first time I came here, I was in junior year of high school. I was in Buffalo, New York. I couldn’t speak English at all, so I wasn’t able to communicate properly with my friend who I stayed with. It wasn’t really studying abroad, I was just there to experience American life and to learn to communicate with American people. It wasn’t necessarily about the study at that point.

“Life here is completely different from my life in Japan. It’s the small things. Like, at home, I have to take my shoes off before I go into the house. Here, I don’t. The first time I do things differently, I feel very uncomfortable, but I get used to it.

“I went to Boston before winter break to visit my friend out there. My friends probably won’t visit me here since it’s not that big of a city. But I like it here. I come from the countryside back home. It’s better than a big city. Big cities like New York are always busy and it’s hard to keep up with the people. I only stayed in New York City for a few days, but it was tiring. From my home university, it’s only a two hour train ride to Tokyo. But even if I stay in Tokyo for one day, it’s still exhausting. There’s always people. It's so packed and busy. Kind of like New York.”
– Takamizu Amano, visiting exchange student