A World Away

Bjarnadóttir, a senior communications major and a forward/midfielder on the women’s soccer team, felt a spark of recognition when she arrived in the Upstate from Iceland. Like her hometown of Reykjavik, Upstate cities are small and surrounded by natural beauty. But other things were unfamiliar to her. When people talked about places in America they wanted to visit, or amusement parks they’d gone to as children, she didn’t have comparable experiences to share. “We don’t even have an amusement park in Iceland,” she says.

Being away from family and friends has been one of the hardest adjustments. One of her favorite activities with her friends back home was going to the swimming center after soccer practice. Iceland has a strong pool culture, she notes, and relaxing in the hot tubs with friends after a dip in the cold tubs is not only good for recovery, but also for unwinding at the end of a day.

After graduation, Bjarnadottir plans to continue playing soccer, and is considering pursuing a master’s in Denmark or Iceland. She has loved studying communications, a subject she discovered at Upstate, and feels it helped her become a better communicator as she adjusted to life in the U.S.

“Even though Icelanders’ second language is English – or sometimes Danish, because it's mandatory to learn Danish there for a couple of years – it's still different to speak and actually interact face to face with people, instead of just seeing or hearing interviews or videos or TikToks online.”

“That was the thing that I was most nervous about – the weather. Because the humidity here is crazy, and in Iceland we don't really have any humidity at all. We barely have the sun. And because we train when it's the hottest outside, I just pray to God that there are some clouds around. But in Iceland, I’m like, where’s the sun, where did it go?”

“I thought it was really strange and really funny at the same time when people would ask me questions that I thought were basic, like, ‘Oh, do you celebrate Christmas?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, that’s my favorite holiday.’ But then it was my mom who told me, well, they don't know anything about Iceland, and maybe it would be disrespectful if they assumed we celebrate Christmas.”

“I feel like I've experienced a lot of growth since I've been here, and that is through my teammates, through my coach, through the people that I've met here. But also connecting with the friends that I still have in Iceland and talking to them about my experiences here, about how certain situations have been, and what I can take from them.”

Puttanavarat, a sophomore communications major, was born in Pattaya, a coastal city in eastern Thailand. It’s a popular tourist destination, with lots of beaches and hotels – and golf courses. Puttanavarat is one of the many Thai golfers who have come to the U.S. to play for the Spartans, thanks to a partnership between a placement agency in Thailand and Upstate coach Todd Lawton.

The strong lineup of Thai women on Upstate’s team through the years has provided every new arrival with a built-in support network. Puttanavarat leaned on those teammates when she arrived, especially senior Suwarin Yord-in. Yord-in says Puttanavarat addresses her as sister, since in Thai culture it’s important to show respect for those who are older than you. And much like an older sister, Yord-in has encouraged her friend to overcome her shyness about speaking English, and helped her feel comfortable in an unfamiliar place. Among Puttanavarat’s new experiences: using a fork to eat, which she learned to do by observing a friend of hers.

“I love watching soccer and volleyball. Before I came here, I didn’t watch basketball that much, but when I watched it, I loved it. I learned the rules of softball and baseball last year, I just kept going to watch them play. It’s fun.”

“I miss my mom and her food. She cooked everything for me. I miss my friends in Thailand. I think here, I know people but we don’t talk as much. In Thailand, with my friends, we grew up together and are close. We’d go hang out together, just chilling and talking about what we’re doing.”

“In Thailand, college sport is not the big deal. You cannot play golf and you cannot go to university at the same time. We study so hard there, we take five or six classes in one day. We focus more on the academic than on the golf side.”

“I’m trying to talk to people a lot, trying to communicate with everyone. Last year, I didn’t talk to people, but this year I know a lot of the athletes and the students so we talk more.”

“There’s a Thai restaurant here, where the owner is Thai. We’ll say, can you make a Thai-style fried rice for us, or a Thai curry? And she’s like, yeah, sure. Sometimes when we’re too tired from practice, we’ll go to that restaurant and say hello. And sometimes she’ll say, 'I was making this Thai dish, do you want a couple to go home?' We want to pay for it, and she’s like, 'It’s OK, I just want to give it to you.'”

Wang is a graduate student in the business analytics program, working on his second degree from USC Upstate. In April, he graduated with a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies, with a focus on communications and global studies. He came to the United States from China, where he grew up outside the city of Harbin, located near the border of Russia. It’s cold half the year, Wang says, so the heat and humidity of South Carolina took some getting used to.

He saw studying in the U.S. as a fun challenge and an opportunity to use English. Wang started his studies at Bob Jones University before transferring to Upstate, but continues to live in Greenville. Up until three years ago, he didn’t have a car, which was a challenge. “During COVID time it was super hard, because you can’t go anywhere, just stay in the house,” he says. Besides now owning a car, Wang also adopted a dog, a labrador mix he named Stewie. He enjoys cooking in his spare time.

