René:
The first time I consciously took notice of a country called England I must have been around 11 or 12 years old – at this time I discovered my appetite for swords, knights and castles and, of course, the legend of King Arthur was one of my favorites. Later in school many of my fellow school friends used the word torture to describe their relationship to a guy called Shakespeare – but quite good marks in my exams convinced me the stuff he wrote was actually not that bad at all.
In university I was confronted with the whole spectrum of English literature from the Early Modern Period up to contemporary works. However, books and cultural achievements were definitely not the only reasons for coming to the UK. A pretty relaxed job market and the opportunity to live abroad and improve one’s English might have influenced my decision as well. And I haven’t regretted it yet…
By the way, last year my parents were visiting me to find out how their son is doing. On one occasion my mum was staring out of one if the windows at the Victorian houses opposite the street I am living in with its countless little chimneys on top. “You know when you were a little boy”, she said in a smiley voice mothers sometimes have when referring to the past “you used to love watching Mary Poppins dancing and singing on the rooftops …”. Super-califragilistic- expi-alidocous!!!
Read René's blog
 Britette:
Another Brit! I was born in the UK and grew up in Australia. The journey back from Australia to London at the age of 12 was an exciting one, and focused mainly on making new friends, music (Nina and "99 Red Balloons" still brings back memories of that time), a new school and the weather... Back then I was an Australian with a pommy accent. Now I am a Brit.
There is something about moving half way around the world at a young age... being open to other cultures and new things becomes part of who you are. Ever since I left the University of Manchester, where I studied German and Russian, I have spent most of my time, both at work and at play, in the company of people from all over the world.
A few years ago I took 5 weeks to go and visit some friends in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I was used to travelling, but this time I had a strange sense of dread: what if this time I wanted to stay in each place? In a kind of Faustian way, I feared wanting it all.
And maybe that is the best way to describe how I feel about London. Its the closest I have come to having it all. I love the fact that there are so many influences here - and yet I am happy to be home. These days the wanderlust I have is satiated via holidays - and the diversity many seek through travel is right here on my doorstep.
This is the place I belong, with all its foibles, frustrations and idiosyncrasies. There is something so wonderfully mad about the way we set out our picnic and deck chairs for The Last Night of the Proms in the Park; I love our coastline and all that it offers; the dry British irony in our humour is priceless. But its not all perfect and maybe that makes it just that little bit more loveable. I have many a time defended our hot and cold taps (rather than one mixer) to colleagues from Sweden; had to answer for our excessive use of packaging to friends from Germany and shrug and say to friends from all around the world when trains don't arrive or leave on time: "That's just the way it is."
And on balance, I love the way it is - I'm happy to share a little bit of that with you...
Read Britette's blog
 Olga:
From a distance...
Sometimes you notice or appreciate some things from a distance…
My life in Poland was quite comfortable and predictable. I had a baby, an excellent family life. Because I wanted to bring up my daughter myself, I decided to take a leave from work. Moving to London was my husband’s idea. He is an ambitious person, what on one hand is very precious, but on the other hand causes revolutions. When I moved to London 18 months ago, I felt as if it was kind of punishment. I knew it could be a great adventure, but, for some reasons, I prefered visiting other countries as a tourist… I did admired London’s architecture, landscapes in Cornwall or Cumbria. Multicultural population of London was fascinating. Weekends at the seaside were fantastic. But, everyday life of a housewife was not perfect. I felt disappointed with health care, even shocked with quality of GP’s advice. For every mother it would be an issue. I had to organize my life again and some simple and obvious things became complicated.
In June 2008 I went to Poland for one month holiday. Beacause I’m expecting the second baby I decided to stay in Poland a bit longer. Polish doctors are better;) Thanks to this summer gap I realized how important place for me London was. First of all, I miss my English-Polish, -German, -Russian friends. I also want to take a walk along the Thames Path, to go to Whitstable on Sunday, to play with my daughter in Greenwich Park or to have a take-away dinner from Indian bar.
I’ll be back in London in one week time. I expect I’ll open a new chapter of my English life.
Read Olga's blog - coming soon!
