My stay abroad in London

01

Report of a Eurokauffrau about their stay abroad in London, England

For the period of 31 May until 23 June I have been working for Lindner plc in London. This has been an incredible time and a great experience for me abroad. I have been learning a lot of new things and I did not only improve my language skills, but also some soft skills. In this report I would like to tell you about my experiences in London, about work, my host family and places I have visited. Although I was having a great time, the beginning was a little bit complicated. Being all alone in a new country without any familiar person is not so easy at first. But after my arrival at Heathrow Airport, the first thing I noticed was that the people I met were all very helpful and nice to foreigners. I recognized, that they did not mind to help people who had questions and some even offered their help on their own.

When I had finally arrived at my host family, everything turned out to be all right and I was really lucky with this family. They were a family of four, the mother called Ilona, the father called Pete and two children, Louis and Sita. As Sita was on a trip to India during this time, there was a bathroom and a room free for me. The best thing of living with this family was that they always recommended me nice places which are worth visiting them and also some places in London which only few tourists know. Furthermore, they showed me the quarter they live in, they went with me to the cinema to watch a movie and one evening we were even making a barbecue with some friends of them. Ilona is German and her husband has also been living in Munich for five years. But nevertheless, most of the time we were talking English because I wanted to improve my skills and so I could practice this language.

The quarter they live in is called Brockley and it is situated in the Southeast of London. It was a very nice region with many Victorian houses, some supermarkets and even a nice park nearby. One of the best things was, that this quarter is very good located because there are three train stations nearby: Lewisham, Brockley and St. Johns. These rail stations were all not far away, so you could easily walk there. As the public transport in London is really fantastic, I did not have any problems in getting to the desired destination. The whole city is connected very well, and you can get to any places you want via train, tube, bus or DLR.

The office of Lindner plc was located only a few minutes’ walk away from Tower Bridge which was really fantastic, because after work or during lunchtime, I often went there to see this side of London: Tower Bridge, London Bridge and the Tower itself. The journey from the house to work took me about 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the schedule. At work, I was having an own desk with an own computer where I could work on with my tasks from my department in Germany, which was really great. My task was to create presentations in English and in German for our customers which you will soon also find in the i.net of the Lindner Group. I am working for the product department of the division ceiling – heating and cooling technologies – lighting and I was creating several presentations about our great range of products. These presentations can then be useful for the sales department and include for example standard ceiling systems, such as post-cap ceilings, hook-on ceilings or cassettes. Furthermore, further topics have been for example expanded metal ceilings, surfaces and perforations but also metal ceilings for hospitals. Beside this work, I also had contact with colleagues, suppliers and other persons due to the fact that I had to answer the phone and transfer them to people who were responsible for the specific topic.

As I have been in London for several weeks, I had the opportunity to visit all the beautiful places at the three weekends I have been there.
The first day after my arrival in London had been a Bank Holiday, so I did not have to go to work and I could start visiting the city a little bit. There are so many beautiful and important places, monuments or parks that I did not really know where to begin. But finally, my first trip led me to Charing Cross, from where I went to Trafalgar Square. This square was a really beautiful place and there have been so many people because the weather was fine. At this place, there are several statues of famous persons and in addition, there are beautiful fountains and the Museum National Gallery.

After my first week at work, I could not wait until I finally had the possibility to see more of this town. So at my first weekend, I went to Harrods, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Tower Bridge and London Bridge. Unfortunately, I did not have much time, but I could have spent all day there. Buckingham Palace is a really huge and impressive building, and I could also see the security guards standing before the palace.

The day after, my host family recommended me to go to Camden Town and Greenwich, which I did not know until that time. But I followed their instructions and finally, it was really beautiful there. Camden is a part of London, where a lot of small markets are. Greenwich is just 10 minutes away by DLR from Lewisham Station. It is a very nice place, where you can for example visit the Royal Observatory, the Maritime Museum, the Greenwich Park and you can also go to the top of the hill which is at the end of this park, from where you have a fantastic view.

On my second weekend, I decided to see some other parts of the town. So I finally went to Piccadilly Circus, which is a place known by many tourists and a lot of young people meet there. Not far away from this is Oxford Circus and Oxford Street, which is probably the biggest shopping street in whole London with a lot of shops and restaurants. In this region in the centre of London, Leicester Square and Covent Garden is also not far away, so I just went for a walk around this part of London. The highlight of this week and I would almost say of my whole trip to England, was a visit of the Lyceum Theatre near Charing Cross, where I was watching the Musical “The Lion King”. It was a very spontaneous decision, but I was very glad that there were still some tickets free for the Saturday evening event. As I had wanted to see this Musical in Germany for a long time, I was very glad that I had the possibility to watch it there. And in fact, the theatre was worth every penny. I was very surprised because at first I thought it might perhaps be difficult to understand the actors in English, but this was really no problem. And in addition, the actors had some very good voices and the costumes were just fabulous.

Finally my third and even last weekend had arrived so quickly. At this weekend, my parents came to visit me in London. As they had also never been to the United Kingdom, they decided to visit me for one weekend because I already got to know the city a little bit, so I could show them the most important things.
After the departure of my parents, there were only two more days left before my departure to Germany. I was really looking forward to seeing all my friends again and I could not wait to tell them about my experiences in England and to show them all the pictures I made so that they can get a little impression of the beauty of this town. At the end of my report, I will also enclose a few pictures of the places I liked the most during my stay abroad. On my last day here, I had to say goodbye to my colleagues here at London plc and also to my host family, which was really a little bit sad because you never know when you will see each other again. I also recognized that there were people from almost all over the world in London. I met people from different nations, such as for example from Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Egypt and of course Great Britain. This was a really great experience because I got to know other nations and cultures.
At the end I can say, that it was really worth visiting London and staying there for some time. At first it was not easy for me, because everything is new, you are on your own in a very huge city and you feel a little bit homesick. But after some time I felt much more comfortable, I got to know the people there and also London itself. Three and a half weeks is really not such a long period, and in the end time just ran so quickly. In this few weeks I got to know a few persons which I will surely miss after my stay abroad, most of all the family I was living with. But nevertheless, I am also very happy that I am finally back home, because after some time you also begin to miss your family and your friends – but I am definitely glad that I had the possibility to make this stay abroad in London, because this will surely be an experience that I will never forget!

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