An Expat in London

My name is Alessandra and I am a positive and fun loving person who loves writing, photography and travel.

Originally from Brazil, I decided to move overseas almost 10 years ago. My first destination was Melbourne, Australia, then I moved to California in the USA, where I continued studying International Business. I am currently living in London, UK, and I have been here for almost 3 years now.

I decided to move overseas as I always thought that the world has a lot to offer me, and that by living in one place I was missing out on the learning experience that we get when we connect to different people, explore new places and leave our comfort zone.

However, it hasn't always been easy and my first real challenge was learning how to adapt to a different environment and better communicate with people. My English language skills weren't as good as I wished and had trouble expressing myself. The second biggest challenge was feeling homesick and missing my family, friends, and everything that was natural to me. The third one was questioning my decision of abandoning a comfortable life in my home country, and my capability of making it in another foreign one by myself.

But everything is good now and I couldn't imagine myself living any other way. Another good thing about my life now is that the expat community in London is probably one of the largest in the world and the majority of my friends are expats like me.

What I like about London is the diversity, the choices you have for food and things to do, the ease of travel, and the general feeling of safety. However, the biggest cultural difference between my life here and in my home country is how people are open to each other. In Brazil, everyone seem to talk to you and have a friendly manner when approaching you. Here in London, it takes longer to make friends and people are not necessarily interested on getting to know you.

The advise that I would give to anyone following these footsteps is that the journey is not always easy and that you will face many challenges along the way. But you have to remember that everything is worth it as you will learn a lot from this experience and it will definitely make you a better person - hopefully a real citizen of the world.

My plans for the future are to become a successful travel and expat blogger and writer and help people out there on their expat journey, as well as share tips and travel pictures. Please visit my blog at anexpatdiary.com for more tips, advise, pictures, etc