For some international students at Ohio University, America has become a deep permanent feature in their lives.

Twenty-one-year-old Nida Boonma, of Bangkok, Thailand, will get her marketing degree in the spring. Comint to OU as a freshman, this is her fifth year in the United States.

"I love it here. I mean, sometimes I hate Athens - this campus. But I've done it all here," she said in a near-perfect American accent, leaning back, propping her feet up on the coffee table in her lived-in, postcard-decorated apartment.

"I want to go home. But I love it here. I go home to Thailand during breaks, but I have to come back. This summer, I was like, 'I miss my apartment!' she said with a laugh.

She said she doesn't even want to think about leaving. "I will stay here for graduate school. Anyway, if I went back now, with the economy in Southeast Asia, I wouldn't have a job," she said.

Her friend of two years, OU senior Petra Kralickova, 23, of the Czech Republic, said, "We've made our little circle here. We have a family here."

The two were chuckling as they recalled their encounters with geographically challenged Americans. "It's like, 'Oh, you are from Czech! Czechoslovakia. That is so beautiful. You were born there.' And then there is this pause. I think, no, we are not hatched from eggs. Do you know how many have asked me about how the war in Czech is?"

"It's different for me than for Nida, because people can't outwardly tell that I am foreign. We have each dealt with the 'international thing' and the culture shock differently," added Kralickova.

Boonma said good-naturedly she would like to declare sometimes, "Hi, my name is Nee-da, not Ny-da. I am from Thailand, not Taiwan!" But, she said, her interactions on campus have been overwhelmingly positive.

"My best experience at OU was at Shively Hall, freshman year. The Americans there seemed more open than usual to us. I remember when we were all in my room and everyone asked me to teach them how to meditate. That was so cool! Some may say, 'She's Asian, maybe I can't talk to her.' But I don't care. There are many more people who have been willing to learn about me and share their own experiences. They will say, 'Hey, how do you say that in Thai? What's it like in Thailand? Teach me about Buddhism.'"

Both said they also have grown accustomed to people's questions.

"We are very open to people. Almost all our friends are American. My boyfriend is American," Boonma said.