Farewell to London

My time in London is slowly but surely coming to an end. Two months have flown by, and it almost feels like a dream that I got to experience all of this. It's time to pack my bags and draw a little conclusion.

My personal highlight was taking the bus over the Thames every morning and seeing Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, and the skyscrapers of the Financial District, which definitely live up to their name. Life in London is vibrant: everyone is busy, dressed smartly, always in a hurry, yet often still has a smile to share with you. At least I was smiled at more often than in Germany, and I believe the stereotype that Brits are polite is true. An untrue stereotype, however, is that it always rains in England. In the nearly nine weeks I was here, it may have rained twice. My first contribution for ZDF was appropriately about the drought in England, an effect of climate change that I personally experienced. The internship showed me that I am in the right place in journalism. I thrived on researching various topics, conducting interviews, and talking to different people.

If I had to describe London, I would say: cosmopolitan, old and new, and always good for a surprise. There were many of those. For instance, my mother, brother, and I randomly ended up in an exclusive club whose building was designed by the architect of Buckingham Palace. The coffee there was very good. Professionally, I spontaneously went to Bristol and the Cotswolds. This week, I even got a tour at Reuters. As a farewell, a friend also gifted me a Jamaican schnapps (63 percent).

My English has also improved a bit: I now know that I am a bruxer (a person who grinds their teeth) and that “cba' in writing stands for “can’t be arsed.' Unfortunately, my grinding has worsened in the last two weeks (an unsexy fun fact) because I don’t have much time to catch my breath before leaving London. I’m moving to the next big city: Berlin. I am ready for it - I just sometimes forget that right before falling asleep.

Through amusing encounters and a beer or two in the pub, I managed to distract myself from the seriousness of life. The pub culture is sacred to the English, and I find it a shame that we don't have that in Germany. The Friday drinks with my colleagues were also one of my highlights.

One encounter that will stay with me in particular is with Annika. She is related to a colleague of my mother and supported me with advice in my apartment search in London, as she has lived there for several years. We met several times and had fun evenings together. She showed me Peckham, which reminded me a bit of Cologne Ehrenfeld. And to make me miss home (Cologne) a little less, there was even Kölsch at her place. We went to pubs and bars together and always had something delicious to eat. She often invited me because she remembered well how it was for her to be in her early 20s in London without money. Looking back, those were often the evenings that made London feel a little less foreign to me. I will fondly remember her generosity and the fun conversations, and I hope to invite her to Berlin.

My roommate Ruvi from Australia also made the time very enjoyable. We cooked together, laughed, explored London, and even cried a little when one of us felt homesick or heartbroken. I hope we see each other again soon and am glad that fate was quite kind to me with my second proper flat share, as I didn't know either of my roommates before I moved in. Of course, we get on each other's nerves sometimes, and the house is so poorly insulated that you can hear almost every word spoken in the kitchen from my room. Still, I will miss the flat share time.

I also had visitors from Germany: my best friend Lorena, my brother, and my mother. The time was very pleasant, and we had a lot of fun together. I went to Chinatown with my mother and brother, where I had the best dumplings ever (Beijing Dumplings, highly recommended).

What London has definitely shown me: It’s worth being brave. I was and am very comfortably settled in my life in Cologne. I have wonderful friends, a nice apartment, and I love the Cologne mentality. But what if the world has many other adventures in store for me? Before London, I really didn’t know if going to Berlin was such a good idea. At 19, I had already enrolled at HU but ended up choosing the University of Cologne instead. Three years later, I was faced with the same scenario. In my mind, I created a pros and cons list a thousand times, and mainly philosophized every day in the car with my brother about whether everything could turn out well until he was thoroughly annoyed.

Now I know that courage pays off. Okay, I already knew that before, but I may have temporarily suppressed it. Because it’s the things I wouldn’t have experienced in Germany or in my familiar environment, and the people I got to know, that made this time so special: singing people in the subway, totally cool and varied work situations, the barista who knows my name because I’m addicted to GAIL’s. At first, it’s always uncomfortable to show courage; it can feel exhausting, and sometimes I felt lonely, like this week when I was flat on my back with a cold in bed. But I was also totally euphoric, fascinated, and curious about all the new impressions: the museums, the cool cocktail bars, the people whose style is so different, and all the opportunities that a world city holds. The feeling I had when I first crossed the Thames to work and slowly realized that I could call this my home and workplace for two months, I will never forget. And I know that I will shed a tear or two on the plane. But those who read my Barcelona blog closely will know that not all farewells are forever ;). The world belongs to the brave. Now I’m moving from one capital to the next. And I’m sorry that in these two months there have only been three blog posts. I probably spent a bit too much time in the pub.