First entry

Alright. This is my very first post ever. Just to share with you, I just recently came back from my five-week holiday in the Philippines, and if not for my contract, I probably would’ve stayed there. It was during my vacation that I decided to start a blog, to have an extra outlet for my ideas (and mostly to stop myself from having to have conversations in my head LOL). I used to write for our school paper and I kinda miss it. Come to think of it, I almost took up Journalism as my college course! I also wanted to be a lot of other things–a soldier, a teacher, a forensic scientist.. And now I’m a nurse. Funny how things turned out, eh?

To put it frankly, I’m one of those people who took up nursing just so that I can go and work abroad. That didn’t really work out at first, because there weren’t many opportunities during my graduation year. I took the board exams several months after I got my diploma, and got bored while waiting for the results, so I went ahead and applied for a job in a call center. Right after I got in, surprise, surprise! They released the results and I passed! It was one of the most exhilarating memories I have. So exhilarating that I continued working in the call center industry (for different companies) years after that. Haha. I also tried working as a medical representative, but I’m not exactly the outgoing type, so that didn’t work out either. So, after years of putting it off because of the dismal salary of nurses in the Philippines, I finally got in a government hospital (the pay there wasn’t as bad as in private institutions btw), where I got the necessary work experience, and now I’m here in the UK (more about the process in my next posts).

The first time I set foot in London was in April last year, which wasn’t very long ago. I’ve always wanted to come and live here ever since I was in high school, and now that I’m supposedly “living the dream,” I just wanted to share how things really are as opposed to how people expect them to be. I’d have to admit, it is beautiful here. I never get tired of looking at the magnificent infrastructures and I’m always so impressed at how intricately detailed the architecture here is. In short, it really is picture-perfect. The life, though, definitely isn’t–at least, not for me. It is certainly tolerable though, knowing that I’m getting more for my efforts here than in my home country. But then, is it really always about the money?

Just to give you a quick view of how I find life here in London, I’m currently on sick leave (thanks to my wisdom tooth), miles and miles away from my family, with loads to do (like my laundry and my dishes, my activity book, yada yada) and yet I’m bored. I do 12-hour shifts and on average, I only work 3-4 days a week, but then I always book extra shifts for the moolah. So don’t get me wrong, there is work-life balance here, if you seek it.

I’m watching Love, Death & Robots on Netflix (from a shared account that we got for cheap LOL), and I really should be doing a million other things right now (hold on, can’t remember what at the moment).. Oh, wait, I really should be outside, enjoying the scenery because today the sun decided to show its magnificent self.. But then, knowing how fantastic British weather is, it’s probably going to rain later anyway. Not that I hate it, I actually do like rain a lot. It’s just that I don’t like going out much. So, unlike many of my other Filipino colleagues here in the UK, this is how I spend most of my days off–keeping to myself. And it’s not half bad. I’m not depressed or anything. Or maybe I am. Maybe not. I know one thing, though.. It is indeed sad to be alone. But it’s when we’re alone that we find time to look at things from different perspectives. Wait, that sounds boring and book-ish. Anyway, I’m going back to watching my series now. See ya!