Today is a big day. Three years ago today, I moved to England.

Wow. Three years. Sometimes I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. On October 13^th 2016, I walked off a plane (#tbt to when I checked four bags and the airline lost everything I own), got a stamp in my passport, and officially became a UK resident.

Living in England was my dream for so many years, and after meeting Adam during my study abroad, I knew I had to make that dream a reality. But after three years here, I can definitely say I’ve taken off my rose-colored glasses—I no longer see England as this perfect, wonderful utopia.

Two years ago today, on my first moving-to-England-a-versary, I published a huge blog post about the reality of life in England. You can read it here: 15 Harsh Truths About Living In England. For whatever reason, it is now my most popular blog post and gets thousands of views every month. I wrote this at one of the darkest times of my life. I was struggling with everything. Life was pretty bad for me. I was extremely unhappy.

Things have improved a lot (having a full-time job that means I can pay my bills every month has helped immensely). This time last year, I chose to write a post on British culture, and all the funny quirks I’ve discovered and experienced since moving here.

This year, I want to talk about some of the things I love about living in England, along with the things I dislike. So I chose to write this post for my three years living in England—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Living In England: The Good

When I was brainstorming this post, I actually struggled for a minute to come up with the things I actually like about living here! Maybe because it’s easier for the bad to outweigh the good. Maybe because the things I enjoy about living in England are difficult to put into words and categorize. But there are a lot of things I love about living in England. Here are some of them.

The National Parks and hiking. Nothing makes me love this country more than a good hike, when the sun is shining, and reaching the summit to see a gorgeous scenic view open up before me. The UK is home to 15 national parks, and they are simply astounding.

The Lake District is easily one of my favorite places in the world. Most people don’t think of gorgeous lakes nestled between high mountains when they think of England—but they should, because that’s the Lake District. My first visit was in April 2017 and I’ve been back 5 times since then. I celebrate my birthday every year with a weekend in the Lakes, and I love it.

I am completely spoiled living in York. It’s about an hours’ drive to the North York Moors or the Yorkshire Dales. The Peak District is less than two hours away, the Lake District is less than three hours away. If traffic is good, I could reach Snowdonia in Wales (for a hike up Snowdon) in just over three hours. Some of the most spectacular places in the country are right on my doorstep—I’m so lucky.

Not only are the National Parks amazing, but they have helped me discover my passion for hiking and being outdoors. I grew up going camping and once I was an adult never gave it a second thought. Being able to experience National Parks and the joys of being outside, I fell in love with hiking and (more recently) camping. I love feeling so connected with nature. And thanks to the UK’s massive network of public footpaths (public rights of way on both public and private property), there’s plenty of choice for hiking.

The proximity to Europe for traveling. Obviously! The UK is part of Europe! Living in the UK has made my travels to Europe so much easier and cheaper. To put it simply: I would never have been able to travel across Europe as much as I have if I hadn’t have been living here. Most destinations in Europe are a maximum three-hour flight away. You can get to lots of places in Western Europe in just over an hour by plane. Thanks to budget airlines like Ryanair, EasyJet, and WizzAir, you can get to Europe for pretty cheap.

In the last three years, I have traveled to so many amazing places. Since I’ve moved to the UK, I’ve visited: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Russia, Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, France, Ireland, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Iceland, Malta, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania. Some of these countries I’ve visited more than once!

Travel is my greatest passion in life. (In case you couldn’t tell from the whole travel blog thing!) It is what makes me feel most alive. Exploring Europe (particularly Eastern Europe, my favorite region in the entire world) is where I’m in my element. It is so easy to go for a long weekend away or take a trip somewhere in Europe.

The pub culture. While sometimes the British attitude towards drinking can be a bit much (see below…), I have to say the pub culture in the UK is fantastic. The pub is much more than where you get food or a drink. The pub is where you go after work, where you meet your friends, where you can stop for a Sunday roast on the weekend. You can go on your own, you can go with a group, you can go for lunch or for a big night out. The pub is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. Nowhere does pubs better than the UK.

