Five years ago to the day, I packed up a suitcase and a backpack, went to the airport, boarded a plane, and officially moved to England for my year-long study abroad. September 9th, 2013. I woke up (even though I barely slept) the next day in England. My year living in Nottingham was by far the most influential year of my life. I grew so much, learned so much about myself, and ended the year an entirely different person. I discovered my love for travel (my greatest passion), I met and fell in love with my soulmate, and I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life.

It’s been five years exactly since I moved. Looking back, I’m full of emotions about it all. So I wanted to share some of my reflections on my study abroad in Nottingham.

My study abroad program was very unique. There were twelve of us from my home university (Luther College) on the program, and we all lived together in one flat. There was a professor from our college (and his wonderful wife) who also moved to Nottingham and led the program. We only had half of our actual classes at the university in England (the University of Nottingham). The rest of our credits were made up from our “flat course,” that involved a large emphasis on theater, and included lots of group trips around the country.

Most study abroad programs in the US are semester-long. My home university had specialized “J-Term” courses, and they were a very popular option for students to study abroad short-term. J-Terms were three week courses over January, and my college offered options all over the world. My program was for an entire year. Instead of just a semester, I moved for the entire academic year—nine whole months. It was a massive difference to my friends who were studying abroad for just three or four months. I think I gained a far deeper experience and a better cultural understanding than my friends who studied abroad for just a few months.

Our program was also very heavily focused on travel. Besides the group trips for our course, we were “forced” to go out and travel for both our month-long Christmas and Easter breaks. The flat was locked, and we had to travel. Not many programs do that!

The uniqueness of the program really meant that it was up to us to decide what we wanted. Nearly all of us got involved with certain things on campus. But attitudes varied a lot—some people had loads of “extracurricular” activities they did. Some people chose to spend time together in the flat. It really came down to personal preferences and what we wanted to make of the year.

Living with twelve people was HARD. So many of my frustrations from my study abroad came from the difficulties of sharing a space with eleven other people. Almost all of us shared bedrooms (there was only one person who had their own room), there was no privacy, and it was really hard to find a space or an area to be alone. We complained about people not doing their flat chores (or not doing them well enough), about the lack of space in the fridge, about not getting one of the good comfy chairs for studying. It was a real struggle at times. And perhaps it goes without saying, but cooking for fourteen people once a week (which was part of the program) was even harder.

My university work was so different. In Nottingham, there was so much less time required in class, and so much more pressure for essays and exams. It was very different from my small, private, liberal arts college back home. At Luther, you needed to show up every day, write multiple essays for multiple classes, and take several exams over the course of the semester. It was a very challenging adjustment.

Sometimes I only needed to be in class for 4-6 hours a week, and sometimes this was only two days a week. I had SO MUCH FREE TIME. I could take long weekends for trips, I could go all the way into town to buy two simple things, I could do yoga and run a few times a week. I had a lot of time to have a lot of fun! With so little time required in class (compared to what I was used to), it definitely felt like freedom.

The partying was nonstop. While this certainly wasn’t the case for some of my flatmates on my study abroad, it definitely was for me! I still think of certain “flat songs” that were on the pre-game mix, before we’d catch the bus into town to go out all night. Going out only three nights a week was “lame” in Nottingham. My favorite part of the night would be when the Baywatch theme song would come on in Ocean. We had a hookah that we smoked in the courtyard (the “Smoke Yard”) below the flat, which was, funnily enough, a church and a church hall. I partied SO MUCH and have no regrets.

And man oh man, was Nottingham a party city. The quietest night of the week was Saturday. Basically every night, there was somewhere to go. Fridays was always Ocean! The city was always poppin’ and having been back a lot since my year living there, I can confirm it’s still one of my favorite places for a night out.

I was one of only a few people in the program to form real, lasting friendships with actual British people while we were abroad. The tough thing about a program like ours was that it was really hard to put yourself out there to meet other people and make new friends. Our flat was also very isolated, in that it was far away from the city center, but not in the student area of the city. It was especially hard when so many of us got along so well with each other! I know it’s slightly different since I am married to one of my friends I met in Nottingham… but not many other people made long-term friends during our year abroad. I’m forever grateful that besides Mr. Away With Maja, I’m still close with four of my other friends from our Polish class. It’s been five years, and we still get along like we’re all back in Blue Bell. It all purely comes down to personal choice, and I’m not trying to criticize my flatmates! But it made a big difference in my experience studying abroad.

Dating (or trying to date) in the flat was really hard. There ended up being two couples during our year in the flat, so out of twelve people there were four people in couples. As I mentioned before, there was no privacy, nowhere to go to be alone, and everything was everyone’s business (we were a gossipy bunch!). I can’t speak for them, but I’m sure it was hard starting a relationship when you live in a fishbowl. When Adam and I first got together, it was really difficult for me to incorporate him into my life in the flat.

