Setting the plot: I am a 33 years old woman with Spanish blood (100%) born in Geneva, Switzerland and raised there, Travelled Europe and the world. Now leaving in London. Two years in teh West End (expat land) and one year in Hackney (Crackney as my friends tend to call it).

I mentionned this in a response to a blog of mine but thought it was worth an entry.

I describe myself as European and when I moved to London fro prefessional reasons I didn't think it would be a struggle. I was warned it would be but my experience proved so far that it wasn't. I got this book from my HR that was meant to "prepare" me in the transition. I thought it was hilarious and didn't pay so much attention.

I ahve been living in Lodon fro 3 years and find it difficult to criticise my new life. It is not better and not worse in average to what I experience before.

Still I need to mention what others would call cultural shocks. I would call them just strong differences.

1) I thought I had moved to the UK. Very soon I was told that I was in England and to my surprise dicovered that only outsiders would use the word United Kingdom. I leave in England, not in the UK. An English man is English before being British.An English man would probably never use the word British to describe himself. Same for the Welsh, the Scottish and the Northern Irish. They all share the same passport - british - but none of them would evr use the word to describe thmeselves. Shocking!
This was a preambule to the word Europe. England, Wales, Scotland and Nothern Ireland are part of the United Kingdom an dth eUk is par tof Europe geographically but also Europe the political and economic Unioneven if they aren't part of the euro zone. Strangely no one here ever says the word Europe with the idea they belong to it. Europe is actually continental europe and means the close others. It took me some time to realise this. When the word Europe is used here it means the others close by. Some use the expression Continental Europe. Still it was a shock to me to realise that the Brits don't see themselves as European...

2) The drinking. Everybody drinks in Continental Europe. But nothing compared to what happens here. Nothing. I am Spanish.The Spanish drink. Not a surprise. The Spanish get eventually drunk. Yes it happens. Same for the French, the Swiss, etc. Only the Brits have the getting drunk set as a goal and a goal that has to be reached as quickly as possible. "Lest's have shots before we go out" is not anything you would see elsewhere. And people manage to reach the goal early. My first day at work made me experience people completely wasted by 7pm. I couldn't believe it and remember telling friends there might have been some historical celebration I was't aware of...
More shocking even for me was to see young women when not girls absolutely wasted and on their own. This doesn't happen in the rest of Europe. First girls are not supposed tp drink t that extend or it makes them look bad, but if they do they are immediately hidden by their entourage and taken home safely so tah t they don't endure any kind of danger...

3) half naked girls at night in December. I saw them and couldn't believe it. Then told my friend Florence about it when she visited me in December 2005. She wouldn't belive me until we saw them on Regent street in mini t-shirts n, no skirt and summer sandals. My friend Florence and I were wearing coats wool jumpers trousers and boots. We were stunned!I then told a group of male friends about it who came to visit me in February.They claimed I was exagerating. We then got to the clubs area and pointed at a group of girls in the attire I had described. They looked at the girls and said they believed they were professionals... To then realise it was a common thing. The funniest thing is that when I mention it to my British friends they always say the same thing: "This is nothing, you should see them in the North". I don't want to see it. How can they beat it?!!

4) When I started working with British people I was quickly told that my style was inadecuate and too direct.Basically I sounded rude... Me rude! I thought it was a joke... But I got it at last. You can say anything here but it has to come with a lining. If someone screwed up and failed to deliver in a project I would meet them and tell them they screwed up. Rude here. I would have to them, go throught the history of working together, highlight the good things and maybe later mention the failure but more in a way that would be "how can we do this again with a better outcome". At first I thought it was bullshit. It took me sometime to understad that there is something positive about having to think about the positive bfore you bring up the bad stuff. It now works for me but i know that when I work with the continent I have to deal in a different way.

The rest was a dream. My boyfriuend is English and I am glad he is!