England is a country where the people and the places reveal their personalities slowly. My first experience in this country was back in 2006, when I went on vacation with my family to London for a few days. Being a teenager at the time, I was rather indifferent towards London. It was a cool place but not somewhere I instantly fell in love with. This would change, but not for some time.

英格兰是一个慢慢显露个性的国家。我第一次到这个国家是在2006年，当时我和家人去伦敦度假了几天。当时我才十几岁，对伦敦很无感。那是一个很酷的地方，但不是我立刻爱上的地方。这种情况会改变，但肯定不会几次就能改变的。

 

A few years later, in 2009, I was in college and looking to study abroad. England quickly became my destination of choice. Coming from New York, England didn’t seem too far away compared to other places, plus they spoke English there! Over the course of the 2009-2010 academic year, I applied and then directly enrolled at the University of Sussex, located just outside of Brighton on the south coast.

几年后，在2009年，我上大学，想出国留学。英国很快成为我选择的目的地。我来自纽约，与其他地方相比，英国似乎并不遥远，而且他们在那里说英语!在2009 - 2010学年期间，我申请并直接就读于位于南海岸布莱顿郊外的苏塞克斯大学。

 

My time studying abroad in England lasted exactly nine months, from 24 September 2010 to 24 June 2011. My opinions toward England, English people and study abroad in general changed on a weekly and monthly basis during this time. It was the people that ultimately shaped my views, and it is these same people I am sitting with three years later as I write this.

从2010年9月24日到2011年6月24日，我在英国留学的时间正好是9个月。在此期间，我对英国、英国人和出国留学的看法在一周周和一月月中变化。正是这些人最终塑造了我的观点，正是这些人，在我写这篇文章的三年后，与我坐在一起。

 

Getting to know English culture

What really allowed me to fall in love with England were my flatmates. Living in university accommodation, I was randomly assigned to live in a six-bedroom flat where there were three guys and three girls in total. I am American, but everyone else in the flat was English. We had a bit of an age gap, as I was in my third year of university and they were all in their first year. The novelty for them to be living away from home for the first time complimented the novelty for me of living and studying abroad.  It was an extremely social year for me – we were the flat that everyone from other student flats flocked to, and this allowed me so many opportunities for enriching conversations to learn about English culture.

逐渐了解英国文化

真正让我爱上英国的是我的室友。住在大学宿舍里，我被随机分配到一个六居室的公寓里，那里总共有三个男孩子和三个女孩子。我是美国人，但公寓里的其他人都是英国人。我们有一个年龄差距，因为我在大学的第三年，他们都是在第一年。对他们来说，新奇的事物是第一次离开家，而这份新奇似乎是对我在国外生活和学习的赞扬。对我来说，这是一个充满社交机会的一年——我们的公寓让我们都聚集在一起，这让我有了很多丰富的交流机会来学习英国文化。

 

During this time I was forced to question things about my own national culture that I had previously taken for granted. For instance, England’s legal drinking age is 18 whereas the US’s legal drinking age is 21; this makes university a completely different experience. I observed the different styles of dress in England. Suddenly people weren’t wearing jeans everywhere and anywhere. I also really learned to appreciate tea, both how to make a ‘proper cuppa’, as well as the social function that putting the kettle on serves. Since all my time was primarily spent in the company of English people, I was able to observe so many small details of English culture that make this country what it is.

在这段时间里，我被迫质疑我以前认为理所当然的自己的民族文化。例如，英国法定饮酒年龄为18岁，而美国法定饮酒年龄为21岁;这使大学成为完全不同的经历。我在英国看到了不同风格的衣服。突然间，人们不再到处都穿牛仔裤了。我还真的学会了欣赏茶，如何做“合适的茶”，以及把水壶放在服务上的社交功能。由于我所有的时间都是在英国人的陪伴下度过的，所以我能够观察到许多英国文化的小细节，使这个国家的小细节呈现在我的眼前。

 

Returning to study in England again

I also fell in love with England by travelling around this island country. I would go on day trips to London, Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge, the Midlands and seaside towns along the south coast. I learned that the beauty of England is in random small corners that you might not initially set out to explore.  

再次回到英国学习

我在这个岛国旅行时也爱上了英国。我每天都去伦敦、牛津、巴斯、巨石阵、米德兰群岛和南海岸的海边城镇。我了解到，英国的美丽是在你可能最初不会去探索的不经意间的小角落里。

 

Although I was skeptical at first, I ultimately loved studying abroad in England for a full academic year. It takes a while to understand the mentality of a place, so being abroad for this amount of time afforded me that opportunity.

虽然我一开始有点怀疑，但我最终还是很喜欢在英国留学一年。要了解一个地方的心态需要一段时间，所以在国外呆上这么多时间给了我这个机会。

 

I knew when I left in June 2011 that I needed to find a way back to study in England again. I so loved my flatmates, and was fortunate to visit them a couple times more before they graduated. When I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in international education, it made sense to me to come back to the UK to do a master’s degree. Because I loved England so much after my experiences in the south, I became really curious to explore the north and develop a more well-rounded view of the country – and that’s what I’m doing. I am currently in Newcastle, in the north of England, studying a master’s degree in a related subject. England will always be a special place for me, and I’m sure I will always be fascinated by its places and peoples.

我在2011年6月离开时就知道，我需要找到回英国学习的方法。我很喜欢我的室友，幸运的是在他们毕业前拜访了他们几次。当我知道我想从事国际教育的事业时，回到英国攻读硕士学位对我来说是有意义的。因为在我在南方的经历之后，我非常喜欢英国，所以我非常好奇地去探索北部，发展一个更加全面的国家的视野——这就是我所做的。我现在在英国北部的纽卡斯尔，攻读一个相关学科的硕士学位。英国对我将永远是一个特别的地方，我相信我将永远被它的地方和人民所吸引。