As of today, it has been a month over in UK. I feel I have enough to blog about my observations, views & experiences about the change in ecosystem. I hope to rejuvinate my blog & keep entertaining all the invisible souls who visit my blog regularly ;).
Hope all of you are doing good, it has been quite a while since I have kept in touch with my friends. Firstly, I am very sorry to all those whom I couldn't meet or call them personally before I left Bangalore. Secondly, after moving to UK, I haven't been able to keep in touch with many you. Its not like I didn't want to, just that I needed sometime to settle down & feel comfortable with the new ecosystem. At the same time, needed to get over the initial hurldles - finding a new house, getting the landline & the broadband, above everything else opening a bank account.
Now that we - myself & my housemates - have crossed few of those inital hurldles partially, I get to spend sometime re-collecting my thoughts & blogging about my experiences which has transpired over the inital month.
Here I go with my experiences...
The inital week was quite tough on myself, emotionally, missing my parents, cousins, friends, bangalore, food, etc. If you are wondering why, let me share a fact - well, I have never lived away from my home in Bangalore for anything more than 15 days at a stretch; quite paradoxical ain't it? for a guy who loves travelling.
Now, here I am staying in a different nation & sharing the house with my colleagues. However, the silverlining is that I happened to be working & living with one of my colleague from the previous job. I believe that there are six-degrees of separation between people, thats b'coz one of my colleague currently happens to be a good friend of my ex-colleague.
The place did have an effect on me, the weather was windy and cold. The air is fresh and clean, hardly find the air polluted here. Smoking in publicly enclosed places is prohibited, which has been here in place for over a year now. Had heard from few folks back home that public places in western nations are litter free. Am not contending their facts/figures, but I have come across littering at quite a number of places. Coming to people, they are generally kind & helpful, there are few exceptions with few of them. One thing I observed in the inital days were the stares I used to get from the passers by in Glenrothes. It's not like they haven't seen Asians or Indians before, there is a significant number of Indians living in Kirkcaldy & Glenrothes region. Don't really understand those stares.
Regarding work, I am part of software engineering group of MGt plc, involved in product development. It took two weeks to get accustomed to the nature of the job, people, place & work culture. Another observation @ work place, is that few co-workers go the extra mile in helping you understand the technical nitty gritties of the job. Approaching the tasks with an open mind and enjoying it. IT isn't that big here in Scotland, when compared to US or India, but definitely growing.
Apart from work, most of my time is spent on shopping for groceries & cooking. I haven't done so much of cooking nor have done shopping for groceries while I was back in Bangalore. Quite a number of retail stores - ASDA, Tesco, Morrison, Sainsbury's - around. Get most of the stuff here, for some Indian spices though we need to head towards Edinburgh every fortnightly.
Haven't travelled much in the past month, just visited Deep Sea World & Edinburgh Castle [album coming soon] over two weekends. I wish to cover as many places around Scotland & across Europe during my stay here.
Hope all of you are doing good, it has been quite a while since I have kept in touch with my friends. Firstly, I am very sorry to all those whom I couldn't meet or call them personally before I left Bangalore. Secondly, after moving to UK, I haven't been able to keep in touch with many you. Its not like I didn't want to, just that I needed sometime to settle down & feel comfortable with the new ecosystem. At the same time, needed to get over the initial hurldles - finding a new house, getting the landline & the broadband, above everything else opening a bank account.
Now that we - myself & my housemates - have crossed few of those inital hurldles partially, I get to spend sometime re-collecting my thoughts & blogging about my experiences which has transpired over the inital month.
Here I go with my experiences...
The inital week was quite tough on myself, emotionally, missing my parents, cousins, friends, bangalore, food, etc. If you are wondering why, let me share a fact - well, I have never lived away from my home in Bangalore for anything more than 15 days at a stretch; quite paradoxical ain't it? for a guy who loves travelling.
Now, here I am staying in a different nation & sharing the house with my colleagues. However, the silverlining is that I happened to be working & living with one of my colleague from the previous job. I believe that there are six-degrees of separation between people, thats b'coz one of my colleague currently happens to be a good friend of my ex-colleague.
The place did have an effect on me, the weather was windy and cold. The air is fresh and clean, hardly find the air polluted here. Smoking in publicly enclosed places is prohibited, which has been here in place for over a year now. Had heard from few folks back home that public places in western nations are litter free. Am not contending their facts/figures, but I have come across littering at quite a number of places. Coming to people, they are generally kind & helpful, there are few exceptions with few of them. One thing I observed in the inital days were the stares I used to get from the passers by in Glenrothes. It's not like they haven't seen Asians or Indians before, there is a significant number of Indians living in Kirkcaldy & Glenrothes region. Don't really understand those stares.
Regarding work, I am part of software engineering group of MGt plc, involved in product development. It took two weeks to get accustomed to the nature of the job, people, place & work culture. Another observation @ work place, is that few co-workers go the extra mile in helping you understand the technical nitty gritties of the job. Approaching the tasks with an open mind and enjoying it. IT isn't that big here in Scotland, when compared to US or India, but definitely growing.
Apart from work, most of my time is spent on shopping for groceries & cooking. I haven't done so much of cooking nor have done shopping for groceries while I was back in Bangalore. Quite a number of retail stores - ASDA, Tesco, Morrison, Sainsbury's - around. Get most of the stuff here, for some Indian spices though we need to head towards Edinburgh every fortnightly.
Haven't travelled much in the past month, just visited Deep Sea World & Edinburgh Castle [album coming soon] over two weekends. I wish to cover as many places around Scotland & across Europe during my stay here.
4 comments:
Good One Vivek. I'm glad that you are settling down in your new ecosystem!!
I would be glad to know whoz bulls :D
visiting here after a real long time. good to know you are doing fine.
will send you the pics of the trip some time.
Bulls is some one whom you know but am sure you will not be able to guess that soon!!
Keep guessing untill you realise.
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