Moving to London from India | First Month | My Mental Roundup

As I sit writing about my first month in London, this is the view that I have from my window.

Isn’t it pretty? The colour of the sky is the right sort of blue. The colour of the clouds is the right sort of white. And look how puffy they look. The houses and their chimneys at the backdrop! Doesn’t it look like a scene straight out of an animated movie!

If I look at this view alone, it looks like a moment from a perfect day. It looks like a head outside to a park, have a picnic and fly kites kind of day. Sadly, it is not.

Moving to London from India | First Month | My Mental Roundup

London’s Weather is Cold and Yet Beautiful

Temperature outside is 12 degrees Celsius.

Day and night it lingers between 8-15 degrees Celsius. It looks sunny but it is cold. Then once every two days or so it rains and it feels colder. At night, of course, it is at its coldest best. And the only funny thing about it all is that it isn’t even winters yet, it is mere autumn!

Ok I get it! 12 degrees isn’t that “cold” cold and I have lived in Chicago/Michigan for 4 years where the temperature drops down to -30. So you may think I am just exaggerating my situation. Well unfortunately, I am not. I would blame it all on living in Bangalore for the last 4 years, all I can think of is warm afternoons and breezy evenings. So the temperature part is definitely going to take me a long time to get adjust to.

Apart from that, I was not carrying enough warm clothing for myself because I didn’t need any in Bangalore. We were well prepared with Little B’s clothing and Mr B’s clothes (he had few because he travels a lot), but not mine. I have bought some warm stuff here and right now it is making me feel a little bit better.

Cold, unpredictable rain and a little sun make London a beautiful place. There’s always something to look at in the sky. Did I tell you that I spotted a double rainbow!

Right now, London is Lonely

Moving to London from India has been an emotional challenge. Homesickness was something that I knew will kick in once I land here. Even though I was mentally prepared for it, it still feels terrible. We are far away from family and friends. Most of the day passes by just fine, but every now and then, after every hour or two, I miss somebody back in India. Making a new circle of friends is something that takes its own time and cannot be rushed. It is going to happen when it happens and till then I am keeping myself busy with some reading and some movie watching.

London Made me Walk, a Lot

It seems like the entire city of London walks. Wherever you go, people are walking and in fact, enjoying walking. We have rented a house in a quiet residential area and the high street is about 10 minutes’ walk from our place. Back in India, especially with services like auto rickshaw and Uber, 10 minutes seemed like a really long walk. Here in London, walking is almost like a necessity. A couple of times, I got annoyed about walking. Especially because we were trying to fill the kitchen and thus we were hauling heavy stuff. However walking here is always pleasurable. There are pavements, trees, gardens and other nice things to look at. Just two weeks here, walking for a km or two seems just fine.

The part that I really like is, never a day goes by when my pedometer doesn’t show at least 5 km mark! Yay for staying active!

London Gave me Wings Because Public Transport is Awesome

London is designed keeping in mind public transport. There are buses, underground, trams and cycles. Every place is connected and we have been able to find a public transport everywhere within 5 minutes of walking. There are clearly written road signs, bus stands with all sorts of information and tube stations with clear directions. Even though the city overflows with people, getting lost seems unlikely. Within two weeks, I had already ventured out in the heart of the city with Little B. After our day long Girls’ Day Out kind of trip, we came back home, unscathed, spirited and confident.

London is Helping Me Pick Up on My Reading

The past year was too bad for the book lover in me. I tried reading a variety of book but found it hard to complete almost every single one of them. As it happened, I started getting finicky about reading. I read stories which were short and picked books with as less number of pages as possible.

Moving to London, as I had a lot of free time for myself, I quickly went ahead and joined a library. Also, for the first few weeks, I had no internet as well! And so all I did or in fact I’m doing for hours at a stretch is reading. I have finished reading Last Train from Liguria by Christine Dwyer Hickey and reading Shakespeare’s Mistress by Karen Harper. Both of the books were my random selections at the library. And yet both of the books have much in common. Both of them have female authors and female protagonist. Both of them also have London as a key place in their story.