Accommodation

I received so much useful information on accommodation in London from Londoners, I wish I had kept that information in a safe place and not on a piece of paper that I put in my pocket... and well, you know how the story goes. However, I will do my best from now on.

So there is not one golden rule in term of living arrangements in London. There is only one common factor: it's expensive. Being that said, there are a range of factors that vary according to somebody's preferences and circumstances.

For instance, some people cannot share a room for many reasons:

1) NOISE: They cannot stand the noise or they make too much noise. Sharing a room can be challenging in terms of sleep. You cannot expect other people to have the same sleeping patterns you do, and they probably won't. If you are a light sleeper, this can be a problem that can disrupt your life. London has a really fast rhythm and some people need proper rest to be able to perform well their daily duties. However, it is possible to adapt yourself. Before coming to London, I had never shared a room with anyone apart from my sister and that was only for a year... a really, really long year. It was really hard for me to share a room with my first room mate because we had different schedules and sleeping patterns. I talked to her about it, we both made an effort and things worked out really well. I also have to say that after a while you get used to the noise and the lack of privacy.

2) TIDINESS. They are untidy or cannot stand untidy people. It is hard to be tidy when you are sharing a room. There are never enough shelves to store all those useless things (mainly clothes) you paid a fortune to bring from your home country.

3) PRIVACY: this has to do not only with your personal belongings, mainly valuable ones. This has to do with your personal space. It is not easy to feel comfortable being in PJs even around people of your own sex. From now on, you will need to use Skype to talk to your family and there might be someone else in your room while you do that. It doesn't matter that you speak in a language they don't understand; it limits you.

Also, you are going to live with different types of people, and some of them know now about boundaries. Sometimes someone will use something that belongs to you without your permission, or take it for granted that because one day you offered them a biscuit, they can have your biscuits any time they want, or use your hair dryer when they need it. Sometimes they will see your shelves or desk as an extension of their dominion and you'll find your space limited for yourself. This is where diplomacy comes in. Somebody who worked as a hostess in a restaurant once told me that she found you can tell anyone anything with a smile. Well, that's what she says, but it depends on the smile, obviously. The bottom line is that one thing English people are proud of is their manners. And this extends to everyone. As long as you are polite and open-minded when you try to solve something, it should be alright. If you put up with a situation for to long, and suddenly you snap, the other person -no matter how reasonable they are- might snap at you, too. Just make sure that when you expose your reasons, you do it in a polite way and you listen calmly to the other person. If this doesn't work, before throwing so f-words around, consider changing your situation.

4) THREE IS MULTITUDE: If it is hard sharing with one person, it gets more complicated when you share with two, particularly when they form a coalition against you, or worse... they speak a language amongst each other that you don't understand. In this situation, you are in disadvantage and you feel uncomfortable because every time you'll wonder if they are talking about you.


TIP: If you are coming just for the summer and you don't want to use sheets somebody has slept in, bring a sleeping bag with you. Otherwise, buy new sheets in Argos or Asda.

5) LOCATION: some people rather live next to work, some like the East Side because of its young and fashionable environment, some others like being next to a park to run. You choose. They are a million alternatives out there and you need to figure out what you prefer according to your style of living. It will always be challenging in a way because this is London and no matter what, it will be expensive one way or another. You might want to sacrifice privacy for centrality and being close to Kensington Gardens, or you might prefer spending hours in the tube, but enjoy a single room and the tranquility of those areas. Or you might want to be in the city centre, enjoy London's night lives or spend your days in cafes. And then there are those who choose an area close to their friends because that's something else about London: if you don't work, live or study with your friends, you might not see them often or at all.

Moving to London

The email that informed me I got the internship caught me by surprise not only because I didn't think I wouldn't get it but also because I had no money at all. My bank account status was flashing "broke". I received the email one Wednesday and I was supposed to start working on Friday. It's not like I hadn't told the interviewer I lived in Spain, but he didn't believe me. Like I would joke about something like that. He said, "Yeah, but I mean where do you live in London. It's not like you are going to travel all the way from Spain for this interview". - "Well..."