“I feel like nowadays, just a BA is not enough. If you want to try to get a better life, you have to work hard. You have to keep going. You have to push yourself, you need to get out of your comfort zone and prepare yourself for your life in the future.”

“We do learn English in China for many years in school, but when I actually use it, it’s kind of a different deal than just learning it. Another thing is communication with people at first. It's always the hardest thing to ask. I'm more like a quiet person, and if you don't talk to people you cannot prepare or learn how to talk.”

“I like ‘Friends’ a lot. It’s quite popular in China. The speed they speak is moderate, not that fast, so it's easy for me to understand. In the beginning, when I was trying to learn how to speak, I watched that show a lot to help me to build my speaking skills or listening skills. That show actually helped me a lot.”

“For college and for the master’s degree, you have those very long, difficult texts to read and to understand. So that is one of the hardest parts for me. If I do translate those into Chinese, sometimes they don't use exactly the right word in there. Then you need to translate those words and understand what is happening, and then to try to understand the article. So that is going to make it very hard as well, because I can't read it fully in English, but I can't fully read the translation.”

Gochipatala always planned to study abroad one day, but wasn’t expecting he would do so right out of college. After earning his bachelor’s in computer science at Aditya Degree College in Visakhapatnam, India, he was admitted to a master’s program in computer applications. But the college was located in the north of India, far from his home, and his father thought he might as well go abroad for graduate school. “I thought maybe I’d come here at 25 or 30,” Gochipatala says.

Coming to the U.S. has been a longtime dream of his after following the career of Elon Musk. “I always woke up at midnight to watch his rocket launches,” Gochipatala says. He has already begun looking into internship opportunities to gain career experience. His other goal is to learn to drive, so he can get a car and return to doing martial arts or boxing, activities he enjoyed back home.

“I didn't know how to cook when I first came here. My mom taught me how to cook rice before I came, so I only knew how to cook rice. She’s [now] taught me all the Indian-style curries. When I started cooking, she’d tell me on a video call, 'First cut the vegetables, and then I'll teach you how to do it.' So when I have doubts, I call her.”

“My city is full of beaches, mountains, everything. It's an urban city. We have a lot of companies, steel plants, but they’re trying to change it into a capital city. A lot of people don't want that, because if it becomes a capital, we get a lot of people, a lot of pollution, and we’re going to cut a lot of trees. We don’t want to lose the greenery.”

“I've been a lot of times to Charlotte. A lot of my Indian friends live there. Mostly, I just stick to my laptop. It’s a boring life because I have limited time. My visa is until 2028. I don't want to waste time. I need to improve my skills. If I go there partying and waste money, that's not good.”

“I would say I'm not very emotional. I'm not missing my parents, because I talk to my mom every day. Otherwise, she’d keep calling me if I missed one or two days. They're safe in India. I don't have to worry about it. They always told me, just focus on the studies. I was born in a different city called Kandukur, but after my dad got married, he went to Visakhapatnam without telling my mom and me. I was a really, really little kid. He went there to find a job. He worked multiple jobs and finally settled in real estate. He's a real estate agent. So yeah, there were a lot of struggles. He always raises them to show me how hard it is. So that's why I put my emotions aside.”

Helterhoff, a business administration major, admits basketball is not the sport that inspires fanaticism among his fellow Germans. That would be soccer, which Helterhoff in fact started off playing when he was 5 years old. “But at some point I was just too tall,” he says. “And then I found the joy of playing basketball, and had to decide between playing soccer and basketball.” He chose basketball, which felt more comfortable physically and which offered him better opportunities. Before coming to the U.S., he spent three years at a boarding school in Germany that had a basketball academy and one year playing for the German U18 National Team.

Helterhoff transferred to USC Upstate this fall, after playing basketball for two years at a Texas university. He had spoken previously with coach Marty Richter, and liked Richter's commitment to giving back to the community. Changing colleges proved easier than he’d expected. “There’s a lot of nice people here, and they’re all very friendly, so it was easy to integrate into the community,” he says. He also still enjoys playing the occasional game of soccer, and cheering on his home team, 1. FC Köln.

“Cologne [where I’m from] is a very nice city. There’s so many nice people. They’re all very friendly and talkative, and it’s just a nice environment because there’s so much green – flowers and trees and everything. And we have a very famous cathedral, one of the oldest cathedrals in the world.”

“I always dreamed of playing basketball in college and living the college experience. One of my best friends first committed to [Our Lady of the Lake University] and then his parents called my parents and asked them if I would consider going with him as well. And one week later I just committed to the same school as he did. We were there for two years together and it was really nice. Then another friend of mine joined us one year later. So we were a whole group of people that had known each other already for 10 years.”

“I think one of the biggest adjustments for me was my diet. I had to change my diet because at home, I was always used to eating food my mom cooks, or very healthy in general. And then when I came here, I had to consider what I'm eating, because there are so many more fast food places, which I like and I really enjoy. That was another problem. So I had to consider what I'm eating to not gain weight and still be fit.”