My initial days in U.K.

Rochester High St., England. Potography by me. click to enlarge

My first day in U.K.(27 Sept 2008) - I am with my parents. I am worried that they will embarrass me….I’m worried that I’ll embarrass myself…something stupid could easily happen. Maybe they won’t understand my accent…maybe they won’t understand my parents accen. They are way too polite here, you don’t know if they are actually happy to see you or not.

After few days - I am having fun. The weather is cold but tricky as soon as you walk under sun you feel warm, then you step under the shade and it’s cold. My mother bought a pink sock that she wears with salwar, I think it is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.

One day I was coming back from my college and I see my mother and father standing at the end of the road secretly taking my pictures, I have no idea how to react. So I just laugh and say that it’s annoying and not to spy on me.

My parents made friends with the owner of the B&B we were staying, and the cab driver we hired once, trust my dad to do something like that. I warn them not to get overly friendly with anyone, but I am glad they have people to talk to. My mother seems to love the tiny town of Rochester, and why not, it is lovely, I love how cozy it is.

My first day in college I get inside my class wearing blue jeans, my favorite pink floral top from Bangkok, white furry jacket and cute pink flats, I think it’s cute. I enter the room and see bunch of students dressed in black and grey and they are staring at me…there you go, I travelled from India to U.K. just to be the odd one out again.

My parents went back to India after 15 days and I got busy with college. I didn’t have many friends, but once I started talking a little, people didn’t seem so scary. I know they were reluctant to talk to me. Rochester is not a like London, they asked why I travelled so far just for college, they told me I must be rich, i told them i wanted to live outside my country and about the money they are sadly mistaken.

I felt I can survive this place, until this one girl with a dire need of a nose job came to me and said she couldn’t believe that I can speak such good English; I told her I did my schooling in English speaking Catholic school.

My initials days in Rochester were hard, and also kind of hazy, it was a whole new world to me and even though I felt I didn’t fit in, I never accepted the fact that I am home sick. I was the youngest in my halls, nobody else was 16. I stuck a poster on my wall saying ‘no smoking, no drinking and no noise after 9pm’, my flat mates hated me for it, and I don’t blame them. I kept fighting until I opened my eyes to see all I was doing was fighting myself, so I let it go and embraced everything new and crazy, I was smoking….and drinking not because of anyone else but because I wanted it, maybe it wasn’t a wise choice, but I was 16 and it seemed fun and it didn’t make me feel like I was a stuck up bitch judging people for their choices.