Life in England

I'm currently in England for the first time ever, and I've been here for about a week. It's not as cold as I thought it'd be, the temperature is actually very tolerable. People also set the heating to something like 25 degrees indoors, which in my mind is almost tropical. It's actually a lot better than winter at my parents' place, where they get all upset about heating bills and I don't wanna challenge that because I'm not paying for it, so I end up freezing instead.

English weather is, however, absolutely miserable. I've experienced three states: cloudy, rain and fog. I can't even remember the last time I saw a blue sky/ sunlight. I've joked to my friends in China: "the skies are grey in China, white in England, and I'm REALLY homesick/ craving sunlight right now". I actually felt sunlight deprived in China as well, seeing as how I'd get to work by 7.20ish anTd get out when it was dark.

Well, the scenery here is pretty enough. It's Autumn right now, the leaves are yellow/ red and falling against the grey sky--- it's good for photography. Then I remember I'm not a big fan of getting up close-and-personal with nature; and I would've been just as happy seeing this in passing as opposed to being trapped in the same scene indefinitely (according to weather forecast). Then I randomly got infected by SOMETHING since arriving in England, and I haven't been able to stop coughing since. I don't know how many small vessels I've burst in my throat, but now my sputum is streaked with blood and everything hurts. I've thought about possibilities from "another cold" to "lung cancer", but it's not very helpful in the end and I just want to stop coughing my lungs out. I should really go see a doctor or something but I've gotten better today, so if I improve some more tomorrow I'll probs just drop the whole idea. I did want a blood test a while back, to figure out if I was just jet-lagged or anaemic. I was light-headed, had no strength in my limbs and I thought I'd fall over when I walked. Then I ate food regularly for like 2 days and all my symptoms disappeared so maybe I just starved myself really badly and then forgot about it.

Food is actually disappointing right now. There's tonnes of curries and stuff but I'm actually not the biggest fan of curries, and I ended up just going after frozen meals from TESCO for some reason. I actually really want a full English breakfast, but I have to go to work so early I don't think I'd have time to eat and enjoy myself properly. The closest I've tried is English breakfast tea, but it tastes worse than the tea back at home for some reason. I also didn't know skim milk tastes almost exactly like water despite looking like normal milk, so my tea was rather disappointing. I added enough sugar to make everything okay, but then I pondered the prospect of diabetes as I drank the whole thing. Due to my paranoia involving sugar these days, I bought myself low-sugar Cheerios for breakfast, and I  can confirm now it tastes like ash. So apparently I like Cheerios for their sugary content and nothing else.  Anyway I don't know why I was even REMOTELY interested in working in UK after graduation; it's almost the same as Australia except everything's colder and more expensive.

The redeeming thing is the people here though. No one's been racist to my face yet despite me being one of the few East-Asians here, whereas back home (just over a month ago, actually), some dirty old lady said to me "we shot you in WWII and if I had a gun I'd shoot you again". Actually I just go to uni in a really racist town, and you get shit on at least once a month by people you've never met before for not-being-white. There's really no way I'd want to stay in that town after I graduate either, actually. Now that I think about it, there's not many places I'd want to be in this world... it's kind of sad.

So yeah, so far people here have been very welcoming towards me, people here queue up to get things and they hold doors open for each other. I got into the "hold the door" and "after you" habit quite quickly. These 2 girls I'm temporarily sharing flats with, called me a gentleman after I opened the car door for one of them--- they were giving me a lift. It was totally unexpected but I was so proud of myself it was like, "woah woah woah achievement unlocked, certified gentleman by British ladies". Also people here are quite sympathetic- I casually mention how the airline lost my luggage and everyone starts freaking out and asking if I was alright--- I mean I was kinda stressed at the time but it was okay because I just went out and bought some new clothes. This is in stark contrast to the people in China... where my main impression is people being rude as fuck, having no notion of queue or order, pushing and shoving others out of the way and even getting off an elevator was a nightmare, because people would sort of barge on in without letting you get out...

I also went to see the new James Bond movie on the weekend- Spectre. It was quite good, I felt. Totally unrealistic but it was a Bond movie so what do you expect. Ben Whishaw is totally cute as Q, he's like the image of the ideal hipster-boyfriend. Then Daniel Craig in a suit still makes me breathe heavily, and they found a REALLY hot Bond girl this time. I'm seriously contemplating getting some Spectre posters to complement my Skyfall collection.

Well that's all I have to say about England right now... it's not that late but I'm getting sleepy as hell, and I want to sleep earlier in case I wake to myself coughing and spluttering at 3am, like I did the 2 previous nights...