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Sankirtana Kumar Tharamel

August 9th, 2022

Relocating to a New Country – Part I

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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Sankirtana Kumar Tharamel

August 9th, 2022

Relocating to a New Country – Part I

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Traveling to a new country (in my case, continent) is no walk in the park. Not only does one have to understand the lay of the land and the ways of the people, but one also has to explore enough to figure out food spots and grocery stores that suit one’s tastes, convenient modes of travel, and lo and behold, new friends! All that said, it was one of the most exhilarating and joyous events of my life.

On one hand, there were all these logistical matters to attend to, basically sorting things out so that I don’t end up homeless and lost (yes, I exaggerate for dramatic effect), and on the other hand, each day held something new. I could see the neuroscience articles I had read about building new synaptic connections come alive right from my first day here in London. I continuously go back to the analogy of guided meditation – I remember someone saying “I could feel my heel” at the end of a “body scan” exercise. At the risk of sounding cliché, but communicating what I truly felt, I could quite literally “feel” each new experience building those new connections emotionally, mentally, and intellectually.

Abstract musings aside, let me start my soliloquy regarding the cascade of actions and emotions I felt over the first few days of my being here. To give you some context, this is my first time in the UK and so naturally, London as well. And this was just after the second wave of COVID in India. Restrictions were still in place and India had just come off the “Red” list and gone into the “Amber list” of countries as classified by the UK with respect to travel restrictions. This implied that I had to quarantine non-institutionally at a place of my choice. So though some of my thoughts might relate specifically to this pandemic world, the underlying concepts are ubiquitously applicable.

A Sim Card is priority one

Relocating to a whole other country specifically calls for numerous calls to family and friends to ascertain that we have, indeed, reached our destination in one piece. Coming from the cultural context of India where we fundamentally relate with the sentiment arising from the simple words “tell me when you’ve reached, okay?”, this was a non-negotiable. So, the first thing I did once I landed, was to get a Sim Card within the airport. Now, depending on your visa process and the country you are coming from, you may have received a pre-activated sim before you left. If yes, great! In my case, I did not have one and so bought one and activated mine practically within the first hour following my immigration check.

 

Transportation and reaching the accommodation

Identifying in advance the type of cab services available, the kind of car I should take, and how I can make the payment all helped immensely. It is common knowledge that black cabs are one of the most expensive kinds of transportation available in London. It was also noted that Bolt was one of the cheaper ones. I personally decided to continue with the tried and tested Uber (this was available in India as well and I’ve personally had good experiences with them).

It was also noted that the payment in Uber was a little tricky for certain people as it didn’t accept “Forex” cards from India as a payment method. I personally used my Indian debit card and it worked fine. Others seem to have used a loaded Uber gift certificate. So it is certainly worthwhile spending time researching your payment options and what works for both you and the transportation service.

Figuring out quarantining and testing

Now this one is specific to the pandemic world of September. Finding accommodation and figuring out the logistics of this was no child’s play. I lucked out in finding a partner who was from India, who went to my course, and who wanted to quarantine together. And we got along really well! So, a long stream of good luck, I suppose!

Our respective accommodations had certain challenges including restrictions regarding quarantining and the start date of the accommodation beginning way after our quarantine period. So “Airbnb” was our go-to.

It is also important to check out Testing Services that work for you. We used the free LSE COVID testing facilities that were (and are) available to students and had booked our Day 2, Day 5 (“Test to Release”), and Day 8 tests in advance.

Well, this details the first set of actions I performed on the days leading to departure and the day of arrival in London. The next article in this series describes the days right after landing, where I describe the list of logistical, bureaucratic aspects to be taken care of, and the experiences I went through. See you soon!

About the author

Sankirtana Kumar Tharamel

Hi! I am Sanku. You will mostly find me dancing my legs off, pouring over a book, or just deeply engaged in conversation. An engineering graduate and STEM girl at heart, I have been exploring the development sector for greater than half a decade now, and hope to continue this line of work after my MSc in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Posted In: Student life

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