UK (I): Arrival in London and getting used to a new country

As many of you know, I’ve been living in London with my partner for about a year and a half now. During this period we’ve been through many different experiences: the arrival, our first room in a shared house, job seeking, moving to another house, and finally, studying at a British university.

The idea of this post is to serve as a summary of the experiences we lived so far in the UK, either as an introduction to those who don’t know me yet, or as a curiosity for all those friends and family with whom I have never come to share the details. I will divide the post into small sections where I’ll try to summarize the milestones of our journey in the British Isles. Notice that this is a pretty long post; a lot of things happen in a year and a half!

Arrival in London: get a home, a job and get used to the busy city

I came to London with my partner, Sara, in early October 2013, after a long summer of hard work in Mallorca to save as much money as possible, and after having been estranged for three months, since she came to the UK earlier that same summer in order to work and to get used to the new country, while I was still working and studying for the last exams of my law degree.  After the summer, and recently graduated, I jumped with her into this adventure. Upon arrival, the initial plan was staying with Sara’s uncle, Jose Antonio, during the first few weeks and until we found a place to stay. Truth is, the very first day we carried all our belongings Southeast London to have an interview with Mary and Ramiro, which would be our landlords, and with whom we would for the following 6 to 7 months. We had found a place in Tulse Hill, a relatively quiet corner in the Brixton area. 

Work

After a few weeks settling down and arranging all necessary paperwork (someday I’ll make a post explaining my experience with issuing a NIN, bank accounts, etc., I promise), I started looking for a job. There’s tons job opportunities in London for foreigners. Inevitably, and unless one has prior experience in a particular sector and good command of English (my colleague Kevin is a good example), your first job will almost certainly be in the catering sector. In my case, despite having a pretty decent level in English, I had the added problem that the British legal system is completely different to the Spanish one and the rest of Europe, which means finding a job here related to my studies is not easy. However, this is a huge city, and as I said there are hundreds of different workplaces to “survive” to one’s first steps in London. In my case, shortly after arriving I started working at Wagamama, a Japanese-inspired restaurant. It was a place I visited during my first vacation with Sara in London (almost 6 years ago!) and whose delicious food I never forgot (lol).

Although my intention was to start working as a waiter, at that particular time (and taking into account the usual long journeys on public transport in London) the local Wagamama in Putney remained at a convenient distance from home; there, I was offered a job as a Chef, which I happily accepted until the chance could arrive to get transferred to the “front of house” or, why not, switching to another job once I felt more comfortable with my English. Regarding Sara, who had already been several months in the UK, she started working at Masala Zone, a restaurant serving traditional Indian food, where Virginia, a friend from Mallorca, was already working.

Time passes. We move

Time flies, as we say in Spanish. In front of us there were several months of work, exploring the city on our (short but intense) free time, and a pleasant visit of our family during Christmas. During this time we also met Laura and Victor, another couple  from Spain who moved to our house in Tulse Hill not long after us. We got along pretty well since we had similar interests, so there was always some interesting conversation during breakfast or lunch, on topics as diverse as science, religion, cinema and places to discover in London. Victor began working with me at Wagamama a few months after.

And we are already in the spring of 2014. The idea of moving to a new house with a little more independence starts crossing our minds. We all got home late from work, and used to stay up until late talking in the kitchen, disturbing the sleep of other people in the house. In addition, our rooms and the house in general were quite small and cramped for so many people, and the rent was high considering the area and all of the above. We also lacked a room where we could sit comfortably and watch a movie, or just chat without clogging the small kitchen. Our initial searches of “every couple on their own” became a joint search for an apartment for the four of us. Looking for a flat in London can become frustrating due to high prices, an innumerable reference list, work history, bank statements, criminal records, and agency fees. Fortunately, our search was not too long, and we found our little refuge in Roehampton, a quiet area in Southwest London, near Putney where Victor and I worked, and just a 5 minutes walk from Richmond Park, the largest of the Royal Parks of London.

Roehampton and Richmond Park