One month here, what can I say? Culture shock. But I guess it's normal.
Living in Scarborough, the city that always sleeps, is actually pretty nice. A quite peaceful place, with weird people that don't really want to talk to you. Why? I found that out on a night out, talking to a random local while having a fag. "A lot of awful things happened in Scarborough in the past years" she says, "that's why we all try to avoid people we don't know." "Why?" I asked. "Children getting raped, people getting stabbed or killing themselves... You know, that sort of stuff." Sounds pretty hardcore for this town, if you ask me, but it's a fair explanation. Later on she mentioned though, that if people actually get to know you, they'll be nice to you, which they are indeed as I was to experience during the next weeks in the Cask Inn (a pub not even 1 minute away from my place).
I guess it's really hard for hot blooded Romanians to not have always contact to people. I mean, if you ask for a cigarette back in Bucharest, there is a 89% chance of you to getting one. The answer you get here is either "fuck no" or "did you mean a rolling paper?" Still, as long as you have your rolling stuff or your fags on you it's fine. The way of partying here is completely different as well. I mean, I was used to the German style, but this is just pure "let's get wasted and not remember what the fuck happened yesterday". Now, some of you may say "Timo, you've been doing that back at home every time!" :) I tell you, it's different. There is 0% socializing, 0% conversation, 0% "body-to-body" dance with someone and 100% alcohol. Also, I couldn't manage to find a club here that plays decent music (indie, rock, electro, rock'n'roll, what so ever); only thing they play here in Scarbs is the Top 40's up and down. Which of course is a bit demotivating, 'cause one is used to sing along all the good old hit's from back home. But hey...
After a month it's really not as bad as it sounds. The hard part was during the first 2-3 weeks, after that it's just routine - you go to one of the houses, have a couple of drinks, go out, have fun, come back, sleep, wake up, go to university for 1 hour or 2, then head back home and sleep. Not healthy, I tell you xD
And by mentioning university we arrive at the positive sides of Scarborough / UK - Academic education, which is absolutely at it's highest here, in my opinion. From the staff, which is well prepared and ready to answer any questions you have, to the uni services. The equipment available for CMT / Popular Music students is also great. The studios are fantastic, rehearsal rooms are decent. The lectures are also great, accompanied by the big slideshow panels etc. So it's really worth it for study purposes. Also a major plus for Scarborough is obviously the sea, which is beautiful as always and which makes you forget all the trouble on your mind as soon as you get a glance of it. As long as you get out of Scarbs every 2nd weekend, it's fine. I went to Hull for a weekend, really nice partying, met some of the Romanians there; also, Birmingham, which was fantastic and where I also spent some time with my friends from back home :)
What else can I say? To be in the UK as a tourist is way nicer than to actually live here :P
Cheers,
Le Tim-Ó
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