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.

英格蘭是一個(gè)慢慢顯露個(gè)性的國(guó)家。我第一次到這個(gè)國(guó)家是在2006年，當(dāng)時(shí)我和家人去倫敦度假了幾天。當(dāng)時(shí)我才十幾歲，對(duì)倫敦很無(wú)感。那是一個(gè)很酷的地方，但不是我立刻愛(ài)上的地方。這種情況會(huì)改變，但肯定不會(huì)幾次就能改變的。

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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.

幾年后，在2009年，我上大學(xué)，想出國(guó)留學(xué)。英國(guó)很快成為我選擇的目的地。我來(lái)自紐約，與其他地方相比，英國(guó)似乎并不遙遠(yuǎn)，而且他們?cè)谀抢镎f(shuō)英語(yǔ)!在2009 - 2010學(xué)年期間，我申請(qǐng)并直接就讀于位于南海岸布萊頓郊外的蘇塞克斯大學(xué)。

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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.

從2010年9月24日到2011年6月24日，我在英國(guó)留學(xué)的時(shí)間正好是9個(gè)月。在此期間，我對(duì)英國(guó)、英國(guó)人和出國(guó)留學(xué)的看法在一周周和一月月中變化。正是這些人最終塑造了我的觀點(diǎn)，正是這些人，在我寫(xiě)這篇文章的三年后，與我坐在一起。

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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.

逐漸了解英國(guó)文化

真正讓我愛(ài)上英國(guó)的是我的室友。住在大學(xué)宿舍里，我被隨機(jī)分配到一個(gè)六居室的公寓里，那里總共有三個(gè)男孩子和三個(gè)女孩子。我是美國(guó)人，但公寓里的其他人都是英國(guó)人。我們有一個(gè)年齡差距，因?yàn)槲以诖髮W(xué)的第三年，他們都是在第一年。對(duì)他們來(lái)說(shuō)，新奇的事物是第一次離開(kāi)家，而這份新奇似乎是對(duì)我在國(guó)外生活和學(xué)習(xí)的贊揚(yáng)。對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，這是一個(gè)充滿社交機(jī)會(huì)的一年——我們的公寓讓我們都聚集在一起，這讓我有了很多豐富的交流機(jī)會(huì)來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)英國(guó)文化。

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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.

在這段時(shí)間里，我被迫質(zhì)疑我以前認(rèn)為理所當(dāng)然的自己的民族文化。例如，英國(guó)法定飲酒年齡為18歲，而美國(guó)法定飲酒年齡為21歲;這使大學(xué)成為完全不同的經(jīng)歷。我在英國(guó)看到了不同風(fēng)格的衣服。突然間，人們不再到處都穿牛仔褲了。我還真的學(xué)會(huì)了欣賞茶，如何做“合適的茶”，以及把水壺放在服務(wù)上的社交功能。由于我所有的時(shí)間都是在英國(guó)人的陪伴下度過(guò)的，所以我能夠觀察到許多英國(guó)文化的小細(xì)節(jié)，使這個(gè)國(guó)家的小細(xì)節(jié)呈現(xiàn)在我的眼前。

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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.??

再次回到英國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)

我在這個(gè)島國(guó)旅行時(shí)也愛(ài)上了英國(guó)。我每天都去倫敦、牛津、巴斯、巨石陣、米德蘭群島和南海岸的海邊城鎮(zhèn)。我了解到，英國(guó)的美麗是在你可能最初不會(huì)去探索的不經(jīng)意間的小角落里。

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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.

雖然我一開(kāi)始有點(diǎn)懷疑，但我最終還是很喜歡在英國(guó)留學(xué)一年。要了解一個(gè)地方的心態(tài)需要一段時(shí)間，所以在國(guó)外呆上這么多時(shí)間給了我這個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)。

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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月離開(kāi)時(shí)就知道，我需要找到回英國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)的方法。我很喜歡我的室友，幸運(yùn)的是在他們畢業(yè)前拜訪了他們幾次。當(dāng)我知道我想從事國(guó)際教育的事業(yè)時(shí)，回到英國(guó)攻讀碩士學(xué)位對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)是有意義的。因?yàn)樵谖以谀戏降慕?jīng)歷之后，我非常喜歡英國(guó)，所以我非常好奇地去探索北部，發(fā)展一個(gè)更加全面的國(guó)家的視野——這就是我所做的。我現(xiàn)在在英國(guó)北部的紐卡斯?fàn)?，攻讀一個(gè)相關(guān)學(xué)科的碩士學(xué)位。英國(guó)對(duì)我將永遠(yuǎn)是一個(gè)特別的地方，我相信我將永遠(yuǎn)被它的地方和人民所吸引。