Couple bring two worlds together

John and Sandra Barletta

John Barletta isn't accustomed to forward women. So when Sandra introduced herself in Ewing Hall's elevator one day in 1994, he was instantly intrigued.

"It was interesting because she was assertive, which was a little different than my previous experiences with women," acknowledges John, a native Australian who arrived in the States in late 1993, shortly before starting winter quarter classes at Ohio University. "American women tend to be more verbal and outgoing."

Sandra says her gesture was more of a reaction to John's long face than a reflection of her personality. "He looked tired and sad," she says, laughing. "He's really tall, and I'm short, and I just looked up at this man. I kind of felt like I needed to take him under my wing."

And she did. The two graduate students became good friends. "She helped me understand American culture," John says. "She had gone to Ohio University years beforehand and knew the lay of the land and the history. I guess, in a way, I used her as a tour guide."

Sandra introduced him to the Athens experience: the Front Room, Ohio basketball, Wings and Rings, the Athena Cinema, even his first sip of root beer. "We don't have that in Australia," he muses.

Two years later, John did the same for Sandra in his home country. They married in Australia in March 1996, and John earned his doctorate in education counseling at the end of the year, defending his dissertation via satellite. Now John is a professor at Australian Catholic University, and Sandra is a research assistant at a nearby college.

"It's magnificent here," she says of Queensland, where they live. "This is home now."