Moving to the UK

I started writing a couple of weeks ago about the lure of living abroad and this is the continuation of that story. I know that some of you reading this are expats yourselves or have also traveled. I don’t think I’m unique in my having done this, however, it is a very large part of who I am, so I thought I would share my experience.

As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to travel to other countries. I was always friends with the foreign exchange students, one of which I am friends with still today.

However, study abroad never appealed to me, even at University. So, when I found the BUNAC, work abroad program, where I could basically just go, on my own terms (and work, which appealed to me much more than studying and going to class), I knew this was my chance. So, finally, I went right after I finished my graduate degree, before I had any other commitments to hold me back.

Back in 1998, there were no work abroad programs for Australia or New Zealand. If there were, my life would more than likely be very different right now. I had always wanted to go to Australia, so that is probably where I would have gone.

But, since that was not an option, I applied for the Work in Britain program. Once I received my work visa, I booked my flight to London.

I had all sorts of naive, romantic notions of living somewhere around Surrey in some quaint English village, getting who knows what kind of job, and visiting places like the 100 Acre Wood, where Winnie the Pooh lived. Yes, it’s true. I’m still bummed I never went there. One day though, we will take our boys, which will be even better.

So, back to my story.

I was so niave and hadn’t a clue what I was doing in terms of packing. I packed far too much gear, based on my sister’s (the packrat) advice that “you will want/need this while you are away”. Since she’d studied abroad in Finland I thought she must know. Nope. Packed way too much crap that I did not need or want and thought of ditching it many a time.

The flight was a cinch. I sat next to a lady who gave me some advice, one being to always look for a McDonald’s if I needed to go to the bathroom while walking around London. Good advice, actually, since many English places didn’t have bathrooms (or ‘loos’) that you could use unless you were a patron, if at all.

When I arrived in London, I went to my hostel, which was very strange for a hostel. The shower was literally a stall in the room itself, right next to my bed. So, there were at least 8 beds to this one shower. No changing area. You had to get into the shower, take off your clothes, throw them out the door onto the floor, then shower and manage to get dry and dressed, while all the time not showing all your bits to a bunch of strangers. This was my first experience at a hostel and even I knew, thankfully, this was not normal.

Anyway, I met a few other Americans who were there through BUNAC at a pub meet-up. Everybody was planning on staying in England, except one guy. He was going up to Edinburgh, Scotland. BUNAC had an office up there too. Interesting. I hadn’t considered it before. Then, after a few more days of just being underwhelmed in London in terms of making any connections with other people or my surroundings, I booked a night bus up to Edinburgh.

When I arrived, I knew immediately it was the right choice. Edinburgh is just a special place and you can feel it the minute you are there. The history and the charm just oozes out of every crevice of the city and I felt lucky every day I was there. The Scots and the travelers who chose to live there were a much warmer bunch than any I had met in London and I knew right away that it was where I was meant to be.

Okay, so I had a hostel bed booked in Edinburgh for the next week. I was in a city I was planning on staying in for a while. Now what? Time to look for a place to live and to get work that will pay for it. Easy, right?

I will write later about how I went about all this and the type of work I did while I was there.

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