I said a couple posts ago that I had had some trouble socializing in the hall I lived in. I think my living situation was a bit different than what I was expecting; I wasn’t sure whether I would be living alone or with someone else, but I figured it would be easy to integrate myself with the people around me. But for whatever reason, I just didn’t click with the people in my hall, maybe because I had already made friends with people in another building. I also had a room to myself; apparently this is pretty normal in English universities. I value my personal space and never thought I’d begrudge having my own room, but in a different country where I don’t know anyone, I would have appreciated a roommate.

Once I realized that most of my friends lived in Eleanor Rathbone, most days I’d pack a bag and walk two buildings down to hang out in the ER common room. I became good friends with many of the people who lived there, and by the end of the term I was deemed an honorary Rathboner. Yes, that’s the correct term.

Group picture after the ER Christmas dinner

I had expected to be meeting more English people, but when I got here, it seemed that I was mostly spending time with Americans. This frustrated me at first, and I’ve talked to other American students who felt the same way. We felt like we weren’t getting the fullest possible experience if we we were still spending time with Americans. Eventually, I think everyone (or at least most of us) realized that meeting students from other places in the U.S. was just as valuable, if not more so, than meeting students from England. I was able to learn about English culture from English students while forming close relationships with American students.

ER’s last night out, three days before I left

I’m really happy to have made so many friends, but it’ll be hard to leave. I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye. It’ll be strange to suddenly be back in America again, having a car and a house and maybe a job.

This experience has, in some ways, made the world seem very small to me. Before crossing the ocean, the world seemed impossibly enormous. There were so many places I had never seen, places that might not exist for all I knew. But now that I’ve crossed so much of that distance and landed right in the middle of the unknown, it doesn’t seem quite as unknown anymore. It’s a little sad, but I suppose the world seems more plausible now. It would be easier to travel again, but I’m not sure I want to. For now, I’d like to stay in Oregon.

Marissa