How I ended up on a small island: part 2

When I moved to England, I realized I didn’t want to be another one of the horde of ex-pats who gravitate towards each other to reminisce about how much better their home country is. In the UK, no one knows the difference between Alberta and Ontario so you can sink into the description of being a Canadian, a name that spreads across a vastness of diversity that no one could understand unless they’ve been there.

I’d never wanted to go to England. I saw the occasional 10 year old episode of Coronation Street, met stuffy British ex-pats that collected spoons and Royal Family china so I let that colour my idea of England. If that’s what it was like, I didn’t want to go there. It was a small island that hung on the edge of Europe. A place not included in any of my travel itineraries. So how did I end up here?

About 6 and a half years ago I was checking on cheap flights to go back home to Edmonton from Vancouver. Skimming through a student travel centre site, I noticed a little trivia contest. Enter and win it said. You could be on your way to an adventure of a lifetime it screamed. Win this and you get a Student Work Abroad Programme registration to the UK for absolutely free! This means I could get a two year working holiday visa (only available to us in the commonwealth) alongside a few other helpful bits like a few nights in a youth hostel and advice from the British Universities North America Club during my stay.

Well…that sounded pretty good to me so I entered the thing. It consisted of finding the answer to some pretty obscure questions about the Royal Family – nothing dirty mind you – needless to say it took hours to find them. I did my little bit of Internet searching, answered the question and let the whole experience leave my brain.

Flash forward to April, three months later. I am sitting in a coffee shop with a couple of friends. A trendy little place called Starry Dynamo on Main Street in Vancouver which gave a little bit of free Internet to those who buy coffee. Sipping on my cuppa Jo, I plug myself in to the web to check my mail. SWAP? Who? Why are they writing me? And that’s when I discovered it folks. Discovered a chance of a lifetime whilst with my coffee shop friends. The opportunity to take a plunge and see the world. This of course was my lucky day as only three people in the country won this fabulous prize and I had won second place.

So I went. My plan was a year and then I’d teach English as a second language around the world or go back to Canada and back to the real world. My cousin said I’d never come back but I protested it until the day I arrived and something stuck. Within a few months, London felt more like home then where I was from. I had friends who longed to return back to prairie winters and childhood friends. They said they barely saw the beauty of the city anymore, were tired of the drive of the city, the dirt of the underground turning their nose black.

But I was determined to stay.