THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW LIFE

“TO TRAVEL IS TO DISCOVER THAT EVERYONE IS WRONG ABOUT ANOTHER COUNTRY.”

– Aldous Huxley –

When you go to another country for the first time, you are absolutely sure it will be a piece of cake. The first gentle slap in the face appears at the Airport. The next hard punch comes when you are trying to find a job, and in search of friends, a knockout occurs.

STORY NO 1

Finally, I sit on the plane. Soon I will live in another country with other people like me. They emigrated earlier, and when they found a place to live and a job, they contacted me and offered me to come to them. I have a two-hour flight to London Luton, so I calmly review the route from the Airport to the planned accommodation. Everything looks incredibly positive.

And the amazing positive energy was killed after leaving the plane because I got lost at the Luton Airport. I repeated in my mind: Don’t give up! Don’t give up! And I ask:

“Sorry. Can you tell me where I can find the bus stop?“

“Which bus stops?“

“To Brighton.”

“First, you have to get a free bus from the Airport to the railway station or you can use the National Express bus. The train is faster but expensive. I hope I help you, so sorry but I have to run to catch the plane. Bye.“

“Thank you, bye-bye.“

I don’t have to say that I lost my thread in the middle of explaining. The woman was in a hurry so she responded at the speed of light. And my English learned at school, fell into ruin. Plus, I was a bit unlucky because I hit the accent, which I know is Irish now, but then I felt like I was talking with an alien.

After a moment of looking around, I noticed that the entire Airport has information boards with pictures of trains, buses, and taxis. Every piece of information with lots of details pointed the way to the goal I was looking for. There, I found buses to Brighton without any problems.

My difficulties in understanding some words with a strong Irish accent have not passed. Having fantastic friends from this land, I still don’t know if when they say “my favourite duck” they mean my “favourite dog” or “favourite duck”.

STORY NO 2

The first time in a new city and a new country and the first attempt to find a job. I don’t know why at that time I listened to silly ideas from my roommates, whose English was poor, and the agencies found them a job and a flat. I wanted to try to find a job on my own. Then my tenants gave me simple advice:

1. if you cannot get along or do not understand the questions, it is best to answer “NO” 
2. if the face of the person asking the question expresses surprise quickly say “YES” 
3. and if that didn’t help and the person still looks surprised, say “MAYBE”.

The cunning conversation looked like this:

“Hello, I’m looking for a job.“

“Ok, give me 5 minutes we’re in rush hour.“

After a while, the manager came up to me and asked:

“Are you full-time available?“

“Yes“

“Are you planning a holiday for Christmas?“

“No“

“What would you recommend from our menu for vegetarians?“

“No“

He repeated calmly:

“What would you recommend from our menu for vegetarians?“

So, I said:

“Yes?“

And when there was silence, I followed the last advice of my friends, and used an embarrassing word:

“Maybe”.

The manager of this restaurant replied:

“Ok, let’s leave it like that, come to training tomorrow at 10 and we’ll see you in practice.”

And then I work in this restaurant, for 2 years.

STORY NO 3

My job is ok, I am no more living in a two-bedroom flat with seven people. As well I take my first steps in making friends. I meet a few people whom I would prefer to forget and some wonderful people with whom I have contact after many years.

I am starting to recognize the personality of people from individual countries. Especially people from Italy, because in my next job, I am surrounded by Italians. I feel like I’m in a gangster movie about the Italian mafia. There is one good reason for this, to improve my English much faster. I even know simple Italian words: ciao, grazie, piccolo, grande. And unfortunately more not polite words.

After many shifts with the Italian team, realise that Italian conversations are normal conversations and not quarrels, as I expected, from the tone of voice, and gestures. I feel that we are similar in character to Italian, only that Italians drink wine, we do not necessarily. I come back to my memories, to a quiet evening and a glass of wine with my friend from Italy.https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/more-than-beauty/

STORY NO 4

My conversation in English sounds better, and if I don’t know the right word, I look for other words to explain the meaning.

Once, when we were talking about my family farm, they asked me:

“So do you have a horse, cow, or pig?“

“Not anymore, only my parents left there, so we keep only small animals, like chickens or ducks, mainly for the eggs.“

“How many eggs do they give every day?“

And I don’t know why, but I forgot what we call female-chicken, responsible for eggs and I said:

“The lady chicken gives us around 10 or more eggs per day.“

Of course, they all understood, but they laughed long after that, and even now.