I have only just realised that it has been 30 months already since I first moved abroad. From the country I have lived in all my life (Poland) to the country I thought I knew relatively well after spending so much time in the English classes. 

I did in fact know quite a bit, but there were so many new things that surprised me, annoyed me, made me laugh or miss my home country. Below you will find a list of personal thoughts that came to my mind when I started thinking about my experience of living in London.

Fellow expats in the UK – let me know if you relate to any of those or if you’ve got anything to add!

1. Making the effort to travel around the country paid off. It gave me a broader understanding of the local customs, history and everyday life in various cities in the UK. Also, a good conversation starter to meet new people ? 
2. Spending the first couple of weeks to explore the local area, local shops and walk around mindlessly was a good idea.
3. It is cool to try new types of food, even though you initially thought they are ‘weird’, ‘disgusting’ or ‘too heavy’.
4. It doesn’t   a l w a y s  rain in the UK. Though fair enough – it rains more than in some other places in the world.
5. Following everyone else’s expectations to adjust quickly was a bad idea. It made me have too high expectations towards myself and delayed my adjustment process.
6. If I was supposed to be living this great big city life, why would I be unhappy about anything? Stupid. ‘Give yourself a permission to live through your emotions’ would have been the advice I would have liked to hear back then.
7. Keeping in touch with your loved ones more often than usual helps get over the sadness.
8. Knowing when to stop contacting them all day every day with updates is also helpful to maintain a healthy relationship.
9. Writing a journal helped me notice the progress I was making in terms of adjusting to the new culture. Highly recommend!
10. It can be hard to have this new point of view after living abroad and bring it back to your home country. Be prepared that people might not understand you sometimes.
11. Being normal about the life abroad was the best strategy, even despite of some hesitation regarding talking about my ‘new life’ abroad that can at times be so different from what I had back home. It is simply my life now and it turns out my closest friends really want to hear about my life as it is, even if it might be so different from the lives they lead – that’s the point of keeping in touch. (Huge shout out here to my beautiful friends who made me realise that, love you!)
12. You can fairly quickly get used to driving on the left side of the road, despite initial doubts.
13. Also, it is easy to learn and accept (not necessarily internalize and agree with) that ‘How are you’ is just a greeting rather than actual concern about one’s well-being.
14. In the UK, a lot of meaning is hidden in certain types of looks (eg. the you-jumped-the-queue look, the oh-my-god-train-delays-again look, the I-am-next-in-line look in the pubs etc.).
15. Take-away coffee is much more affordable in the UK than in Poland.
16. Knowing the local language of a country is very helpful when starting out.
17. Even despite knowing the local language fairly well, experiencing certain adjustment challenges is basically inevitable.
18. If you are up for experiencing life in a multi-cultural society – London is your place to be.
19. The access to foods from various parts of the world is amazing in the UK. And affordable too!
20. Knowing about cultural dimensions and various other frameworks was helpful in adapting to the British culture.
21. Despite knowing perfectly well about those dimensions however, I needed to get to the point where I actually wanted to use that knowledge, rather than just moan and grief the past life. Next time I should probably do that at an earlier point in time.
22. Finding a hobby outside of the work environment was and still is one of the best things. I have continued with it throughout my stay in the UK.
23. Not all British people drink tea with milk. On point no. 3 – I did try to drink black tea with milk and was actually pleasantly surprised with how good it tastes. Still, I didn’t get into that habit long-term.
24. There are at least four words in British English that describe various types of rain. They should teach the local ‘slang’ and expressions at school, seriously, cause it’s like a whole new language.
25. Customer service difference between UK and Poland is huge, with UK on the winning side.
26. Lack of electric sockets in the bathrooms is still a pain, but hey, nothing I can do about it right?
27. The number of people in London still scares and annoys me. Despite accepting the crowds as part of the package, it is still something that bothers me. It’s really hard for me to imagine that there are even bigger crowds in places like Shanghai or Tokyo! May be worth going there to experience it myself and after returning to London it would feel like a small town? ?  Hmm, sounds like a good plan!
28. After 2,5 years of living in London (crazy how time flies!) I have accepted many things, but am still adapting to the way things are done here. There are certain behaviours that I think I might never internalise at all. And it’s ok.
29. I have learnt and experienced so much through living abroad!
30. I am really glad I found the courage to follow my dream and start my own little project abroad. I am a happy expat  ?