slowly settling in
It has been AGES since the last blog post, oops. It's been a little over two months of living abroad. I had many adventures across Scotland with my brother throughout the first month (more on that in an overdo nyx nook, coming soon), and since then I've been spending my time exploring, meeting people, making art, and restocking my household essentials. I've also been doing a lot of reflecting, coming to terms with the ups and downs of loneliness, and discovering many tiny differences between Canada and the UK.
I've landed in Glasgow, which is a beautiful city with so much greenspace, and the most lovely people. It is so much more walkable than Calgary, and I love taking a stroll to explore. Scotland as a whole also has a much more extensive public transit system, and I can get pretty much anywhere on a train or a bus. I took one uber to bring my suitcases to my new flat, but other than that, I haven't been in a car in over two months!
Settling into a new country is quite the adventure, as I expected, but some of the admin things I needed to do were so much harder than I thought they were going to be. In order to open a bank account, you need to have a UK address, fair. But in order to rent a flat, you need a UK bank account. Annoying. You also need a guarantor, which is someone who lives in the UK and legally agrees to pay your rent if you fail to do so. If you don't have a guarantor, you may have to pay up to six months' rent up front to show that you are good for it. Luckily, I found a flatshare where I didn't need to do that, and am renting from a private landlord and sharing with others on the same visa I have. Yay! Address acquired!
So, I go to open a bank account. Everything is going well, until I get to proof of address. I have a lease, signed and dated, all official. The bank will not take it as proof. You can't use a lease with a private landlord as your proof. Annoying! Other options include a bank statement with your name and address on it, with international banks accepted, so I log into my Canadian account to change the address. You can't change to an international address online, so I have to make an international call to change to my new address. Extra work, but fine. I then go to my bank statements, only to find that CIBC does not include your address on the statement. Why?? Eventually, I figure out I can use a tax letter as my proof of address, so I sign up and get my National Insurance Number. HMRC, which is the tax authority in the UK, has gone paperless. Great, that means I get my letter right away! So I go back to the bank to open my account only to find out that I need a physical copy of the original mailed letter. There is no mailed letter. There is not going to be a mailed letter. So I have to go to the library and set up a membership and print out my letter. This finally works and I am able to open a bank account a month and half into living here! Joy.
Other than some adventures in admin though, I have been having a really wonderful time here in Scotland. It's a beautiful country, and I've lucked out with the weather so far. I've had so many gorgeous sunny days, and even the gloomier rainy days have been a joy. The humidity is also amazing, and for the first time in a while, I don't have to deal with chapped lips from the dry Calgary weather. With Glasgow being so full of green spaces, I've definitely been taking advantage of time spent outdoors, watching birds, and meeting so many adorable dogs in the park. I think I've met more dachshunds in the past two months than I have in my entire life, and it is taking a lot of willpower to not adopt my own little sausage dog.
My new flat is just south of the River Clyde, in a neighbourhood called the Gorbals. If you look it up, you'll find it's quite the infamous little place, with a history of extreme industrial poverty and violence, but also of resilience and community. Now, as you walk through the streets here, you almost always see children playing and neighbours chatting. It's also so close to Glasgow Green (a lovely park in the city), and for me, has been a wonderful landing place for my new start in the city. I share the flat with two others, who are both artists, and it has been really lovely getting to know the city from here. The view out of my bedroom window is of a cute little courtyard filled with trees that I am watching slowly turn shades of orange as the season moves from summer to autumn. It's been quite fun to collect plants, put up photos, and make this place feel like home.
I've also been doing a lot of cooking, and a lot of eating. Groceries here are significantly more affordable than they were in Canada, and I get to make avocado toast pretty much everyday. There are also so many vegan options! Though I miss Canela's so much, I've found a few really cute vegan cafes and bakeries that are nearly as good. The only thing I really miss and am still on the hunt for, is an equivalent to Sunrise Tofu's desserts. Beyond that though, the veggie options here have been really fantastic!
Another exciting development has been finally finding a job! I'm still looking for ways to continue working in theatre and making art, but to make money and fund my life, I was able to get a job at the Glasgow Science Centre. In a silly (maybe cruel) twist of fate, the uniform is an almost identical teal shirt to the one I wore when I worked at the science centre in Calgary. I have a feeling it's going to be strange to work in such a similar place while so far away. But I'm excited to get started and be able to work with kiddos and inspire learning again! The job starts in October, so I have a few more weeks of vacation time, and will hopefully take a little trip before I get back into the groove of work again.
Beyond that, there have been many adventures and pals, but more details on those in another belated nyx nook, oops. For now, here are some of the things I'm getting used to while living in Glasgow:
Roads are mirrored. Yes, I knew that cars drove on the left-hand side of the road. I was expecting that and not planning to drive, so it didn't concern me too much. However, I was not prepared for cycle lanes to be the same. Or walking paths. Or stairways. Getting used to walking and cycling on the left has been a journey. Even more, crossing the street is an adventure every time because I always second guess which way I need to look. There are also no jaywalking laws in Scotland, so for the first few weeks, I would wait patiently at crosswalks while everyone else crossed ahead of me. It felt so wrong to me, but now I'm pretty good at crossing whenever I need, and the crosswalks are seldom used.
All the sockets have switches. The UK uses 230v while Canada uses 120v, so they have switches for safety and energy conservation. The first time I cooked in my new flat, I couldn't figure out how to turn on the stove, because I hadn't flipped the switch yet! It definitely took some getting used to when I arrived, and there were a few tired nights I couldn't immediately figure out why my phone wasn't charging.
Speaking of energy conservation, my shower is electric. I'd never heard of an electric shower before moving here, but essentially, it uses electricity to heat up your shower water so that you don't need to waste energy keeping a hot water tank warm. It turns on from a pull string somewhere else in the bathroom, and then you turn a dial to pick how warm you want the water to be. I think it's pretty cool!
I am so conscious of my accent and vocabulary, but also not. I'm very aware that the Canadian accent and the American accent are so similar, but with the state of America right now, I do not want to be seen as American. When I meet new people I often try to find a way to quickly work into the conversation that I am from Canada. With my vocabulary, there are so many random words that are different in Scotland than they are in Canada. Without noticing, I'm starting to use the UK versions of things just from being in proxy with so many more people from here. I don't naturally reach for the word "apartment" anymore, and have taken to calling my last home in Canada, my last "flat". Pants have become trousers, sweaters are now jumpers, and the grocery store is the supermarket, or simply, the shops. I feel like I'm in such an in between state right now with my language. I don't match the Scottish accent or vocabulary, but in calls with friends back in Canada, I'm realizing I don't quite match there anymore either. It's a strange feeling indeed, but a good one I think. I'm becoming an amalgamation of my life choices and the people I surround myself with, and that's pretty exciting. Maybe in a few years, I'll have my own hybrid accent and language that is unique to me.
All in all, I'm starting to feel more settled in. I'm finding my place, and though it does feel intensely lonely sometimes, I'm really happy. And I'm really proud of myself for being here. I miss everyone back in Canada so much, but I'm also slowly finding my people here, and isn't so wonderful to have a network that is so wide and encompassing! I'm going to have a more in depth blog post about all the gooey feelings I'm feeling, because there are a lot of them, and this is already quite long, so keep an eye out for that. For now, this is my little update on life across the pond.
Lots of love!
Nyx
