Return Journey

As you can see, blogging fell slightly by the wayside over the course of this year. One would think that, of all years, the year I move across an ocean for eleven months would be a good one to document. Ah well. As much as I really wanted to write regularly about my experiences, in the moment it sort of felt like a waste to be sitting and writing when I could be out and doing. Retrospectively and with my return to the US only a few days away, I'm disappointed in myself for not writing more. But at least I'm not disappointed for not doing more, because I sure did a lot!

And for a short illustration, here are some numbers to describe my year:

• I graduated from college with 1 bachelors degree in Drama with Film & Media Studies
• Worked on 3 professional TV shoots in London
• Had 4 flatmates (only one of whom turned out to be crazy)
• Took 6 classes at University of East Anglia
• Traveled to 6 countries - England, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain
• (7 if you count a ten-hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland)
• (9 if you also count a seventeen-hour bus journey through France and Belgium)
• Flew on 10 planes
• Visited more than 13 cities in the UK 
• Traveled on 14 long-distance trains
• Had to introduce myself in a British accent at least 20 times because 'Autumn' in an American accent sounds too much like 'Adam'
• Completed 23 long-distance bus journeys
• Ate at least 200 Jaffa Cakes
• Was away from home for 325 days, or 7798 hours
  

 Aaaaaaand:

• I took almost 11,000 photos

I created this blog to update my friends and family on my big, crazy study abroad experience. But I was surprised to find that what I thought was going to be this grand 'experience' turned out to just be a thing called 'living.' Yes, the scenery is a little different, the people are a little different, even the language is a little different. But even this anticipated 'experience' became day-to-day life.

After a while it doesn't seem mentionable that your bus stop is next to a castle, or that you now cook on a 'hob' and not a 'stovetop', or that you're popping over to Amsterdam for the weekend, or that your English boyfriend's mum has memorized that you take your tea with milk, no sugar, or that answering the simple question 'Where do you live?' is now much more complicated and long-winded than you ever anticipated. I first look right when I cross the street, I say 'sorry' excessively, I had to go back and rewrite the word 'memorised' with a 'z' (that's pronounced 'zed', not 'zee'), and I take public transportation everywhere. It's safe to say the only culture shock I will have experienced on this trip will hit when I'm suddenly back in 20-degrees-hotter California.

My saving grace will be the elation I'm bound to feel when I walk into an American grocery store to find that the eggs are in their proper, refrigerated places and pancakes come in mixes and not little pre-made packages. I will look at taco trucks with new-found adoration that stems from being deprived of good Mexican food for a whole year, and I will rejoice at buying twelve ears of corn for the price of two in the UK. I'm going to cringe at the gas prices, but I'm going to drive my car down a windy mountain pass with the windows down and forget all about stuffy buses and airless trains.

It's been an amazing year. California, it's time for me to come home.

Norwich

I'm a small-town girl who's been living in a lonely world-- oops, I mean a big town called Irvine. So for me, Norwich is pretty perfect. It's a city with city things like concerts, pubs, and walking-distance shopping. But it's also got that small-town vibe from its little cobblestone streets, familiar faces around town, and it's got NATURE. Even the UEA campus, with its 1960s apocalyptic-concrete-thing goin' on, has its natural charm.

Also, it's pretty neat living right by a river. It's calming, and it looks gorgeous, especially in the morning with the chapel in the background. There's a path that follows the river, providing a lovely view for anyone interested in taking a stroll away from the shops. (Only, if a sketchy-looking guy approaches you at night asking to use your phone, don't let him, even if he says he's been robbed and needs to call the police).

Of course, the weather's not always this nice. (These were taken in September; it is now the dead of winter.) Sometimes the fog is so thick overnight that the next morning, while walking to your 9am seminar, you realize how freaking COOL spiderwebs are when sparkling with dew.

The fog is even nice. And contrary to popular belief, it doesn't rain all the time. Okay, well, it's raining now as I'm writing this... But lately it rains less than half the week (and it's winter!) and on a rainy day it usually only rains for an hour and then stops completely. And some weeks it doesn't rain at all. Go figure.

Even my English friends don't own rainboots. (Sorry-- "wellies.")