My father helped me and gave me 500 euros. 120 euros went to the travelling expenses. Well, I was lucky enough to crash at a Spanish friend's house. My plan was to stay there for two days until I found a place. We looked on Gumtree for rooms to share because the funds were scarce. The internship was unpaid and it could last 2 to 4 weeks until I was lucky enough to get a paid job. The plan was to look for any other kind of job in the meantime so I could stay in London.

She gave me a great deal of good information:

1) Zone 2 is ideal to live in. It is fairly close to the central area, yet it is much cheaper. Besides, the travel card between zone 1 and 2 is 30 pounds a week, while it goes higher as you move father. For instance, if you live in zone 5 and you need to commute to zone 1 for work, you'd pay 50 pounds a week for your travel card, which is what? Around 220 pounds a month for transport! And you end up spending most of your time on a moving vehicle... Fun!

We looked for places in White City, which is near a huge shopping centre called Whiteleys. The plan was to be near the shopping centre to have access to jobs in stores and restaurants.

2) When you are trying to settle in, the best option is to share a room with someone else, preferably a friend. In Zone 2, you can share a room with someone in a flat from 60 to 100 pounds a week. Accommodation is a whole story in London. I will dedicate the next post only to accommodation. It is one of the most frustrating aspects about London.

3) Look for any kind of job. If there is something London boosts with is jobs... well, crappy jobs! But when you are settling in, trying to get things right, you cannot be that selective. London is an expensive city and you need to have some sort of income to keep you afloat. Otherwise, the city can become overwhelming and it all can go wrong, as you'll see in the next posts how quickly money can disappear from you bank account by just trying to survive.

So any kind of job will have to do. Give out CVs in stores, restaurants, look in places

Here are a few job sites:

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk

http://www.gumtree.com/jobs/london

http://www.reed.co.uk/jobs/london

Some people go to a job agency, pay 10 pounds to get trained and then do temporary work. This is very useful for those who didn't come to London for a full time job and just need to stay afloat for a while or combine this kind of work with something else. When I find the number of the temp agencies, I will update this post.

4) IDEA: Some people come to London for two weeks. They stay in a hostel while giving out CVs. For a restaurant, they should be able to get a trial very soon. Once they have a job, they look for long-term accommodation. If not, they try until money wears thin and then they go back to their home countries. The thing with long-term accommodation is that they ask for a deposit (4 to 6 weeks of rent) and for a minimum stay (usually 6 months to 1 year), but remember that landlords are not institutions but normal people, so you can always negotiate.

5) IMPORTANT RULE: don't eat outside. Just because you are living in a hostel or have just arrived, it doesn't mean that you can be spending a lot of money on food. Be sensible about this. Buy bread and butter, and drink water from the tap. Ok, so you can eat cheaply without living on bread. I don't want to cause obesity in anyone. In Sainsbury's, you can find roasted turkey ready to eat for 1 pound. Salads are very expensive, though. Buy one mixed leaves salad and use it for a few days. Some people who live in hostels, keep their food in a plastic bag outside their windows. This is not efficient on the summer, but during the rest of the year, the weather will keep them naturally refrigerated. However, authorities do not recommend it for health reasons. I did it for three months and I'm still alive, but I guess time will tell...

The wish to move to London

I can't remember when my obsession with London started. When I try to figure it out I get the same headache provoked by the Big Bang theory. Just like NYC, London has all the charms of a big city, specially for someone who grew up in the middle of nowhere like me.

Somehow I got sidetracked... And well, lots of "but back then", moving on... It wasn't until June 2011 when I came for a few concerts (of the same band -yes, it happens) that I fell in love with the city. It was its soul, its lights, its splendour, its cosmopolitanism, its movement, its majesty... I was captivated by London's charm. I was in the centre of the Universe, this was the place to be.

For personal reasons, I did not resume my plans to move here. Just one year ago, on February 2012, I was living at home,  broke, unemployed and absolutely helpless, watching my youth going by (I call it the couch potato syndrome).

On March, I started the most meaningless internship in Journalism of my life. It was a joke, just not particularly funny, except for the time when they brought up the Watergate scandal; I couldn't help but imagine Woodward and Berstein spitting their drinks all over the floor.  Anyways... I got fired (after a month) because I was allegedly shy.

