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This week wasn’t the first time Kirk Christodoulou had been in Pittsburgh, but things in the city had changed a bit since he visited over the summer.

The temperature, for starters.

“It’s a big colder than Australia,” the native Australian said a few days after moving to Pittsburgh in the first week of January. “I left 95-degree weather, so coming here and seeing snow for the first time - it’s the first time I’ve lived in snow, it’s pretty good getting used to it.”

Getting used to cold weather is a process that can go pretty quickly if one has the proper equipment. To that end, Christodoulou was poorly prepared.

“I didn’t have any sheets or anything for the bed, so the first night was a bit cold; I just covered up with a jacket,” he said.

To solve that problem, he reached out to a friend: Pittsburgh Steelers punter Jordan Berry, himself a native Australian who learned the trade of punting in American football while working with ProKick Australia, one of the most respected kicking programs in the world.

“It’s funny: I move halfway across the world and I’ve got another Australian just next door,” Christodoulou said of Berry. “So I messaged him the next day, ‘Jord-o, I need some sheets, I’m freezing.’ He goes, ‘I’ll take you.’ So he took me down and I bought some pillows and stuff, so at least I’m comfortable at night.”

With his linens taken care of, Christodoulou can turn to the reason he’s in Pittsburgh: playing football for Pitt. He committed to the Panthers in August after taking a visit and he’s got an interesting backstory, which isn’t surprising when discussing someone moving to the other side of the planet.

Like most of his countrymen, Christodoulou grew up playing Australian rules football, a “mix between, like, a soccer and a…it’s hard to explain,” he says. With elements of soccer and rugby, Aussie rules football features almost no throwing but a lot more kicking than its American counterpart (although the game really has no overlap with American football).

The players in Aussie rules football “pass” the ball to each other the same way they score: by kicking.

“That’s why Australians grow up just always punting the football from a young age,” Christodoulou said. “You grow up just doing it so you develop that strength in your hip flexor and your leg. Now once you transition to just punting, all it is, is learning the technique rather than gaining that strength and flexibility because you’ve always had that, more or less.”

And since most of the kicks in Aussie rules are made on the run, the transition to American football has come with some variations on the “traditional” style of punting. Call it a “rugby punt,” a “drop punt” or an “Aussie-style kick” - Christodoulou can do it.

“I grew up playing that sport so it’s real natural for me to kick that way. But I can still do it traditional, so it just depends on what Coach (Andre) Powell and the team wants; I’m happy to do whatever we need to do for their formations and stuff like that.”

To get from playing Aussie rules as a youth to a scholarship at an American college took time. Christodoulou started working with ProKick Australia in 2014 after a friend of Penn State punter Daniel Pasquariello recommended that he look into American football. He graduated from Balwyn High School in December of 2015 - in Australia, the academic calendar runs from February to December - and spent the last year training.

Christodoulou is 19 years old now and will turn 20 in March, making him a good bit older than his fellow freshmen. But so far, he said he feels like he has been taken in by the Pitt coaches and players.

“I really like the coaching staff,” he said. “I have a good relationship with them. Coach Powell has been really great to me and even Coach (Pat) Narduzzi, the way that they sort of introduced us here, I felt really welcome. When we introduced ourselves to the whole team, everyone gave us a good clap and it started to feel like a family. That was a big draw here, especially coming away and not having anyone that I know besides Jordan, to be introduced and be welcomed, it makes it a lot easier.”

Christodoulou will probably redshirt in 2017 while Ryan Winslow plays his final year of eligibility, but that’s just another step in his journey.

“It felt like a long process at the time, but now that I’m here, I can’t believe it.”