Most of my flatmates have talked a lot about returning, but very few of them have. So many of us talked about “going back” to England, Nottingham, etc. I’m one of the only people (I think possibly two or three other people have been?) to go back to England, and I think I’m the only person to have actually gone back to Nottingham and into the flat. A few have been in England in the four-ish years since we moved out, and another is coming in a few weeks. But not many have. Again, this isn’t meant as a criticism, just an observation! Everyone has different priorities, and everyone wants different things from life. Having lived in Notts on-and-off for three months on my big trip in 2016, I definitely spent a lot of time there post-study-abroad. But not many have ventured back to our stomping grounds, and only a few have traveled to England since!

I was the most passionate about England of our group, and the most passionate about travel. I was always going somewhere. I was always on a trip or planning a trip. If I wasn’t traveling, I was partying. School and academic things came last on my list of priorities, after travel and partying. Somehow I still got excellent grades. But my priorities were travel first, then partying, and then school. I have no regrets.

Those travel experiences were monumental in shaping the person I am today. In so many ways. Five years ago, I was a completely different person. My travels during my study abroad changed me, and my passion for travel is now one of my greatest passions. I took so many solo trips, and those trips empowered me, inspired me, and gave me confidence and independence I didn’t know I had in me. And maybe I don’t need to say this again, but with so little time required in university classes (which we didn’t technically have to go to anyway), it was so incredibly easy to travel.

Jetting off to Riga, Latvia, because I found cheap flights from East Midlands Airport. Waking up at 5:00am to catch two buses and walk three miles to get to a battlefield. Deciding I’d head to Croatia for five days because I wanted to and I could. Traveling solo to Russia. These were just a few of the many wonderful travel experiences I had.

I lived out some of my greatest dreams traveling in England. My focus has shifted slightly in the last five years, and especially since moving to the UK permanently nearly two years ago. But during my study abroad, I achieved major goals and lived out my dreams. I met my favorite historian/author, Alison Weir, walked along the White Cliffs of Dover, attended the Katherine of Aragon Festival at Peterborough Cathedral, saw a million and one stunning historical monuments, and felt my connection to the country’s history so strongly. It was simply fantastic.

I also spent a lot of time in London during my study abroad. My favorite city in the world was far too close to resist. I visited London eight (?) times during my time living in Nottingham. In the beginning, I did have a friend (who I had a major crush on until that blew up in my face, oops) who had a flat in London, so I could stay with him for free. But I loved returning to that city—there was always something new to discover. This was also five years ago, when train travel in the UK was reliable and affordable, ha!

I met so many wonderful people during my travels. I’ve always found that I meet more people and make more friends when I travel solo. And I traveled solo for large parts of my study abroad travels. Memories of cities in my mind tend to be tied to the people I met there (almost always in a hostel!). I’m still friends with some of them on Facebook. They were all a part of my journey and I am honestly so grateful for them.

Meeting up with friends from back home and traveling with them was intoxicating. I absolutely loved getting to do that. One of my best friends since childhood was studying abroad in London during the fall semester, and not only did we meet up in London a few times, but we also traveled together in Wales! I met another friend (again in London, did I mention I went to London a lot?!) when they were in England for a J-Term course. A future roommate and friend of mine who I’d never met was studying abroad in Ireland, and we hung out for the first time in a pub in Cork! One of my best friends was studying abroad in Russia in the spring, and spent nearly a week in Nottingham and England with me. I met a friend who showed me all around Cambridge, and met up with one of my best friends in Spain. I met up with three of my flatmates in Prague during one of our month-long trips. Those experiences were so wonderful! It took a lot of planning (some more than others) but I got to see so many of my friends from home during my study abroad. I loved it.

My friendship circles changed drastically during and after my study abroad. I left for Nottingham with one main group of friends from university. I came back and basically wasn’t really friends with any of them, and several other people in my life. Part of that was how much I changed, and how I felt like some of my old friends just didn’t understand me anymore. Some friendships I realized were too draining and too negative, and I didn’t want to spend the energy maintaining them anymore. I definitely chose to let go of toxic friendships and relationships. I fell out of touch with a lot of people and struggled with communication (and feeling forgotten). It is what it is, and I think everything happens for a reason. I don’t write this to be petty (even though I don’t think any of them read this blog), but it was a major change from my year abroad, and definitely an adjustment when I got back home. But the people I was still friends with after my study abroad—those are my lifetime friends now.

Travel and life were different before I blogged. I didn’t have a smartphone. I never brought my laptop. I went to libraries to check my emails and do a brief Facebook update. I spent a lot of time reading and writing in my journal. I really signed off and checked out during my traveling breaks—my life was so different then! Sometimes I miss it, but then I remember how much I love this blog and sharing my experiences with you all. Probably my greatest improvement though would be my photos. My photos from my study abroad were generally awful! And now I’d like to say I take fairly decent photos. That being said, I’m still that same budget traveler who takes food from the free hostel breakfast for lunch later in the day 😉

I first started a travel blog during my study abroad. So many students start a blog when they study abroad, to keep friends and family back home in the loop. Several of my flatmates also started blogs, but I was the only one who stuck with it. I first grew to love blogging from this year, and I am honestly just honored to be writing a reflection post like this, on my own blog, on my own domain, as my own brand, just a few years later. I had no idea what that first blog would inspire in me, but I’m so glad that it did.

