I had never been out of Brazil before coming to London. People used to classify me as crazy. A lot. But I didn’t care, all I thought was: I’ll be free. Free from myself. Weird, right? But, that was exactly what I thought. I would get rid of this person that people had always known as, me. Because, the truth is: you are known as what society thinks of you. And for society back where I come from, I am “the daughter”, “the sister” and “the granddaughter”. I wasn’t just a girl. The thing is, I didn’t know that the freedom would come at a prize. Not money or any material thing, but, tears, loneliness, emptiness.

I got here completely on my own, no friends, no family, no acquaintances, no one. At first, it was overwhelming. Living and sharing experiences with complete strangers. They didn’t know anything about me, most of them still don’t know. However, it was and it still is, everything I ever thought it would be: amazing. It’s like I’m a completely new person, a free one. Free from all the things that used to stop me from doing everything I thought wasn’t appropriate.

The thing the made all the difference was my school. At The English Studio I learned and I am still learning almost everything that I need to know about London, the English language, British culture, places to visit and experiences. It was here that I made my new friends, that I found my flat and, most important, it is because of my brilliant teacher Mike Mooney my English has improved considerably. It’s here that I learn new and exciting things everyday, especially with my adorable and so well educated teacher.

I still get shocked sometimes; I blame my “small town mentality”. But, after a minute or two, I get used to the idea, and sometimes even start applying it to my own life.

I used to cry everyday when I got here. I used to call my dad and say that I wanted to go home, that this was too much for me. That I would never love London, and that everything here was backwards. From the way they drive to the plug (I still have to use the adaptor to use my hair-dryer).

People used to say to give it some time, that London would eventually get me and in 3 months I would start loving it. And so it happened. Of course, with a lot of tears, phone calls, and family support, but here I am: loving every minute of it, free from all the pre-conceptions people would build in their minds the minute I’d introduce myself by saying my last name and free from all the assumptions.

Now I can really say that I’m truly living the “London experience”, and The English Studio and everybody that I met there is a really big part of this little part of my life.

Mariana Shayeb

Tags: school experience new London

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Learning English, Why London?, making friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.