It is often claimed that the international academic sojourn has the capacity to bring about personal and cultural change in the sojourner, but such claims are not often supported by empirical evidence. Using an autoethnographic approach, this paper offers a first-person account of the changes wrought in an international student by their time spent studying abroad. The study notes a growth in cultural knowledge, an increased tolerance of cultural differences and an improved ability to

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... across cultures. International education personal development cultural learning autoethnography of 51 million over 2013 and close to 526 million compared to 1995 (UNWTO 2015). Moreover, the number of international students has also seen a vast increase, reflecting growing university enrolments around the world. In 2012, 4.5 million students went abroad for the purpose of study, an increase from 2 million in 2000 ((Project Atlas 2015). The United States is the world's leading destination with almost 975 000 international students in 2014 and holds 22 % of the total number of mobile students worldwide. This is followed by the United Kingdom with approximately 495 000 international students (11 %) and China with 378 000 students (8%) (Project Atlas 2015). Furthermore, Asia is the leading source of international students: 53 % of all students studying outside their home environment originate from Asian countries. One out of six internationally mobile students Furthermore, I believed that Asians tend to stick with people from their own culture. However, during my first few weeks in England, a student from Thailand approached me, and invited me to a party with her friends from different parts of Asia. I must say I had some doubts about going as I was not sure if they would be willing to communicate with me, or if we would have anything in common. These assumptions would be shown to be erroneous. At the party, people were genuinely interested in me and my culture. They were very friendly and asked me a lot of questions. I was surprised to realise how 'European' they behaved and that we shared the same worldview in many respects. Ten months later, two of my best friends are from Thailand and South Korea, and they have confounded my misperceptions. I have learned about the differences in Asian cultures and I also learned that people are offended if it is assumed that they share the same culture and traditions as the Chinese. They do not want to be overshadowed by the Chinese and they want people to know that they have their own character and traditions. Gudykunst (1998) states that stereotypes create expectations of and predictions about how people will behave, which are often challenged by intercultural contact.