Most returning students have a few changes they need to adjust to this year, like the new food service, a new operating system on campus computers and maybe the switch from living in the dorms to living in a house or an apartment.

But junior Krista Brown has a few more adjustments to make. For her, not only is it strange to see Blimpie Subs instead of Subway in Davies, but it is different for her to drink milk instead of tea and to eat with a fork rather than with chopsticks.

Brown, an international business major, spent last year studying abroad at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan, through UW-Eau Claire’s study abroad program.

“You come back (to the United States) and can understand everything going on around you,” she said. “It just feels different.”

Although she studied Japanese for four years at North High School in Eau Claire and took both Japanese language courses the university offers, Brown said she had difficulty understanding fast-paced Japanese conversations at times. To come back to an environment where she has no difficulty communicating makes day-to-day activities less exciting and less challenging, she said.

Brown lived in the dorms for one semester while she was in Japan and with a host family the other semester.

The dorms were not like Towers, though. Instead, they had an atmosphere of a hostel. People would make dinner together in a community kitchen and watch TV in a lounge rather than in their own rooms. Residents had to wear slippers instead of shoes, giving the dorms a homey feeling, Brown said.

Class size was small, so she got to know her classmates and they hung out during their breaks.

Now, back in Eau Claire, Brown misses the unity she had with the other international students and with her Japanese friends. When she sits among the swarm of strangers in her general education classes, she feels like just a face in the crowd.

“You miss so much when you’re gone, with your family and with your friends, and you change so much as a person,” Brown said.

When she arrived in Japan last August, Brown did not experience culture shock because she had been to Japan before, and she had taken classes on its culture. Her main emotion was excitement, she said. But coming back she may have experienced a taste of reverse culture shock.

The Japanese were friendly and helpful to Brown. If she was lost, they wouldn’t tell her where to go, but would take her hand and lead her to her destination.

When she arrived back in the United States, one of her first memories is seeing airport security treat foreigners rudely. That experience made her appreciate how friendly the Japanese had been to her as a foreigner.

In stores when a Japanese cashier would hand Brown’s credit card back to her, they would do it carefully with both hands and a smile. Here she has seen cashiers slap a card on the counter with one hand and slide it across to her. The combination of these experiences has opened her eyes and forced her to see her home country in a different light.

“You get a different view not only on the Japanese and their culture, but on our own culture too,” Brown said.

Kayla Roesch, a lifetime friend of Brown’s, has seen how studying abroad has changed Brown.

“One thing I’ve noticed is how she has been able to relate to people from a different culture,” Roesch said. “She has a better understanding of people from another culture and just people in general.”

Brown works at the Center for International Education, so as she settles back in at UW-Eau Claire, she has daily reminders of the experience responsible for her having to adjust to a lifestyle that was once normal.