This multi-culturality is what makes Green feel himself “more at home”. This Canadian arrived in the English capital on January 7th this year. He came in search of a “great adventure”. So far he finds himself captivated by the city.
Javier Duque
4 years ago Robert Green discovered that special visas existed for young people to visit other countries of the commonwealth. That made him thinks, and realise that he wanted something different, exciting . . . a new culture. He would start a new phase in his life when he finished his studies.
So, finishing them on Dec. 24th last year and aged 24 he set off for London at the beginning of 2012, and hardly had he arrived when he read about the thousands of unemployed people who were also arriving in the UK. Before he had time to read any more about this he had already found a job in a private hospital, with responsibility for looking after patients. He managed to get this before the end of his first week, through an employment agency.
But the offers of jobs didn’t stop and in his 3rd and 4th weeks he received 2 other offers of jobs in hotels in the city. Something he turned down because he was – and still is -happy working at the hospital.
“I had a lot of luck. I found a job straight away, but for most people it’s a big challenge, like a lot of other things in this city”, he comments.
Another one of the difficulties that Robert refers to is finding a decent place to live. “There are a lot of choices, some of them enormous, but very expensive”. Finally, last week he moved into a studio in West London, which he hopes will be his home at least for the time being.
In spite of the inconvenience of having to change address twice, he is enchanted with the city: “Those who complain about the weather should go to Canada” , he says smiling.
As for the other complaints of Londoners, about public transport, Green thinks it magnificent with a metro that covers the whole city and so many bus routes.
“Canadian cities are designed for cars. You need one to go anywhere, but here it’s different, and that’s great. Our cities try to seem like London but they don’t manage it, in his opinion.
Settling in and the Future
On this his second time in London – the first was a few days some years ago when he was visiting a number of European cities – Robert feels completely integrated, especially realizing that people here are friendly.
“In Canada it is extremely important to be polite, and when I arrived here people going about their business seemed unfriendly. But when I got lost a couple of times, I asked people for directions and they were very helpful”, he points out.
As for the English, Robert came with the wish to get to know the people and the country, and thanks to his work, where nearly everyone is English, he has been able to. At the same time he has met people from many parts of the world: Australians, Italians, Spanish . .
This multi-culturality is what makes Green feel himself “more at home”, because despite coming from Ottawa, he has lived in cities as multi-cultural as Toronto, and also Vancouver where more than 40% of the population are immigrants or first generation.
For the future, Robert says that he still hasn’t thought too much about it, since he has not long arrived in London, and still has another 18 months left on his visa, but he is clear that he hasn’t come to study, but to prepare his future life. “Although Canada is a good country, and I can’t imagine myself anywhere else. And I miss the coffee. Ours is very simple but I like it, and the kind you have here is awful”, he says finally.
(*Fictitious name, true story)
(Translated by Graham Douglas – Email: ondastropicais@yahoo.co.uk) – Photos: Pixabay
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