Long time no talk.

I have been in London now just over a month, with a lot of stress, tears and happy fun times I am now settled in London. 
I have to admit transitioning from New Zealand to London was a lot harder than I thought, I'm definitely a planner and an organiser but coming to London I lost all aspect of that, I had no plan I couldn't organise my life cause I didn't know where I would end up the next week. I guess it's all part of the journey, right?


Starting from the start, JET LAG, Do I need to say anything more! I thought this wouldn't affect me at all as I'm a good sleeper, I also got a good 12 hours sleep on the plane... but no, 3am I would wake up and would not be able to sleep even if I had gone to be at 12 midnight. This lasted the whole time I was staying at my hostel.


That brings me on to the next point, HOSTELS, I don't think I will ever want to stay in a hostel for more than a week again, with people walking in and out all night and adding jet lag in to the equation was hell, add homesickness in to that equation it was an emotional roller coaster. We will see how my trip to Ireland goes as I'm staying in a hostel for 3 nights, my view might change.


Thank god for FRIENDS, I have only made a few friends here but I know they will become my closest friends of all, The days where I was homesick they were the ones that perked me up kept me distracted. The only problem with going out most days with friends you find yourself spend a lot of money. Note to you all is to try and not talk to your family to much it will just make it worse and spend time with friends doing free stuff. 


That brings me on to the MONEY situation. You will just power through your money the first three months that's if you don't have a job when you arrive at your destination. It doesn't help that living in London is expensive but everything food, transport, especially site seeing is ridiculously expensive and I'm always converting back to NZ dollars which isn't good. 


Where I have found I have spent most of my money has been TRANSPORT and FOOD. Although the transport is fantastic I find myself spending a lot on transport a month which wasn't what I was expecting.... Come to think of it I don't even know what I was expecting. Food on the other hand I knew It was a lot cheaper than home but not having cooking facilitates 100% of my stay so far ?I have wasted a lot of money on food and Entertainment with friends.

With transport come PEOPLE, London is made up of mostly foreigners but recently I took a trip up north to Nottingham and the one thing I found the further away from London you go the nicer the people are also harder to understand there accents. I love the British accent, but sometimes I find myself second guessing what they said, I guess the longer I stay the more I'll get use to it.

But then again with all of these pros and cons this is an Adventure and an Experience of a life time, how many people can say that I lived for two years in London and have traveled most of Europe, not many! So I'm going to take it all in and try to become a stronger, confident and more independent woman.

Shenae xx