One of my goals in life - to live, or at least visit, every capital in Europe.
So far I have conquered Edinburgh, London, Dublin & Paris. To me this is not good enough. 24 years of age and only four of Europe's capitals. Yes, I have been on family holidays to Spain and Greece, etc but only to the British tourist parts. Euggh! I want to learn more about culture and food and language (my French and Spanish are basic). I missed out on the whole travelling experience before/after university and instead of letting it be an aspect I deeply regret, I have promised myself to visit at least one Europe city a year, from now on!
However I digress... today's post is actually about the culture shock I felt moving from one part of Scotland to the other and I began to wonder if I could actually handle living in a city across the sea after all!
After only having visited Edinburgh around 2 times in my life before moving there for university (shocking I know), it only took a couple of months before I fell in love with the capital. Everything from the character of the old town to the lovely restaurants, bars and feel-good atmosphere of the bustling city. Especially during festival time! Although the culture in Edinburgh is often diverse due to its high tourism rate, I still felt everyone as being friendly and willing to open doors, or respond with a simple 'thank you'. When university had eventually drew to an end and I felt the dread of temporarily moving back in with the parentals I told myself 'Edinburgh - I will see you again soon!'.
Perhaps I should eat my words. As the year went on and I had no luck with a 'proper' job my hopes of seeing the capital again were slowly dying. In fact, they came to a complete death when I was offered a job in Aberdeen. Aberdeen you say? I don't even know what Aberdeen looks like? All I had was my stereotypical vision of a lot of sheep and plenty of rugged-looking oil and gas men. In fact I imagined men everywhere, and not in the good sense...
Nevertheless, I have always been an open-minded individual and so decided to suck it up and take the risk of moving Northbound. Although this position was not my career choice, it would be a good income and as I was repeatedly told by my parents 'it could open a lot of doors for you Dannielle'.
As I arrived in my new street, I witnessed a fairly acceptable dressed, middle-aged man stick his head in a bin and pick out bits of rubbish. Yes, as my old Belfast flatmate would call it ' a bloody bin-hooker!'. OH DEAR.. NEVER in my life.. how could this be with all the money floating about in Aberdeen's little bubble. Not a good start I told myself! And as if struggling to cope with the terms from the oil and gas industry was not enough, I then heard language such as 'quine' and 'buttery' being thrown my way. It will take a while to get used to I thought. BUT persevere I will! I actually quite enjoy a challenge, in particular a culture one.
Now, 8 months has flown by and I can almost fully understand the wee manny behind the till at my local petrol garage, without a look of confusion spreading across my face. In fact my views are changing about the city entirely. I was offered a new job within my professional field after only 5 months of being up here and the people I work with are great! Part of my job now is to media monitor and I can't help but notice how much the citizens of Aberdeen are willing to get involved in the city projects, it gives a proper sense of community. Even large oil and gas tycoons are willing to help out with the budgets and renovations of Aberdeen.
I admit, considering the amount of money within the city I feel its landscape and social opportunities do not reflect this, but in fairness it has potential. I love that you can experience city life, country life and beach life all within a 15 mile radius. And so far there has been a lot of sunshine! Lets see if I will be eating my words again shortly...