My travels were possible because I had a lot of money. I think it’s important to tell it like it is. I had the money, and that’s why I could travel. This was due to the fact that I received a large, generous gift from a family friend for my study abroad, my parents had set aside part of my college fund for my study abroad experience, and I had worked my ass off the summer before I left. This was the last time that anyone else had funded my travels—since then, I’ve done it all on my own. There’s a lot of stigma and shame with others funding a lifestyle choice (aka travel), but I’m not really embarrassed about it. It was extremely kind of them to support me financially, and I appreciate it greatly. I spent almost all of the money I had, and I don’t regret a single thing.

I still get “Notts-sick” for my study abroad year. Returning to the city isn’t quite the same. It’s not the same when I’m not living in the flat, taking the 77 (or 78/79!) bus into town, going to Ocean on a Friday night, hopping on a train or a bus for a daytrip or a weekend trip, or jetting off somewhere in Europe. I’ve spent so much time in the city since my study abroad finished. But it just isn’t the same. The city will never be the same from what it was to me that year.

I’m so glad I lived in Nottingham during the time of my life that I did. I don’t go out and party now anywhere near as much as I did during college. I don’t think I’d enjoy living in a city as big as Nottingham, and I’m glad I don’t live there now. That being said, it was the perfect city for me during this time of my life. It had everything I wanted: fun clubs and bars (that were open super late), a big city vibe that was so different from my tiny university town (and so much closer to my beautiful hometown, Minneapolis), an unbeatable location for exploring the country, and good connections for trips to Europe. I don’t think I’ll ever move back to Nottingham. But the city was so good for me during the time that I lived there.

I knew that I would be ready to move to England permanently after my study abroad. England has always been the dream. And after I got together with Adam during the end of my time in Nottingham, I knew that I had to make it a very real future. While I wasn’t necessarily prepared for the real world and was certainly naive (I discovered a lot of harsh truths about living in the UK, and the process of getting my visa was so much more difficult), my study abroad was my test run to see if I could handle it. I knew that I could do it.

The UK has changed greatly in the last five years. And to be honest, it’s not for the better. The disastrous Brexit vote has emboldened racists and pushed the economy and the pound into a further decline. The rail network is in shambles, and despite rising fares, it is becoming impossible to depend on trains in this country (I honestly can’t remember the last time I had a train journey that wasn’t delayed or cancelled). Taxes seem to keep going up, but I can’t tell where it’s going (besides the money spent on ten bigoted Northern Irish MPs). The country is in a real sad state, and in standard British fashion, most people here don’t talk about it and don’t seem to want to acknowledge it. While I’m sure these issues were present when I studied abroad, and I was just too naive to notice it, they have become serious problems today.

I never experienced real racism during my study abroad. This is why the racism I’ve experienced since moving permanently two years ago has been so hard to comprehend and overcome. When I lived in Nottingham (an extraordinarily diverse city) as a white American student, I can’t remember a time where I felt that people were racist to me. Unfortunately, that happens a lot now. It was something I was completely unprepared for when I moved almost two years ago. There is also a big difference between studying and living in the UK. I still constantly get asked if I’m studying here (“nope, I just live here”). I think (white American) students aren’t seen as a “threat” the way normal immigrants are. I’m grateful that I never faced that experience as a student, I’m sure due in large part to my white privilege. But it came as a shock when I moved permanently.

I didn’t gain as deep an understanding of certain aspects of British culture as a student, compared to now. Even though I lived in England for a year, even though I had British friends, even though there was a lot I did learn—I’ve learned so much more now. I never went to Wetherspoons for a cheeky pint (how did I manage?!). I didn’t have to pay council tax. I didn’t understand the complexities of trying to communicate anything negative in the workplace (Brits hate confrontation and this can be so hard!). I had no idea about the level of regional accents in the country—I only knew that there were northern and southern accents. I could go on and on about British culture, and the things I never knew. There was so much I didn’t know, understand, or experience living in England as a student, that I’ve learned as a normal, working adult.

I am so grateful and appreciative of the people in my program. They made the year what it was, and my experience certainly would have been less without them. Some of them are my best friends—some of them aren’t my best friends, and that’s okay. Our group dynamic was a crazy one, and I can’t separate my study abroad experience to those eleven other souls who shared it (and the flat) with me. They were all a part of my study abroad. And I’m so grateful for them.

My year studying abroad was the most important year of my life. It changed the course of everything, and changed me a hundred times over. It was simply the best opportunity I’ve ever had, and I’m so grateful to have had the experiences I did. Thank you to each and every person I met during my study abroad and who made my year what it was!

Have you ever studied abroad? What was your experience like? Share in the comments below!