Having a local pub is part of life in England. Pretty much everyone has a local. My local is down the street. I go for food about once a month. The people who work there know what table I like to sit at, what food I’ll be ordering, and what my drink order will be. My life would not be the same without my local. Also as a sidenote, I fucking love a good cider, and then UK has so many of them!

Wetherspoons. Where do you go when you want super cheap drinks or food? Where else in London can you get drinks for £4 a pint? What do you do when you want to go out but have basically no money? Enter Wetherspoons. Spoons (as it’s affectionately nicknamed) is excellent. Drinks are super cheap (in York, a Strongbow Dark Fruit is £2.79 and some of their guest ales will be £1.99), food is inexpensive and fast, and they now have an app to order directly to your table. Spoons is a gift from the gods that has been given to the UK.

The immense history present everywhere you go. British history was one of my great passions growing up. It is why I studied history at university, and why I chose to study abroad for a year in Nottingham. I live in York, a city that was founded by the Romans in 71 AD. I worked for a brief time at Clifford’s Tower, a building that dates back to roughly 1300. I walked past York Minster every day on my morning commute for well over a year—a Gothic masterpiece that dates back hundreds of years. Living in England, you can (quite literally) reach out and touch the past.

In the UK, there are castles, cathedrals, palatial stately homes, manor houses, and more that date back hundreds if not thousands of years. This is real life living here. Sometimes I genuinely feel like I’ve stepped back in time. I will never get bored of the epic history here as long as I live.

York is a really safe place to live, and I have never been catcalled in this city. One of the reasons I love living in York is that it’s a very safe city. Violent crime is very rare here—pickpocketing is the main thing to worry about. I have also essentially never been catcalled or experienced street harrassment here. Once I walked past a man and he said, “you alright love,” and his tone of voice seemed a bit catcall-y, but I could have just misunderstood. I have never been catcalled or hollered at. I’ve never been harrassed as a woman in York—and this is AMAZING!! The rest of England certainly isn’t like this (I experienced a lot of street harrassment in Nottingham), and living in Minneapolis it happened all the time. But I love that the city I live in is such a safe and welcoming place.

You accrue holiday pay even when you’re not on a contract. While there are a lot of laws and regulations I strongly disagree with in the UK, I have to say this is one of the best. Even if you don’t work full-time, even if you’re not on a contract and just work whatever shifts you get (called a “zero-hours contract”), you still have the benefit of holiday pay. I’ve discovered that each employer may do this differently. For example, at one of my jobs where I was on a zero-hours contract, I was simply given my holiday pay as a lump sum with my paycheck each month. At another one of my jobs, I was given all of my accrued holiday pay in my last paycheck after I quit. If you have time off work or a trip planned, some employers will pay you all of your accrued holiday pay. Even if you don’t work full-time or have a contract for set hours, you still accrue holiday pay. THIS IS AWESOME!

Peep Show. By far one of my favorite shows, and one that I can pretty much recite every word of. The first few episodes I watched I absolutely hated it—it’s that dry, awkward, British humor that makes you feel uncomfortable. But I love it now! It’s definitely one of my favorite shows and if you’re wanting a more gritty look at life in England in the 2000s and early 2010s, give it a watch.

Adam. Of course, the best thing about living in England is Adam (also known as Mr. Away With Maja). I know not everyone can have a husband as wonderful and amazing and good-looking as mine, but still. I love him more than anything. I am grateful for each and every day that we get to spend together. Getting to be with the person you love is a privilege, not a right, in the UK, and it’s one that I will never take for granted. He has made all of the horrible things and the shit experiences worth it.

Living In England: The Bad

While yes, there are lots of good things about life in the UK, there are also a fair amount of things I strongly dislike. The things that irritate me, that frustrate me, that I complain endlessly about. So here are some of the bad things about living in England.

Paying for a BBC TV license. In the UK, if you own a TV and hook it up to get 3 main (BBC) channels, you have to pay for a license. That license is approximately £150 per year. Just to own a TV!!!! Not to have cable, not to have all the channels, literally just to have a couple of channels. The offset to this is that those BBC channels have no ads—this is how they make their revenue, by charging everyone for a TV license.

