ENGLAND & LIFE

England & London

Today I would like to talk about England. This is one of my favourite country in the whole world. I am cabin crew and I travel a lot and there is one country that changed my life and way of thinking more than any other country : England. 

First of all, let’s start at the beginning. My mom and I always go to a different place on holidays. I was 16 at the time and everyone went already to London at school. I have been homeschool once and so I have not been to London. To be honest I did not really wanted to go there. England is seen as a land where it rains all the time, where people eat bad food and it is cold as hell anytime you go there. 

However, I ask to my mom to go there and see once in my life this European Island. I remember I was in the train to go there (from Paris to London) and I told myself « Why am I going there? I am not far away to the most beautiful countries and destinations in the world, and I am going to London, knowing the fact that I live in Paris. London will be the same as London ». 

My last sentence was really nonsense. When we arrived in London, it was cold and grey. I ignored it but many people live in Paris and work in London, and they do this commuting, if I can call it like that, everyday which is crazy. We directly went to the ticket office to buy a metro ticket and go at our hotel. A nice woman explain us everything with time and consideration at her office. She repeated as much as we ask her to do so. Oh, yes because I have forgotten something, when you are French native speaker like me, English is impossible to learn and to practice and an English accent is really hard to understand. After ten years of English studies I first realized that I could not understand a single word in English, and that I was barely able to speak without mistake. 

We were in the huge subway station and a very powerful feeling came into my body, and I do not know if this happen to you before, but I felt like home and the whole time I was there I felt like home. When I am not in that country, I miss home which is crazy because it is not my home at all. But there is something you will know about England and I in few lines. 

After my bad rubbish idea about London and England we went to the hotel. Let’s talk about the room for a minute. This was a simple regular room that we ordered. But we had a nice sofa and a table, a large bed and a jaccuzzi. This was completely normal. We paid a very small amount of money for this room and it was amazing.

We are starting to see the sun shining bright. We visited everything, starting by the London Tower. Every attraction was a long (quantity) and so well-managed. In France, you would have that quality but not that quantity. 

My mom and I realized how much food was not expensive at all. Fifty-five cent for one kilogram of carrot. In France, for that price you have two carrots. You can eat on one pound a day in London. You can eat in one pound twenty a meal in France. Cereals for kids were two pounds less than in France, bread was two pounds less than in France, same for toothbrush, cereal bars, croissants (!!!), muffins, and more and more. Let’s just talk about copybook. It is almost eight pounds in France, only eighty cent in England. The price of the food in a restaurant. for the same meal (exactly the same!) I pay twenty pounds in France against five in London. And in London they offer green tea and twice the amount of rice and meat. We conclude that we have to do shopping. We bought food that we needed a lot. 

And we buy clothes. Primark. We discovered this incredible shop. In France, at that time, Zara was the most cheapest shop with H&M and C&A. You could buy a coat for thirty-five pounds only. Nowadays, the quality is disastreous and the prices as high as a New York building. In Primark we saw jeans at five pounds. The price of a cereal box in France. Tee-shirts were one or to pounds. The price of a bread. We bough for one-hundred and seventy pounds. Do you know what? I still have those jeans, those tee-shirts, those leggings and shoes. It looks new as hell. I will not tell you what from Zara is still in my wardrobe because every article has been broken…

London is also a lo about English architecture (these houses!), art (museums), food (international one, so many things). 

London is also about English people. Always a tea or a coffee in their hands. Watching their phone or reading the newspaper in the underground. They are constantly speaking about work in the street. Their accent… oh my oh my so pretty and so elegant. They all seem very shy and interested in other. They are so helpful like I have never ever seen. And of course, this style is very… unique. That is why I love London so much.

Today I am writing this article because I received the result of DNA tests. I am purely English. That is probably why I felt like home the first time I went there. This brings me to the question, do you think this has a link? Because my family is from England (it was a very long time ago) it is normal to feel like home when I arrived in London? Have you every faced this?

To conclude, I can say that this trip learn me how to not have any prejudges about a country or things. I learnt that learning a langage at school, it is cool but it is senseless if you do not practice in a country where they speak English. I also have learned that managing a budget is important. Every time that I need something, I make a list and include the country where I should buy it. For example, food or clothes it’s in London, salt in Senegal, electronic in Japan, spices in India, etc..

Anyway, I hope you would like to go to London in you haven’t already (which I don’t think so). I really wanted to share this experience and know what you feel about. I took many videos about London, you can watch them here.

See ya!

A/E