The led to April when I got my driver's license (1100 euros, btw) and then my friend from the university came to visit. I was miserable. I thought I would never be a journalist, I felt I was a failure. I had just had a major personal disappointment and all of a sudden there were no pills or sharp objects at home (just kidding!). So I told my friend that I felt I wasn't cut out to be a journalist and she said: "What? One of the top students in the class is not cut out to be a journalist!" That kind of switched something on in my brain. Being with her reminded me of the projects we had at the university, of the passion I had once for journalism and the dreams I cherished of seeing the world. There were no more than a few ashes remaining from that fire, but something ignited in me again.

The first thing I needed was a change of ambience. There was nothing in Malaga for me, and the only place I felt I wanted to go to was London. There was something here for me. So I checked on Gumtree http://www.gumtree.com for jobs. I was looking for any type of job, but I couldn't help checking out the media section, even though I knew nobody would hire someone who is not a native English speaker to work as a journalist in English.

There was an ad for freelance work. It was about writing articles and, well, applying couldn't hurt. It was perfect because I could do them at home and get some money. The editor was American and she requested two samples. I had to write them for them on the subject she gave me. I submitted them and she liked them. Yes, I had had people (English native speakers) proof reading them for me. What are friends for, anyways? :S

This is one of the articles I sent: http://www.sexynwet.com/OnDemandBlog/ride-the-wave-in-mundaka.aspx

May was all about getting my driver's license and writing articles. I wrote 90 articles on May and then I got assigned 34 more articles due on June 7th. It was a lot of work yet it was heaven-sent because I was broken-hearted. The articles gave me the motivation I needed. When the project was over, I was already too caught up in having no time at all. I immensely enjoyed writing those articles. Most of them were about travelling. At the same, I was tutoring English, so I saved some money. I went to Yoga classes and visualised myself in London. Positive thinking, positive thinking.

When I submitted the last articles, I was so anxious because I had nothing to do that I started looking for a job again. Within two days, I got an interview for an internship that could lead to a full time job in a business magazine. The interview was going to take place on June 14th and I just said yes. So it was a bit crazy and I knew I wouldn't get the internship, but I had saved money from article writing and the tutoring, and I really needed to get out of Malaga.

It was exhilarating to get on a plane again. I had been lying on a sofa for so long in a small town that the thought of an airport fascinated me. I stayed at a hostel the night before the interview, I put on a blue dress and I told myself that even if I wasn't going to get it, I would give it my best shot.

I got lost getting there. I walked down Oxford street and then arrived at Berkeley square. I envied everyone who lives in this city. The buildings, the flags, the parks, the cafes... I wanted to live here!

After the interview, I went back to the hostel and I met two Spanish guys at the Internet room. I took the chance to ask many questions since I had been misled by a Dutch friend who told me that to be able to live in London, you need to work 90 hours a week.

They told me a fair few things. It is possible to live in London without being a slave, it is a wonderful experience and you don't need that much money to move there. "You should have come for a whole week and give CVs out in every restaurant. We have a friend who got a job within two days", one of them said. They also told me that it wasn't that expensive to live there. "It depends on the area where you live. Zone 1 or central is the most expensive one, and the prices go down as you move farther from the city centre. We share a room and pay 80 pounds a week in zone 3".

Indeed, you only need to want it bad enough to get over your fears and have the courage to do it. And that is what had been stopping me for so long. Fear. I was afraid of facing life, of taking care of myself, particularly in such a big city -couch potato syndrome at work again.

That doesn't mean that I didn't have a panic attack when I got the email from the magazine congratulating me on getting the internship.

Londoners

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson

The streets of London are not paved with gold and it is not only grandiose architecture which shapes the city’s skyline. Instead, the sky that reflects on the Thames is full of dreams, castles in the air of those who packed their hopes and changed their homes for London’s bright lights.

Londoners come in all shapes and sizes. Some expats came to the city to make it their home, but the vast majority are only passing through. Some come for financial reasons while others are trying to make their professional dreams come true and not a few use it as a bridge to get somewhere else. 

And then there are those who took the leap seduced by London's magic, dreamers who are in love with the idea of living in one of the capitals of the world and one of the most stimulating places on Earth. Some succeed, some fail and some merely survive, but that's another story and shall be told another time. 


I hope this blog can be useful for people who are thinking of moving to London or who already live here, in terms of jobs, accommodation, social life, finance, food and so on.