Hello
So I’ve realised that this blog has become horrifically impersonal, so I thought I would do a post to help you guys get to know the person behind the keyboard.
You may have noticed in my little profile section that there is a slight snippet about myself being an English Literature and History student in London. I thought I could expand upon this, and tell you a little about my experience studying in the big city (Especially as I have spent the majority of my life in the quiet security of the countryside).
I would be lying if I said the prospect of living in the capital, and being able to brand myself a “Londoner” , didn’t excite me. However trading the trees and fields of the Shire for the concrete buildings and interminable sirens of the city wasn’t quite what I expected.
The first pre-conception I had was that Londoners were innately and unnecessarily rude. Well this notion hasn’t necessarily been shattered, overtime I have almost learned to sympathise with the behaviour of those “rude” Londoners. If you’ve ever visited London, you might have found yourself shoved to one side of the tube, or pushed past in the street by a herd of businessmen clad in suits. Well I can agree that this is annoying, their behaviour is not entirely unjustified. The truth is, naturally the people in London are just far busier, or at least there’s a higher concentration of the busy people in comparison to most areas. Given the environment, it’s rare that you’re going to walk past people that are out for just an aimless stroll. Almost everyone has somewhere to be. Countless times I have been halted by a blockade of naïve tourists gawping at our architecture. We do have some impressive landmarks, but come on…stand to one side. Of course it would be unfair to generalise this to everyone in London, but let’s be honest, you would be pretty annoyed as well if your daily routine was continuously slowed down by people who are simply ignorant to the regular customs. It can be frustrating living in a tourist destination to have to wade through unpredictable traffic to go about your daily business. But hey, I suppose it’s what you sign up for. I should also add that many tourists are actually very mindful of our customs, but all it takes is the odd few to have Londoners cursing through their teeth. Must be something in the water.
So I suppose other than a gradual growing impatience towards visitors to the city, another huge impact London has had on me as been the draining of my bank account. As I am entering my third and final year of study, you would think naturally that the drinking and partying would slow down as my maturity developed an appropriate level of seriousness for my work. You would be wrong…partly. My sensible work ethic has been forced by my economic struggles. In the majority of central clubs in London, you are extorted for the equivalent of your weekly food shop every time you want to quench your thirst. Accompany this with the mammoth monthly rent, and you have a whole city of students leaching off their overdrafts to survive. The student loan just doesn’t stretch.
My final comment on life in London is perhaps one of the main ones on the minds of the majority of parents. Crime. This was something I was never too worried about. Again, living in the countryside I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the criminal grasp of gang violence. However I suppose I did underestimate just how easy it is in the city for “trouble” to find you. I mean, it’s a fairly regular occurrence on my regular route to campus to be approached by youths trying to sell me drugs. I must admit, the majority are fairly polite in the way they go about pushing their product. But I would be lying if I said that they all took rejection with grace. Furthermore, I have unfortunately been involved in a few situations that I fear were pushed right to the precipice of problems occurring. But it’s a city, there’s going to be some nutters. The best advice I could give you is to keep your head down. If trouble comes looking for you, just walk the other way. I have since changed my route to Uni.
So those were a few of the things I found had the most impact on me when I first moved to London. I thought it would change the tone of my blog a little and make it that slight bit more personal.
Thanks for reading!
J J
J J Hallam 