How I see the Grass on the other side

 

A good friend and the most reliable colleague I have ever worked with just moved to the UK. To me, he is more techy than a writer but he sees things in funny yet wise ways and I feel they are worth sharing.

I asked him to share his experience so far that I wanted to put on the blog, so here is what he has ‘seen’……….

 

It is very interesting to note that travelling abroad has NEVER been my ultimate dream as regards to educational pursuit, but as the days passed with its experiences, I found out that in one stage in our lives, we need a foreign touch in our education to create a wide range or global opportunity in this present day 'hustling'.

Let's get it straight; any one that tells you, you don't need to travel abroad to school to be great, the person is absolutely right and unfortunately wrong because if you have the money+opportunity, you need to make the move for larger scope of learning.

If you're planning on coming to England, please note... You need to learn how to speak very fast and with your noise. You may not have the chance to hear a particular word twice in a day or throughout your stay in the UK. Also, you'd better start arranging yourself to be eating 'leaves' like I did (I'm still doing), because it may take you up to £10 to start eating the Nigerian delicacies that you're used to.

Before I came I was gaping my mouth about how I will withstand the cold here, recounting my long stay in Abuja Harmattan but the weather et al is not your friend so you must prepare to get docked in your bed if you cannot withstand the weather condition. Funny enough, we are in the summer, still waiting for the winter and I'm already feeling like, “mehn I miss Nigeria weather really bad”. My house here is surrounded by waterways, that alone is a threat, but what will I do? 'Man must survive, yea?'

Making friends in a strange land is another form of 'schooling' if I must confess. I've learnt not to approach people for relationship/friendship with no reasonable intent; else I'll crash land like many Nigerian folks I've seen here. They want to belong without first, brushing themselves up and defining their motives. I must not forget to state here that, I thought 'kissing' was the only and acceptable officially displayed greeting pattern here in England, because my journey from Heathrow International Airport to Chatham Maritime, Kent, I recorded over 20 public kissing scenes and I thought “wow I've come to a kissing country.”

Amongst other things which I believe has brought me closer to my books is that in a foreign learning environment like that, I've not seen any level of academic competition like what we have in Nigeria. And everyone goes to the club, drink, takes unending 'shots', smokes tobacco, drives on the highest speed as possible, dance and sing as and when due. I wonder, guess it’s the culture.

After all said and pointed out, don't be worried, as I've noticed, all international students tend to know the reason why they're in a foreign land to learn and they take their studies very seriously and that is shown in their conduct, apart from those who wants to 'belong' by all means possible. But if you're like me, don't worry, come over and have some fun in learning. Cheers!!!

@Operko