My year abroad was the best thing I ever could have done, I learnt real life lessons and I have made friends for life. I seem to be slightly stumped on what to say in this blog, just because the whole thing was so fantastic and is already starting to blur into one big memory. But what I would say is grab every opportunity as it comes, make friends with everyone and get involved with every trip, club and activity you can, because it really does fly by and it’s over before you know it.

When I returned to the UK I definitely had a bit of a culture shock, it was really weird not being complimented on my accent all the time, and actually being surrounded by familiar faces. So WARNING it is so weird when you get home. But I am enjoying not living out of a suitcase… at least for the time being.

Anyway instead of babbling on about everything I loved during my year abroad (because I literally could write a book on this). I will just briefly mention two of the best things about my year abroad.

Therefore, two of the biggest highlights of my year was my mega trip around the West Coast of America and a creative project I completed for one of my LGBT modules. Since I have returned home to the UK every one has been asking me about my West Coast trip, but because it was so amazing I often can’t find the right words to express its magnificence. Therefore I decided to make a video which I believe highlights the best parts of my trip, it is titled (Sam and Amelia- Summer 2018).

Similarly a lot of people have been asking me about the academic differences between the UK and the US, and I always tell them about my creative project. When I was studying at the University of Maryland I was given the opportunity to either write a 15 page paper or to complete a creative project… so of course I did the creative project. I decided to write an LGBT rap which I have attached below. The rap is titled ‘What is Queer’ and is about a variety of theory, subjects, stories and modern day concerns that I learned about in my LGBT Latino/ Latina America class while studying in America. There are a million opportunities just like this at American Universities, particularly at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ergo if you think you would rather spend a year doing fun projects then writing essay perhaps America is the place for you.

Also attached below is a copy of a video I completed for my course mentors at the University of Manchester which highlights the positives and negatives of my year abroad. It is a very honest video which doesn’t sugarcoat the fact that sometimes the year abroad wasn’t all positives, so again give that a watch.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as a Global Ambassador and I hope that I have been able to cover a lot of things you may have been curious about. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to add or message me on Facebook and I will definitely be around in the IPO locations a lot next year to answer anymore questions.