Upon returning to the United States after spending 6 months in Norwich, England, I found myself to be quite tired. Obviously jet lag catches up with you, and all of the traveling, but I spent much of my summer relaxing. I found I had a lot of things I missed about living in Oregon, the nature, and certain places that I always go to with my family. I found it to be easier to return home, in the sense that I wasn’t nervous to meet people; but also difficult because I was leaving the people I met in England, and that was for a more indefinite amount of time. I enjoyed the university and the people I met there immensely and am considering doing a master's program there, so I could return to see the friends I had made.

While I met and had significant friendships with a good amount of people abroad, the process of arriving and meeting people did stretch me out of my comfort zone. I think the best piece of advice for this is to be okay being uncomfortable as you arrive. The University of East Anglia did a great job integrating study abroad students and facilitating friendships with mixers and many activities to support friendships between international students.

I have yet to return back to campus since I have returned, but I am quite excited to, and to finish my senior year there. I found that my identity, being gay, was very excepted in England, and felt much safer than the United States tends to. Though both the places I have gone to school, Eugene and Norwich, were both very LGBTQ+ friendly cities. I would tell someone who shared a similar identity with me that studying abroad is worth it. I was worried about my identity too before I went, as I think a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community tend to do before going to new places, but researching where you are going can always help. When I researched, I found that Norwich was actually ranked by the 2022 census for being one of the top 10 cities with the most LGBTQ+ people.

My experience also corroborated this and I found people to be very accepting. I never had cause to worry about anyone being rude or hateful to me for my identity, I found myself being more comfortable with it than I am in the general United States. There were also other students who I met in the program who shared similar identities and who I became very close with. Overall, my experience abroad opened my eyes to other countries being more accepting than the United States. I also traveled around to different countries from England, and while I did not spend significant time in these places, I felt safe in my identity as a queer woman.

By Ashley Fale-Olsen, Diverse Ducks Ambassador

University of East Anglia Exchange, Winter 2023