The next chapter: London
Nothing can really prepare you for life in another country. You can save as much money as you like, do all the research you want, and plan everything right down to the last detail. But once you get off that plane everything changes and what seemed so far away is now real.
About a month ago, my partner and I quit our jobs, packed up our lives; fit them into two suitcases and moved to one of the most expensive cities in the world, London. Since being here, we’ve been asked multiple times, “Why would you want to leave New Zealand and come here?” and our answer is generally the same every time. We came here because we wanted to experience living in a different country (preferably one where they speak English), we wanted to base ourselves somewhere close to Europe so when we want a quick weekend away to Split, Nice or BarTHelona we can do that. Another big reason I wanted to make this move was the opportunity to prove I could make it in a big city, which I know sounds very cliché. But when you’ve spent the last 14 years living in the same city in a small country so far away from everything you start thinking, “Yeah I’m so done with this place”. And now, a month away from home I can certainly tell you moving to London is the challenge that just keeps on challenging.
Let us start with the flat hunt. I’ve had my troubles finding a flat before but doing that here is next level. You’re really in the pressure cooker when you have a week to find somewhere to live. A week because that’s how long we had in our hotel. We had to find a place that met our standards and most importantly our budget because we were bleeding cash, at the same time we had to research areas of London we wanted to live in because we knew very little about the different suburbs except for Clapham which is well-known as Kiwi and Aussie central. So we’re pumping out viewings left, right and centre; taking us to different parts of London; hoping that we’re going to view our potential new home. It really is an exhausting process, especially when these kinds of decisions aren’t in your hands. The next thing you know the week is up, you have no luck with your flat hunt and you have to find either another hotel or Airbnb. You see where I’m going with this right? Now we have to do this dance all over again in another temporary accom. But let’s skip to our reality check, a few days into the new temporary accom and we suddenly have three offers for some great flats. We’re over the moon and ecstatic, our hard work and grafting has officially paid off, we chose a lovely two-bedroom apartment in East London, and everything was starting to look up for us. Then the worst happened. I won’t go into details but there were some complications with the apartment that meant the whole thing fell through and the next thing we know we were back in another hotel.
That really knocked us but we kept going because we had no time to get down on ourselves. We eventually found a new place to live, at this point we just needed to find somewhere because the clock started ticking a lot faster. Now we call South London home. We’re done with the flat hunt, now we move on to the next hurdle, the job hunt. Those who have been there and done that will know how hard finding a job is, now add a few thousand more applicants, and throw in some must-have qualifications that you don’t have too. I know it sounds like I’m just complaining but the reality is finding a job here in your field of work is tough, and we knew this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk, but the opportunities are out there so I have no doubt we will find jobs, though I’m not quite ready to give in to hospo work just yet. There’s nothing wrong with that either but we didn’t move to the other side of the world to take a step backwards in our careers. So now we keep on keeping on.
To anyone thinking about making the leap, trying to set up your life in a new country is hard and at any point everything can go wrong. But how you react to that adversity and where you decide to go next will determine if you have the chops to see it through. Amongst the challenges we’ve faced in London, we’ve also enjoyed our time here and that's the other thing too, you need to learn to enjoy the little things because if you get so hung up on the bad you forget to be grateful for the wonderful things in your life. I’m very thankful for my partner, knowing we’re on this journey together makes the ups and downs that much better. Whether it’s trying not to get lost on the underground, having a cheeky wine tasting at Waitrose (Grocery store), or even losing an apartment we thought was going to be our new home. We’re doing it together and that’s whats made our time here so great so far.
