I was planning to write another post about applying for British universities, but I decided to write something else, about what I liked and didn’t like in UK. Sometimes I get the impression that because of how many Polish people live there, nobody even thinks that it’s completely different culture there. Of course it’s still Europe, so it can’t be so different, but I was pretty surprised my first weeks when I was discovering all by myself.
Latino-theme pub crawl in Leeds
Also, many people have some relatives living there. But what if you don’t have anybody living there and still want to go and study there? Probably all the people are saying you it’s crazy and risky to go all by yourself, without someone who could help you with your first steps in new country. But that’s not true! I didn’t have anybody else there who could help me, and I got in the university, found accommodation, found a job, did all the procedures like NIN number, bank account etc… And yeah, all by myself! So don’t be scared and if it’s what you are dreaming about, just go and try. And if you don’t like it, just remember nobody is forcing you to stay there.
Before pointing out all good and bad sides, I'd just like to mention that I didn't mean to offend any British people in my post. Even though I didn't like some things in their culture, or the way of their behaviour in some situations - I know not all people are like that, and besides, it doesn't mean I didn't like British people at all. Their culture was much different to me and I couldn't feel comfortable and adjust there, but I still made many good friends.
Okay so let’s start with things I loved in that country!
Parties. Clubbing in UK is amazing. Amazing dj’s, everybody having so much fun… I remember that the thing which was much different than clubbing in Poland, was that people weren’t afraid of dancing. I know, clubs are full here too, but people don't have real fun as they have there!
Booking an appointment with doctor. I just called and the same day I could see the doctor. No problems at all. Here if I want to make an appointment, it’s really small chance I will do it. Everything , somehow, is booked 10 minutes after opening the registration. And you can’t book it in advance (unless it’s like one week in advance). So should I plan getting ill in such an advance or what is it about?
Libraries. Modern, in an old style, whatever you want, with amazing, modern equipment, sometimes even nice views like in Laidlaw in University of Leeds, long opening hours and nice environment so you can really do great work staying there in much shorter time than if you stayed home.
Relations between professors and students. They just treated us like a normal human beings, like people. I didn’t need anything but they seemed helpful…. Total contrary of what it looks like here in Poland.
Classes. Guess how many I had. 11 hours weekly. I remember my flatmate had just 8 weekly. All of them were obligatory, but if you didn’t come, you could just explain it online, you didn’t need any sick leave from the doctor and that was amazing. I tried to be honest so I was even writing things that I couldn’t come because of an interview etc…
Cookies from Sainsbury’s. They’re so tasty and delicious!
I remember my first day at uni and Meet&Great that was made for my course. Great opportunity to meet your new course mates, ask peple from other years about some tips, meet your professors, and all of that accompanied by amazing Spanish and Portuguese food and wine :) they should do that in Poland too.
House parties. I’ve been only to one but I remember it was pretty crazy, just like in British movies, a lot of people, probably even around 200 or something like that. I actually found out there came police in one moment only few days later…so much people it was even hard to notice them haha!
Fancy dress parties! I love that people there don’t really need a reason to wear some funny costume and just have fun. I loved it, and the creativity of some people, it always makes party or a pub crawl more interesting ( yes, I am especially referring to Otley Pub Crawls in Leeds haha).
Concerts. So many great artists, I’ve been just to one concert of HONNE, but even tho they aren’t so popular yet, the tickets were cheap even for them. And the atmosphere was really 'familiar', as it was a small one so I even took a photo with them afterwards.
British pubs. Someone once said to me British pubs are so good and much different than in Poland, I didn’t notice that first, I didn’t like it so much, but now I pretty much miss that.
And now… of course there are always positive and negative sides of everything. So what exactly I didn’t like?
Simple things like making a bank account. If you think it’s gonna be so easy and you just go to the bank and do it, then well – it’s not gonna look like that. You have to make an appointment and I was waiting for mine 3 weeks. In other banks they said me 6 weeks or more.
Food. It's not really diverse, I got the impression that baked beans, sausages and bacon are main ingredient of their cuisine. Somebody can like it, but personally I felt it was quite boring.
Parties. There were pros, now cons. Walls in student halls are pretty thin. So when I had to Wake up at 4 am to start working at 5.30 ….well, I was really hating life then.
Humidity. So high one, there was damp on the walls in my room all the time.
And weather overall. It maybe wasn’t raining so much as I expected, but all the time world seemed so ‘grey’, all the time cloudy, really depressing weather.
The British culture of drinking. Well, did you ever seen drunk British people? There are a lot of them in Cracow and most of people think that they act so crazy because alcohol is pretty cheap for them here so they can finally party properly. But in UK it looks pretty same. Sometimes it might be funny, but when you want to just have few drinks and stay quiet… then it’s gonna annoy you.
Prices. It’s really individual things but I just had to say about it. Incredibly high. I was working around 25 hours per week, getting some money from my family and still it was too hard for me to survive.
Not many things to do in Leeds. Living in Cracow made me used to that there are always a lot of things to do apart from drinking or shopping in your free time. Many museums, cultural events, and generally you can do whatever you just think about. I was pretty bored in Leeds in my free time during the day. No tourist attractions, not many interesting places to see.
And one more thing about parties – clubbing there might be much more fun but you actually always have to pay for the entrance, which is completely opposite to my city, where you can always get to many parties for free.
So as you see, there are many things I liked and I didn’t like there. I am sure I could think of something more, but I wrote about the most important things in my opinion, things that were much different for me than here in Poland.
Alll of that stuff made me want to come back to my homeland. Struggling with money and the fact of the culture I didn't like so much were main reasons. Many people told me "You could at least just finish your university there, this degree would mean so much in the world, you could survive these 4 years there and then come back". Unfortunately, even though I'm the person who loves to travel and getting to know new cultures, I cannot stay long in the place that I don't like, just for the diploma/money. If I had to choose between a place where my diploma wouldn't be so great and I wouldn't get much money, but I would be happy, and a place where I could do great career but I would be depressed all the time - I would definetely choose the first option.
So I came back to my country and started my life back there, but I really appreciate I could experience this whole process of moving out to another country and living there for 3 months.