 Yau:
Real Ale Trail
My journey in the UK started a decade ago, partially due to a little greed for a scholarship granted by the British Council, but more based on a long-term passion for medieval tales of Kings & Queens, knights, bandits and castles. Ten years on, I am now on an even longer and increasingly exciting journey that I would refer to as “Real Ale Trail”…
Studying at the postgraduate level in the UK was never easy for me, a Taiwanese coming from the other side of the globe with limited English language ability, little knowledge of the education system that requires loads of essay-writing, and no experience of the weather, dining habit, tea culture, and what’s not. But my unstoppable curiosity seems to prevail all these years, taking me through some unbelievably exciting journeys and accumulating – not just two degrees, but – friends from different corners of the country as well as all over the world!
Perhaps the word “multiculturalism” sounds a bit like cliché nowadays in description of London and many large British cities. But I can happily report that my experience is a vivid reflection of this term. I have lived and worked in many parts of the Capital, Brighton, Sheffield, etc.; all prove to be cultural melting pots, thanks to various cultural elements and ways of life attributable to worldwide workers, tourists, students, and local British citizens of diverse ethnic backgrounds. This highly receptive attitude towards foreigners and new things does not stop at the city’s wall, either. Wherever I travel, be it deep inside New Forest, high up in Yorkshire Dales, along the white-cliff coast of the South, or wandering in the valleys of wild North Wales, the people I meet there are always warm in answering my endless queries about everything local and willing to exchange views on everything beyond the water’s edge.
This culturally interactive atmosphere goes hand in hand with rich and deeply rooted historical heritage that is still a common way of life and easy to experience in most parts of This Sceptred Isle. I have found myself not only deeply immersed in one of such vintage cultural phenomena, but also able to explore a wild new world through the very same gateway – that is, British pub & ale culture.
Wanna know more? Walk with me on my Real Ale Trail...
Read Yau's Blog
 AussieBrit:
I was born in London. Technically not a good start for someone writing about what it’s like to be a foreigner in the UK. I didn’t, however grow up here, leaving as a baby to about as far away as you can geographically get to live most of my life in Australia.
Whenever I explain this to English people, I get the inevitable response ‘so why on earth did you come back here?’ and I must admit, swapping sunshine and beaches for rain and warm beer seems on paper a strange thing to do, but I believe these Brits don’t realise what an amazing place they have on their doorstep. Some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve found were in Cornwall, quaint fishing villages in Devon, the lush green countryside of Wales and centuries old castles less than an hour from London! And that’s before you even consider the melting pot of people, cultures, food and arts which can’t be found anywhere else. After all, where else in the world can you get a Jamaican goat curry, washed down with a Polish beer at 2am in the morning?
I visited London for the first time alone as a teenager, not long after I finished high school. Spending my days wandering the streets, exploring different areas and suburbs where the vibe and streetscape changed every 500m you walked. I fell in love with the place, feeling an instant connection to the city of my birth, sensing the heartbeat of the city in every square, circus, mew and terrace. I felt at home and I promised myself I would come back.
It took 6yrs after that, completing my studies in Australia and the Netherlands, and travelling through Europe and North America, but I kept the promise and three years ago bought that one-way ticket from Sydney to London. I’ve lived in both South, and now North London since, explored all over the city and increasingly the countryside also.
I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and fall in love with this ‘small Island’ too!
Read AussieBrit's Blog
 Kate:
Growing up in a country recovering from nearly
forty years of enforced communist regime during which travel was
strictly limited to the Eastern European block, I felt I was missing
out on travelling and conveniences the West had to offer.
My chance came earlier than expected. A tiny card on the wall of
our school corridor promoted possibly one of the first foreign
exchanges available to pupils in the Czech Republic. In our class, I
was the only one interested in undertaking a trip to America on my own
for a year, attending local high school, staying with a host family and
living the American way of life. Later I met more young Czechs who also
went away but to take a journey overseas at a relatively young age of
seventeen was still considered somewhat extravagant.
The initial months in my new country were a real challenge. Most of
the time I felt silly as I couldn’t communicate in English properly.
