Being a Londoner for a Month, Part 1
“My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train’s pulled into Piccadilly Circus they’ve become a Londoner.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Moon Over Soho
I was born in Guatemala City, also a capital, but I have never known city life as the one London offers.
We got to Gatwick airport in London from Split. Immigration line was not as long as the ones I’ve made in the United States. When it was my turn, I put on my best smile and handed my Central American passport that now collects several stamps. The regular interrogation began: “Why are you here? Where are you staying? For how long?” After this last question, to which I answered “One month” a more thorough interrogation began. I had never been asked by an immigration officer to make a multiplication in my head as he inquired on how much I made a month in pounds. Later I was told I could stay only for three months in all of Europe, when in fact I can stay for six in the United Kingdom and three in the Schengen Zone, which is most of the other European countries. I had never had an immigration officer raise their voice as they stamped an ugly stamp on my passport and scribbled something telling me that I could not overstay, otherwise I would get in trouble, and that I had exactly a month to leave. I only smiled and agreed. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I might not have the most desirable of the passports, but I am not trying to stay in the United Kingdom. There was no reason to be nervous, I had planned to leave after a month, anyways.
The stamp says six months.
Next was transport to central London. Oh we’d heard stories of London’s incredibly high prices. We’ve found an Airbnb outside of the center, in zone 4, that was cheaper than most. But what we didn’t consider was the fact that we would have to take trains and metros in order to get to places.
A “Season Pass” for a month that would take us from zone 4 to zone 1, and anywhere in between came out to £177.10 each. We’d payed almost 10 times less for a monthly bus pass in Split, Croatia.
That taught us a lesson: It’s not always best to go for the cheapest option, it might come out to be more expensive. We chose the cheapest (decent looking) Airbnb option, but paying a bit more to be closer to the center woul’ve been cheaper in the end, because we would’ve not had to pay for train tickets.
As we approached London Bridge station, defeated after only a few hours, I started questioning why we’d decided to come to London.
I started seeing the famous landmarks, and even if I wanted to feel excited, I just felt confused. Maybe Ben Aaronovitch’s father was right. We had become Londoners, knowing of the struggles to just move from one place to another. We had already learned to move quickly, with bags on our shoulders, through the stations, like programmed machines.
But London is much more than expensive living, and we would soon discover that.
The day after we arrived England played Australia on the Rugby World Cup. We had never watched a rugby match, so we decided to hit the local pub, The Baring Hall Hotel. Well, I still have no idea of what was going on at the game, but the night was exciting (except for the fact that England was eliminated). We made friends with some locals, sang over rounds of beer and wine and went back with cheerful hearts. We had discovered Londoners are very nice people, and on the next weeks that would be confirmed. Anybody we asked for help on the train or trying to find an address was always nice and willing to help. London is a metropolis and you would expect Londoners to be cold and distant, but all the Londoners we met were warm and welcoming. Things were starting to get better.
