When I first got to the UK in 2021, I landed in Chelmsford. I moved to London a year later, after I got my degree. When I arrived in Chelmsford, it was autumn, but I was wearing shorts to class because it didn’t feel that cold. Winter came knocking and I felt like I wanted to go back to Nigeria. I was working shifts at a restaurant from 5 PM till 1 AM sometimes and I had to take the train back home, then walk down to my residence. All in that cold weather. It was crazy. But now that I work in London, I don’t stay out late anymore. And it’s not that cold in London anyway. Here, I wear my shorts in winter even on long-distance walks. People still look at me like “Who’s that psycho b-tch?”. I like it in the summer here. It gets very hot; till-you-break-a-sweat-inside-your-room kind of hot. But I’ve adapted well.
I wouldn’t say I have a strong support system here because there’s no place like home. In Nigeria, you have friends and family to turn to. Here, it’s an ‘everybody is busy’ kind of party…but I make friends really quickly and I have some good ones in my corner. We check up on each other frequently and I can say it sometimes feels like a support system even if I don’t necessarily share everything with them. My brother is here in the UK, so he is the one I run some ‘challenging’ things by.
I miss my friends back home. I feel like I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them before I travelled. Weirdly, I also “miss” the ones I’m yet to meet, the ones I became friends with on Twitter. I miss the club scene because I heard the gworls are out there getting their lives at parties. And there’s the drag scene … so I’d love to witness that. I miss the local delicacies. Although we can still get the ingredients or buy the (really pricey) meals here, it doesn’t hit like it would hit when it’s all fresh like it is at home. But all things considered, like I said, I’ve adapted well. I know my way around things now.
As narrated by: TOBI (LONDON, UK)
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