England. The first impressions.

It was 7h30 in the morning when I arrived to the Manchester Airport. I have been up for four hours; I have had two coffees and some chocolate biscuits when I left and I was starting to get hungry. The flight had experienced some turbulences and I was cold, but we managed to arrive safely and on time. Even though I had been to Manchester before, everything seemed different now. I was really paying attention to the surroundings, to the people, to the language and the accents, maybe because I didn’t want to get lost while I was looking for the coach station.

People were smiling. At 8h00 in the morning! A cute guy even helped me with directions towards the coach station, to which I had to walk for 15 minutes in the cold. While I stopped to have a smoke, I noticed the change in people. They were blonder and happier. Lots of track suits and high heels. It was very cold outside but the people didn’t seem to mind that, considering the fact that they were very lightly dressed. I was so excited to hear English all around me. With a British accent! When I got to the coach office to buy my ticket, the lady there spoke really fast and I stuttered for a bit but I managed to purchase my ticket into the right direction, after it took me a couple of minutes to count the weird coins they have. And then I waited for two hours. While I was reading the second book from A song of Ice and Fire series, I heard Romanian around me. A family that came from Germany was also moving to the UK and we had a chat while waiting for the coach. It was pleasant to talk in Romanian, it calmed me. I think I was still under shock, I wasn’t yet realising the fact that I was moving into a whole different country, that I was starting from scratch again…

After a while, the bus arrived. The driver asked me ‘Love, where to?’ and I blushed. Aww, he called me ‘love’. The famous English ‘love’! Unfortunately, that word didn’t compensate for the fact that I froze the whole two hours that the ride took. He had mistaken the heating button with the A.C. button so the group of newly arrived Jamaicans and I struggled not to fall asleep and die frozen.

The ride to Birmingham took forever. I was tired and cold and hungry. I was also very excited to see my sister after one year. The sun was shining high over the green hills and the dark-brown brick houses as it warmed my face. And then it hit me. I said goodbye to Belgium forever. It will never be the same.  I was scared but curious. And, weirdly enough, optimistic about my new future. Yeah, I know, optimistic me! But that was exactly the purpose of this big change, change the place and change the luck. I really wanted to start for scratch!

When I finally arrived to Birmingham, I was relieved. And the city looked so beautiful. I was called ‘love’ some more by two taxi drivers and that made me smile again. I had a dumb smile on my face the whole trip to my sister’s house. And then I saw her. And her fiancé. And Dexter, the new puppy. She waited for me with a chocolate cake, gifts, an English phone number, a room nicely decorated on my taste, with purple in it and with a big smile on her face. That was the look of happiness. On both our faces. It felt good to be there, with her.

The week passed quickly, as we went shopping for things a lot cheaper than in Belgium, we walked in the cold admiring the early Christmas lights, ate at KFC, which you cannot find anywhere in Belgium, went voting for the Romanian President, where we stood in line for four hours. There, we met some nice Romanian girls, while eating bagels and drinking hot red wine, which was served to us by another Romanian man. We are everywhere, haha!

Overall, Birmingham is great. Riding the public transport can be a bit tricky, since they don’t tell you the next stops, there are no maps inside the buses and you always need the exact coins, but there are double-deckers, which is nice. ;)

Here are some things I’ve learned until now or I needed reminding:

- They have pounds, NOT euros; stones, NOT kilos; feet, NOT centimeters; miles, NOT kilometers; (So complicated!)

- They ride on the left side, so wait for the bus on the LEFT side.

- In pubs, don’t wait for the waiter to come and take your order, everything, even food, is ordered and paid at the bar, by mentioning the table’s number.

- You cannot exchange foreign currency in banks.

- Never say ‘pants’ instead of ‘trousers’ if you don’t want people laughing at you.

- It’s ‘centre’ not ‘center’.

- ‘Chips’ means 'fries' and 'crisps' means 'chips'.

- When telling the hour, use AM or PM, so 3 PM instead of 15h00. I don’t think I can get used to this one!

So, that’s about it for now. Everything seems exciting and I really like it, there are no regrets…yet. But, as I know myself, I will soon discover the skeletons that the UK had hidden in the closet. But, until then, keep calm and love England!