7 Reasons Why You Should Move to the UK
At an eye test in Specsavers, my optometrist asked where I was from. When I said Canada, he told me he’d worked there for a while and had loved it, but found it very sterile. I’d never heard Canada described that way before. I understood what he meant, though, and it helped me explain something I loved about ordinary life in the UK.
Useful isn’t always full of character
Back home in Ontario, my picture of doing groceries was driving to the local Walmart. It was a giant rectangular brick building, built to be a Walmart, with a huge, nicely laid-out parking lot. There was space, there was a parking spot, and the whole thing did what it was supposed to do. It was useful. It was also ugly, with nothing much to look at and no character.
When I compared that with grocery shopping here, I pictured a Tesco or Sainsbury’s inside an old building. The aisles might be a bit wonky, the floor slanted and the space cramped. The parking could be chaotic because the site hadn’t been designed around a supermarket. That wasn’t necessarily convenient, but there was so much character in it. I could see why my optometrist’s description of Canada had clicked with me.
I loved Canada and Ontario, but the character of everyday buildings, shops, grocery stores and restaurants here was something I really appreciated. There was history and architecture in the regular places people used, including pubs with enormous old ceiling beams. I imagined it would be easy not to notice when it was simply part of your day-to-day life. For me, it was still something worth looking at.
New experiences weren’t limited to holidays
After six years living in the UK, I was still finding new things to see, do and try. Travelling around the country meant museums and historical places, but working here had brought its own experiences too. I’d met British co-workers, worked with the public, and worked at a college alongside British students. Those experiences had been both good and bad. I wanted to be honest about both, even while enjoying how much new stuff there was in my life.
Moving countries had put me out of my comfort zone. So much could be new at once, and that could feel overwhelming, scary and difficult at the beginning. Sometimes it was still difficult later on. But I also felt lucky to get new experiences through my ordinary day. I didn’t think I’d ever reach a point where I’d seen, done and tried everything in the UK, although I was going to try.
Food was a particularly enjoyable part of that. I liked teasing the Brits about their cuisine because some of it was quite funny to me, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy British staples. Sometimes, when I was bored, I went to the local grocery store, bought things I’d never seen before and tried them. Trying British food and drinks, and attempting to cook some of them, was endlessly interesting to me.
I loved Yorkshire pudding, Sunday roast, pork pies and sausage rolls. Meat in pastry? Yes, please. There were so many crisps and chocolates to try as well. It didn’t mean I liked everything, because Marmite was still not for me. I could tease some of the food and still enjoy the chance to discover it. I wouldn’t have had those experiences in the same way if I hadn’t been living here.
Different didn’t have to mean wrong
One of the important things I’d learned was that my life in England could be different from my life in Ontario without either way being wrong. I found that refreshing. There were different ways to live, and getting to experience another one was something I valued.
The people I’d met mattered too. For the most part, British people had been welcoming, supportive, kind and funny. They didn’t have to welcome me, but they had. I didn’t consider myself British and wasn’t going to sound British, yet I still felt part of the group. That was a good feeling to have after building a life in another country.
My life in the UK wasn’t perfect, and I wanted to stay honest about that. But six years in, I still had new places to see, new food to taste and everyday things to appreciate, including a grocery shop that might be less convenient than the one back home. The character was worth something to me.
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