A citizen of the country of Kazakhstan, Dinara Aprymova's story begins with her brother's journey to America as an exchange student during high school. The mother of the host family that her brother stayed with was a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, and her brother returned to Kazakhstan singing UT's praises. In 2006, Aprymova's parents sent both her and her brother to UT.

With the help of the same host family that had once housed her brother, she began to acclimate herself to life in Tennessee. Both she and her brother moved onto campus and began attending school.

Now a junior in journalism, Aprymova hopes to one day work for either a magazine or newspaper. As to her dream job, she wants to write for a celebrity-themed magazine because of the enjoyment she receives from reading them. 

Before attending the University of Tennessee, Dinara attended an Americanized university in Kazakhstan known as KIMEP (Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research). At KIMEP, students were instructed by mostly American teachers and received GPAs. However, the other universities in her country were not modeled after the American school system.

"It's like students go to lectures, take notes, and take two to three written exams during the semester," Aprymova said about other universities in Kazakhstan, "In those universities, discussion, daily homework, group projects and presentations simply don't exist."

Another positive aspect about America that Aprymova enjoys is how open-minded people are about other cultures and how they accept different points of views. She also enjoys how students at UT can join a wide assortment of clubs.

Besides differences in schooling, she has also noticed differences in communication between her country and the United States. Here the media is very open about the personal lives of political figures, but in Kazakhstan they do not talk about political figures' families at all. Another difference Aprymova has noticed is how people in America greet each other in public.

"In Kazakhstan, people say hi and talk for five minutes. Here it's like, hi, bye," Aprymova said.

Aprymova also noticed other differences between her culture and American culture. The distinction that struck her the most was the food. One aspect of American food she does not like is that there appears to be cheese on almost everything. She also dislikes how plain American salads are.

"My mom can make twenty different delicious salads," Aprymova said. "One salad [has] potatoes, eggs, beef, marinated cucumbers, carrots, green peas, onions, cilantro, mayonnaise."

However, she does not dislike everything about American food. She enjoys Oreos and likes the food at restaurants. She especially likes how cheap it is to eat at a restaurant here compared to restaurants in her home country. However, though it may be tasty, she feels bad after eating too much fast food.  

Aprymova is glad she has come to the University of Tennessee and enjoys spending time with her host family. They have a lake house and have taught her to wakeboard.

However, she misses her home and her family in Kazakhstan. In the two years she has attended the University of Tennessee, she has only visited her home country twice.