Goodbye London
I'm leaving London, for real this time

• 12 October 2009 at 15:42
• Diary

I'm leaving London, for real this time.

I remember, 4 years ago, when I left Paris, I cried. I was leaving the french capital to discover something else, practise my english, and stuff. Contrary to many people settling in London, my motives were absolutely not economic. Actually, ater two years in Paris, I thought I would live there forever, then I thought it was sad to finish your life at 22. And when my best friend Ada told me she was going to London, I saw it as an opportunity to seize. At that time, I was only considering spending one year in England, because I was so attached to Paris. But leaving with the idea of coming back is not the right mindset.

Each year, I was considering my departure then I would decide to stay, for diverse reasons. In the end, I just needed a good reason to leave the town and this opportunity came with the trip Ada, Peter and I are going to make.

With London, I always had some love-hate relationship. If I liked the nightlife and the possibility to meet people from all over the world, I didn't like the cost of life, or that you'll have a very superficial relationship with most people you meet. London is a town of transit, many people come here young and leave at some point, because they wanna settle in their country, because they want to stop drugs, because they want to see something else, etc.

I think I'm gonna miss this town anyway. The gay scene for example, is thousands of times more interesting than in Paris, because it has an english mindset: that is, completely crazy. Likewise, people can dress like christmas trees and nobody gives a shit. In frence, if you wear trousers with stripes, people will point their finger at you. (Don't laught, it happened to me!) Public transports are shit, but you can go everywhere at night. Likewise, you can always find a shop open at any time. (Useful when there's no wine left. Or cheese.)

The thing I'm the most proud of here, is to have been able to pay for my degree by myself (as well as my accomodation and all, of course), while working part-time as a web developer, and to have been successful. All this could not have been possible without my mate of misfortunes, Ada.

I have changed a lot in 4 years. My mind opened a lot, even though there's still work to be done. I couldn't have lived all these experiences in Paris, met all these people, traveled so much. I'm glad I could have done all this, but I have the feeling now that I'm going in circles. It's time to proceed to the next step.

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  I'm leaving London, for real this time