London is one of the most populated places in the world, more than ten million people walk daily through the cold Londoners’ streets making the city so stressful and annoying, but it is something that we have to put up with if really we want to live here.

The more the people, the more the demand for products, transport, food and so on, translating it in economical terms, when the demand is bigger than the offer, the prices of everything go up, plus a credit crunch crisis and a bit of bullshit, it makes of London also one of the most expensive cities in the universe!!

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The Westfield shopping centre opened today! it’s a giant shopping centre, the biggest in Europe, and it will stimulate the local area in many different ways- and it’s just next to us! Our branch at Shepherd’s Bush is a stone’s throw from the centre, and should provide plenty of opportunities for part-time work in the area- making life easier for our students! If you’d like to check out the new shopping centre, go to uk.westfield.com/london for more details.

At first I felt frustrated, as nothing in London looked how it should look or how it used to look, at least in my mind.

I remember thinking ¨Where I’m from is much more beautiful, people are nicer, the weather is better than in London¨ why was I thinking like this, when obviously there’s so much to enjoy?, there’s so much to learn.

Even though this sounds incredible to believe, it took me a few months to “Open my eyes”. It’s the way I recalled all of this time walking around the beauty of London whereas, I wasn’t truly able to appreciate it as there were a lot of new things to learn, language, cultures, manners, fashion style, entertainments, streets and even a new way to socialize, a lot of information to process. I think I had closed my eyes as a way to give myself time to realize everything little by little. (more…)

We propose to help the charity “Children in Need” this year! With our school having grown so much in the last years, we have lots of people here who together could make  a real difference to people’s lives, so we’ve been thinking about how we could raise some money. Our ideas so far are

1. a special “international day” which students and members of the public could pay to join and bring examples of their culture to.

or

2. “fine” week- we’ll fine our students every time they use their mobile, or speak their own language in class! (we’re sure we can raise loads of money this way)

anyway, that’s what we’re thinking- we’d welcome any other suggestions you might have.

take care

rob

Every single person that you meet in this city will stay with you forever, no matter how close you are, every slightest detail will be remembered: a stupid joke, a funny comment or even the strange way that some people cook rice over here (why did I mention this?).

I went for a stroll around my neighbourhood yesterday. I could still remember my friend saying: “You are gonna love this place, it’s SO you!” She was right, I am completely in love with this area. To tell you the truth, I moved here by accident, one week later I found out that this was the place that my friend constantly talked about.

Last week was a tough week. The same friend who gave me tips about places to live, who has been my ally through the daily battle of living here as a student, is about to leave me. I do not want to sound over-sentimental here, she is not dying (knock, knock, knock!) or anything, she is just moving to a different school and we are not going to be able to study together anymore (an incomprehensible power, beyond human nature has lead her to a divergent path). After so long sharing the same space, having fun and wanting to kill each other, this change will probably make me feel as if I no longer belong to that place.

I guess this is life, or at least, it is what people say. Sometimes you will find some people who, despite the cultural differences, will amazingly become part of you and share your hopes and disbeliefs, someone that can be as hopeless as you are. The scariest thing is that, being from different parts of the world, you may not be able to see these friends ever again in your life.

Sorry for being so pessimist, I AM going to mention that after all, every good or bad moment that you spend with your friends is very precious and this is what friendship is about. Last week was just a tough one.

Yumi/ Japan

One day I was walking on the street and I heard a guy saying:  “the good thing about London is because there is not many English people here,”  I found funny in the beginning , but made me think that the good thing  about London is the heterogeneity of people that  gives the city an unique  flavour.

 Since I came here,  I’ve lived with people from so many countries and backgrounds. On my first six months I lived in a student accommodation with students from China, Poland, Ghana, Greece and other places. My second home was as a lodger in an English family house, where I had the opportunity to  experience the English style of living and also celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve with them. Then, I moved again and shared a flat with a girl from Lithuania and a guy from Australia.  Right now I live in an English family house where also live an Italian guy and others from Brazil.

Generally, that’s the way students live around here. It teaches you about other cultures and also how to respect traditions, religion and people’s beliefs. At the same time you can have fun, be yourself, very open-minded, use what is fashion for you and it is all seem as a contribution to make the city even more interesting…that is one of  the good things about London. But there are much much more, come and try yourself! 

We are waiting for you to make you feel at home ….take care and see you soon!

David Vieira /Brazil

I think that all the people in the world know about London, the famous Big ben, the traditional double Decker buses and the red telephone boxes, things that are utterly fantastic and make us dream about visiting one of the biggest cities in the world.

there are people who think travelling is a waste of time, but it’s time to wake up, open your eyes and realize that there are wonderful places beyond your borders. What I’m enjoying about this expirience is the fact that I’m learning the value of life, nowadays I realize how beautiful the world is and how many beautiful things it can show me. In my opinion to have a nice room in a luxury house is in second place because I have my dreams as the most important goal in my life.

I remember my first day in London, everything was absolutely bizarre, i felt completely lost. All the streets, the people, even the food was very strange, I wanted to cry and a kind of desperation made me feel shit, fortunately in less than one month I started to feel that all those stranges streets and strange people, became my own streets and my own family. Today I feel if i had lived in this city for ages, I’m absolutely in love with the thames river, with the beautiful landscapes, with the warm people, with the amazing parks and with the fascinating freedom that makes me feel one hundred per cent myself, I can do whatever I want and nobody is gonna say bad things about me, London is a city without prejudices and i really like that.

If somebody ask me why I’m here and what I like about London I’d answer what I really like about London is the fact that it’s a city that makes me feel happy because not only is a new language that I’m learning, I’m growing as a person at the same time. Being here I’ve chaged my mind and I’m sure that the Luis that is gonna go back to Colombia is not the same that arrived here.

I would be lying if i said that I’ve never wished to take a plane and go back home, I’ve missed my family, my friends, even my dog but inmediately I think about my future and about all my goals and it makes me stronger to move on. It’s not easy being here, is quite hard but is an experience that I wouldn’t change for anything in the world.

Luis F. Salazar

… it is the city I have chosen to call home for at least a few more years.

I came to this city for the first time 4 years ago and to tell the truth I was not so impressed by what I saw. Everything was out of place and the idea of first world had completely vanished before my eyes. How naive I was! Thinking about it and pondering everything that was going through my head at that time I can see that everything that I have lived so far was nothing compared to the grandiosity of what London delivers.
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It was around eight o’clock in the morning and I was going to the station to take the tube for my first day at work in London, it was all excitement as I wanted to pay attention to every detail wherever I would pass by. Names of shops, stations, advertising posters and so on…
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I have chosen some students to blog alongside me, and to give as much useful info as they can about life here, its complexities, its triumphs and disasters. For this I have recruited

• David from Brazil-
• Yumi Kobayashi from Japan-
• Carina from Mexico -
• Luis from Colombia-

They all received a cool free laptop in return for doing this blog for us, so you can’t say we don’t take care of our students!

Please feel free to get in touch with them with any questions you may have about their lives in London!