SEVEN YEARS ABROAD(my walk to campus)

Yes, it has been seven years. About the first 3 months of my adventure are remembered as though it was a dream sequence. Everything I remember about it is so surreal. And, given the amount we gave up to move and the amount we had to take in, I'm surprised more tears weren't shed in those early days.

I had always lived in little city suburbia, so Thorpe Waterville, a village of no more that 30 dwellings in the middle of what felt like nowhere, was a particularly bleak experience. The first weeks we slept on the floor with winter coats, as we hadn't figured out how the central heating worked.

School was awful. Uniforms, an extensively advanced curriculum and a lack of knowledge of the British vocabulary not to mention everyone thought I was American, destroyed any hope of self-esteem. The boys would sing "American Woman" everytime they saw me. When my form tutor (home room teacher) took the register I had to say "yes sir." That and reading Romeo and Juilet out loud in my first English classes used to make me feel so embarrassed for my accent.
On the first anniversary of our moving to England we found ourselves by pure coincidence in the Fox Inn, the pub next door, in the very place, right down to the table, where we had eaten exactly a year earlier. The pub owners, by then friends of ours, recalled to us how they thought we were arrogant Americans that day!

I can honestly say without a doubt that I am an entirely different person for the last seven years. I have learnt and experienced so much and I am exceedingly grateful for that. Yes Mom and Dad, this is a thank you. Thanks for taking a risk that turned out to be a great opportunity for all of us.

I don't know if I will see the full 8 years or that I won't see 10 or 15 years. One thing is for sure I will always be torn between 2 countries I call home.