The language barrier would have been manageable, only if it weren’t for
the school you had to go to every day and the sport team you tried to
fit into. Fortunately, hard work was rewarded in the end and I returned
self-confident with a graduation diploma in my pocket, practical
English skills with a slight American accent but also the confidence to
explore the world even further.
To make friends from all over the world thanks to newly acquired
English skills soon became normality and there was no need to reach too
far to find determination to start learning German. Mingling with
international students on summer language courses abroad has turned
into a passion I was not going to give up. I enroled in university to
study English and German and participated in further scholarship stays
in Ireland and Austria. I finished the best years of my life so far
with a Master´s degree five years later.
During the last year of my studies, the idea to work abroad came
naturally to me. London seemed a great destination when you are young
and full of enthusiasm to experience a career in a truly multicultural
city and meet like-minded individuals. It is one of the cities that
never sleeps, things are always happening and you find yourself in the
middle of all these exciting places and events to go to.
People come to London for various reasons but I find one of the
best advantages of living here is that it doesn´t matter where you come
from. Many of us lived in our home countries around the globe before
and that is what connects us. We share the same dreams and while trying
to make these dreams come true we also face the same challenges.
So why not face them together...
Read Kate's Blog
 Annette:
“Thank you, love” said the man in the shop to me when I asked him to take his trolley and give him my £1.
For over three years I have lived in this country where people are so polite that they say “thank you” when you ask something of them and who even apologise after you bumped into them.
The British, I think, are as polite as the cliché says. At first I thought it was strange to be called “love” and “darling” by total strangers – now I think it makes life so much easier if people are polite as a general rule. I don’t think that my fellow Germans are rude, but I notice the difference whenever I go home.
I came to the UK for work and a change and found both. A full time permanent position – a rarity in Germany in social work! -, my own flat, lots of interesting new food (there are nice British recipes despite the rumours!) from bangers and mash to apple mango juice and all the cultural experiences London has to offer have become part of my day to day life.
I travel to work on the “wrong” side of the road every morning; I have started gardening (apparently a deeply British hobby, according to a book I recently saw called “Why we garden”) and think I have a better feeling for Pound than Euros by now.
Despite all this I still have my “German glasses” on – my colleagues still laugh when I write the address precisely in the bottom right hand corner of an envelope, as we do in Germany.
The last three and a half years have been the most interesting experience and I have no reason to think that this is going to change any time soon!
Read Annette's Blog
 "Mexican Eyes":
Hi! My name is...well, just say that it is Mexican Eyes.
As you could guess from my pseudonym, I am a Mexican living and working in London.
I came to this great city since nearly 10 years ago to study and
live an adventure, to have that overseas experience and then get back
to my country after 3 months.
But well, while here the unexpected
happened: I fall in love with this place, its history and its
inhabitants. London is a magnet for people from all ages and
backgrounds and that’s why I am still here, succumbed to such
vitality.
When I look back, it’s difficult sometimes even for me to believe that
I have been here for such a long time, almost a third part of my
existence. But simply, it doesn’t feel like it. I am still enjoying
every day I live in this city, in this country, in this island and I
want to keep breathing everything it has to offer until it lasts.
After years here, I got what I wanted from the very beginning and which
became a dream: becoming a British citizen. I am not going to give
further details on how I did it but I am just going to say that it was
not easy. It cost me many hours non sleep, tears and pressures. I had
to take the biggest decision in my life: to go back to my beloved
Mexico, leaving behind the family I adore, friends and my culture or
stay here and take the opportunity....It was a big gamble but so far,
I don’t regret it.
England has given me everything I always wished
for: the love of my life, great friends, unforgettable experiences, a
good job, a career. It has widened my vision of the world in every
single aspect. I cannot thank enough to this city for allowing me to
have here what I now call home.
And, well, if you still want to read me I can then tell you what is
like to be part of this amazing place. I can tell you how this city
vibes and embraces everyone who wishes to immerse themselves in the
adventure.
But above all, I can tell you how is like to see London
through my Mexican Eyes. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I do.
Welcome to my world in the United Kingdom...
Read Mexican Eyes's Blog
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