Two Months Already!

Unbelievably, I have now been living in London for two months and it has flown by. Since I arrived, I have found a place to live with great flatmates (and a mouse visitor that we quickly evicted!), made new friends, cheered on Canada during the Olympics with 100 other Canadians at Leicester Square and found a permanent job with a great salary & perks. I can honestly say, even though it's only been two months, that this is the best thing I have ever done and I have absolutely no regrets. The only negative thing, in my view, is that I only have 22 months left here. I realize that I am probably still in the 'honeymoon phase' of this experience but I also know that it's up to me, and only me, to keep making it a good one.

I read this great blog post from a fellow BritBounder a few weeks ago and thought I would share it because, aside from being really funny, he made some good points about adjusting to life in London. You can access his blog by clicking here.

The two things he said that I really related to and agreed with are:

1. "when you move here you are going to be a new kind of broke, for many reasons"

2. "you are a foreigner in a buyers market, which puts you at a huge disadvantage in every aspect of life."

After two months of living here, I have decided to list some of my observations and the things I learned (in addition to the two above) in my time here so far. Here goes:

• Searching for a flat sucks. I'm not going to lie, it's a frustrating process but it's nice once you find a place. Once you have gone through it, take a look at this Buzzfeed post for a laugh.
• London shopping is amazing (and dangerous!), there are endless malls, shopping streets, websites with free shipping and cute little shops, it's hard not to get carried away (especially considering you will be broke - see #1 above).
• You will  have to get used to rejection (from jobs, flats, etc.) as it does happen a lot. When you think you've applied to enough jobs/flats, apply to 10 more.
• It's easy to meet people as you always have something to talk about (where you're from, why you're here, what you did back home and also answer the usual: Are Mounties real? Is it really that cold in Canada? If Canada's so great, why did you leave?)
• You will miss your family & friends but meeting new people and reminding yourself that you live in one of the most amazing cities in the world will help make up for it most of the time.
• Brits love their Nando's - they're everywhere! Also: curry. Oh and another fun fact: shawarmas are called 'kebabs" here.
• It's good to try to meet other people in the same situation as you - whether it's other SWAP/BritBounders or other Canadians in London.
• Grocery shopping is fun with all the different products here but, if you're like me, you'll miss things like Kraft Peanut Butter (even the one in the new packaging with the creepy bears).
• Everyone (or a lot of people) will call you 'love' or 'darling', it's so nice!
• You will feel like you're always drunk or tipsy! Brits sure know how to drink and they drink often. With so many old and interesting pubs around, it's hard to resist.
• Make time to enjoy London and to travel. It's easy to fall into a routine or to forget you live in a city with amazing (and free!) museums and countless other attractions. Now's the time to take advantage of being at Europe's door!
• You will drink more tea than you ever have in your life and you will love it more than ever. It helps that it almost always comes with a biscuit/cookie.
• No matter what you think, you will start to speak differently. At first it's only because you don't want to get laughed at anymore (e.g., 'pants' mean 'underwear' here, so you learn to say 'trousers' instead of 'pants') but then eventually 'thanks' becomes 'cheers', 'hi' becomes 'hiya', 'how are you?' becomes 'you alright?' and 'calendar' becomes 'diary', just to name a few.
• Eventually your love of the Tube will wear off (but only a little) and you will start taking the bus when you realize that it's much cheaper. The bus is actually nice because you get to see a lot more of London's less known sights and discover new neighbourhoods.
• Unexpected things will happen (for me, it's my landlord selling the flat I have finally settled into and love) and you will have to adjust. But remember that things like this could have happened at home or abroad - there's no difference.
• "English muffins" (obviously) are just called "muffins" here, I have yet to discover what "muffins" are called!
• An important thing that I learned, or rather that I changed about myself, is to accept every invitation that is extended to me, even if it's not something I really want to do or if I'm feeling a little tired/under the weather. This is how you meet people, make connections and learn new things. I think that this is probably the best thing that I have done since moving here and it's what allowed me to have what feels like a successful transition.

Finally, if I could say one thing about what I learned in London that I think is the most important, it would be this: nothing will go according to plan. No matter how prepared you are, life moves fast in London and most things won't go as planned. I like to look back at the plans I had made before leaving and at where I am now. Most of the things I had panned didn't happen but, looking back, I can see why and where they didn't happen and those are all good stories now. There's a Churchill quote that reflects how I feel about this, it also shows that I probably wouldn't make a very good politician! ...or would I?

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

Winston Churchill

So that's a (not-so-brief) summary of my perspective of life in London after two months. I'll try to do this again after six months or maybe a year to see if this has changed. It probably will but I look forward to many new discoveries along the way. What's next for me? Travel! But where to go first...