A Letter to Norwich

When BBC World Service asked listeners for contributions about the people or the places that have changed their identity, Anna Fagundes from Brazil sent in a 'letter to Norwich', where she describes her time in the city. When she arrived from Brazil to study for an MA, she knew nothing of Christmas crackers, Terry Wogan or The Archers. That was all set to change.

Anna says: "I am a Brazilian national who has lived in the UK - more precisely, in Norwich. The years I've spent there transformed me deeply."

"I arrived in September 15th 2004 and you scared me right away. I had no friends, no known faces waiting for me at Thorpe Road train station - as a matter of fact, that was the first time I had ever boarded a train in my life.

The Forum and surrounding buildings in Norwich Credit: BBC

You dismantled my identity, my security and my beliefs.

I was 24 years old, with a bursary to study an MA at the University of East Anglia. You are not threatening, Norwich, not now anyway - now that I am used to your streets, to the sight of the cathedral tower in the horizon as the train approaches the station. But back in that evening, I honestly wondered what the hell I was doing there.

We were both in for a huge shock. Every person I talked to seemed interested in hearing my tales - how come someone leaves sunny Brazil to end up in Norfolk, of all places? I guess it was a mutual reckoning: your exotic was my normal, and vice-versa.

I didn't understand Christmas crackers, Terry Wogan, "The Archers". You expected me to like samba and football and was baffled I didn't care much for either. So yes, I eat avocados with sugar, but you people eat kidney pie, so we're even on the "disgusting" front. I taught some of your inhabitants about "proper" barbecue and mate tea; in return, I came back to Brazil addicted to thick-cut marmalade and "Doctor Who".

You dismantled my identity, my security and my beliefs. You made me question my knowledge of English, my capacity to write essays or even to walk (the less we talk about those slippery frozen puddles in December, the better). But if I am here now, if I have and know all I do, it's because you and your people were there, then.

I love you and I owe you. Now and always."