London.

Portobello Market - Lively weekend market in Notting Hill

Almost every time I met someone for the first time at school, besides asking where I come from, they’d ask “is this your first time in London?”

I said, “yes”.

Although Europe is not new to me - I spent two years living in France and travelled around some places in Europe, I chose not to go to London before.

As much as it was really tempting to see my friends travelled to London or how curious I was to ride the Eurostar train from Paris to London that goes inside an ocean tunnel or cheap flights with budget airlines, I just didn’t want to do it.

For a reason of… saving it for something more special. I wanted to come to London with someone special and for a reason. A reason that I still didn’t know at that time. But I just had that feeling that I would have the chance someday to visit London, it didn’t had to be at that time, and I would not be alone.

And here I am now, having the chance to live in one of the most buzzing cities in the world, where people are ecstatic about life, with my husband, which makes it more blissful.

There’s a famous quote by Samuel Johnson, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”. The saying is somehow true. I have been staying in London for almost a month and I still feel like I don’t know much about this city. The city is just, immense. There are so many things to see in London, I am not saying only the famous landmarks, but the corners of each borough, and streets around the city. In every single meter I passes each day, I always find something exciting. Also, since the city had been having a rooted culture of learning since long time ago, there are also tons of things to learn and appreciate. Be it the history, art, technology, science, anything. Most of the museums are free, I’m not talking about some random museums, they are world renowned museums, and they made it free for people to come. So we can learn what British people have already learnt back in 1700.

Also, unlike other capital cities in the world (at least the ones I visited/lived) where you only see bricks of giant buildings and very poluted streets, London is very green. You probably hear of the famous Hyde Par. It makes park running is so much fun, my favorite route is to go along the pathway in between giant trees, go beside the serpentine (swan lake), and come home through the Italian garden. Besides hyde park, there are other parks in the city center too, like Green park, St. James Park, and so on. There are also other parks around the city, and every borough in London always have their small park too, when you can at least lay down during the summer to enjoy the sun or have childern play in the play ground.

So yes, London is amazing. But what amazes us more is the diversity and how accepting people are. When you arrive in London, you will hear people talking in many languages other than English, it’s very common in the streets of London. They are not tourists, they’re people who live in London. I thought to be able to survive here, one needs to learn to speak English in a good british accent, but thats not true, London is the place where we can comfortably speak with our accent without having to hide it 😊

I couldn’t find the same comfortable feeling when I lived in France few years ago. My families and friends are very accepting. But when I travel to big cities, I felt unsecure to be seen as an asian girl walking alone (even if I speak fluent French!). There was a day when a group of people yelled at me in a sort of making-fun-in-chinese, another day a seller lady got angry at me and my friend for speaking Indonesian in front of her (we were discussing about the goods she sold), she said it was rude to speak in a language she did not know, well okay, why didn’t she appreciate us for trying to speak her language even though that’s not our 1st or even 2nd language that we learned? I was not saying France is a bad country to live, I still love it very much, and if there’s a chance for me to live there again, I would of course love to. I was just making a comparison, I thought that the same thing will happen accross Europe. But, that’s a very clear differentiation between London (or probably the UK) with other parts of Europe. If there’s a place one needs to see what’s the real meaning of “harmony in diversity”, London should be the place. Another thing that strikes me, almost every big universities provide praying space for different religion, something I & Adit find really comforting, Adit can even do the friday prayer in his campus and hospital, that is quite a luxury.

There’s no doubt why London is full of students studying from everywhere around the world, I’m very lucky to be one of them. It’s a city which will give you a full experience of living, regardless of what you’re studying or your interest. Also the fact that London is truly welcoming to everyone makes it a nice melting pot for intercultural interraction.

Thank you London, for accepting us to be part of you.

#London #Life #Study