Canada

Hey! My name is Allan, the Student Ambassador for North America. I am a postgraduate student studying Creative Writing Scriptwriting in the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing.

I am a first generation American of Mexican descent from Santa Rosa, California (located in North California, about an hour north of San Francisco, in the beautiful and much-visited Wine Country). My parents always tried exposing me to new things: different cultures, cuisines, films, musical genres, and activities. I grew up bilingual and biliterate, and from an early age displayed a strong interest in the arts and storytelling. Funny enough, as a kid I loved to draw, but I rarely do that today. Starting in middle school, I became a fiercely dedicated bookworm—to the point my dad would come into my room and confiscate my lamp because I’d be routinely reading until 5 in the morning—and soon after, I started writing my first stories and poems. As an artist, my primary outlet is creative writing, with a focus on scriptwriting and songwriting. I attended a bilingual (Spanish-English) immersion charter school, then made a major shift when I attended a private college-prep high school on a full scholarship, then made another major shift when I moved across the country to study English literature at a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, then made yet another shift when I decided to study abroad, visiting UEA during my third year of undergrad. At UEA, I took my first playwriting class and that’s when I decided I wanted to be a professional scriptwriter. As a result, I applied to UEA’s MA Creative Writing Scriptwriting program and moved back to Norwich after finishing my undergraduate degree.

Primarily, I returned to UEA because of its strong Creative Writing program. Here, I’ve found a community of writers unlike any past school I have ever attended, where we can meet and connect over our mutual love of writing at events such as New Live Writing and ScriptXtra, put on by our department. In addition, I have open access to on-campus facilities that really allow creatives to run wild with their ideas and make them into realities, such as the UEA TV Studio, the Music and Media Centre, and the radio station for Livewire 1350. It’s a great place to live and be an artist. Moreover, I always appreciated how UEA shows a commitment to its green spaces: nature-gems like the Broads, the football (soccer) fields, and Earlham Park are some of my favorite places on campus to walk around and decompress in the middle of a busy academic week. Finally, though our campus isn’t necessarily huge, there is a lot to do—on top of academic facilities and the Sportspark and cafes, there are a couple of bars in the campus center (one for undergrads, one for postgrads), a black-box room that is converted into a nightclub a couple times a week, and even a bus stop that transports students directly to and from town; these are all things that I feel are practically unheard of at American universities.

I am really grateful that campus is so close to the Norwich City Centre. This has allowed me to go into town as often as I want and explore the area, and I’ve been fortunate to find some local restaurants and businesses that have been very welcoming to me. I’m a big regular at the small family-owned restaurant Vietnam Pho on Dereham Road and the pseudo-indie arthouse movie theatre Cinema City on St. Andrew’s Street. I often walk to town (it’s like 40-50 minutes on foot depending on the day) when the weather’s nice, and on my way I stop by the Co-Op shopping plaza on Earlham Road, where some of my favorite spots in town are, including Aram’s Barbershop (go for a haircut, stay for the Turkish tea!), the Ji’s Chicken Shop, where you can get fried snacks and bubble tea, and Moonlight Palace, the only Chinese restaurant in town that’s open till 10:30pm. As you can likely tell, I’m a big food as well arts and culture lover, and Norwich is a great place for both! Also, check out the covered market in the heart of the city centre when you get the chance, with this phrase in mind: bao buns.

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