I categorically and fundamentally disagree with having to pay to watch the news. It is extremely classist and means that those with less income and less money do not have the same access to news and journalism as those with more money. TVs can be an excellent source of news and a great tool for education about world events, politics, current issues, etc. I believe pricing people out of this is wrong. I much prefer the US style, where you can get 7-10 channels for free if you own a TV, and have commercial breaks during the shows, then having to pay £150 every year just for a couple of channels.

We specifically do not own a TV and I will most likely never have a TV in the UK. Mainly this is because we just don’t use a TV that much—we watch everything online these days, on our laptops. But I also refuse to pay for a TV license because of the inherent classist implications and the fact that I don’t believe in giving the BBC any more money.

Variable speed limits. These are, quite honestly, the most pointless things EVER. So you’re driving down on the highway at 70mph, and then all of a sudden you have to go 50mph. And then 40mph. And if you go above those speed limits, there are cameras that will catch you, read your license plate, and you’ll get a speeding ticket in the mail. What’s the point of these speed limits? LITERALLY NOTHING. I honestly feel like the government does this just to piss people off, slow people down because they get some weird rush from the control, and try to get a bit more revenue in speeding tickets.

THEY LITERALLY JUST MAKE EVERYONE GO SLOW FOR NO REASON. JUST TO FUCK WITH PEOPLE. They will often say “busy traffic ahead” and slow everyone down. But surely, people are smart enough that you can just drive, and when you see more cars and people slowing down, you just slow down too?!? Surely anyone who is smart enough to have a driving license will follow normal rules of the road??

Now, the UK also has “average speed checks.” These are almost always in a construction zone, where (if there’s actually anyone working) you should slow down and be more cautious. A camera checks your license plate at the start, and then 3 miles later they’ll have calculated how long it should take for you to get to the last checkpoint. If you got there too fast, you were speeding and you’ll get a speeding ticket mailed to you. Average speed checks are annoying, but they do serve a purpose, which is mainly keeping construction workers safe.

I honestly feel like variable speed limits are just a way for the government to say, “big brother is watching you” and to piss people off because they can. They do not benefit anyone, besides the government that will get a bit more money in speeding fines. My personal opinion is that they are a restriction on my freedom to safely drive as I feel like. Shit like this would never fly in a country that is as driving-centric as the US.

The train network is appalling. When I first lived in England during my study abroad in Nottingham, I took trains everywhere. All the time. Prices were affordable, and they would get you where you need to go. Due in part to a government that has allowed the privatized train networks to do what they like at the expense of consumers, trains are shockingly bad in the UK now. In the last five years, there has been a huge increase in the cost of rail tickets, and an appalling decrease in the service you get.

I genuinely can’t remember the last time I took a train and it wasn’t delayed. While nearly all train companies will offer a partial reimbursement if you’re delayed 30 minutes or more, or a full reimbursement if you’re delayed 60 minutes or more, I’d much rather just be on time with the journey I paid for. Trains are just not like this elsewhere in Europe. Last year, a change in timetables and train schedules (that was planned months in advance!!) meant WEEKS of delays and cancellations, and a whole lot of people not getting to where they needed to be. This has hit commuters (especially those down south around London) really hard. Of course, there are always things that happen that aren’t the train companies’ fault—trespassers walking across train tracks, flooding on the line, etc. But so many times you just can’t get around because trains always seem to be delayed or cancelled.

I’d be happy to pay the price I pay for my ticket if the train was actually guaranteed to run as scheduled and get there on time.

There is trash everywhere. The UK is disgusting sometimes. There is just trash, everywhere. These photos are taken in York on a garbage day. There is literally just garbage everywhere. It’s dirty. It’s not nice. It doesn’t make a very good impression. I don’t feel like British people litter more than anywhere else, but just that it never gets cleaned. Overflowing garbage cans stay there and then the garbage blows everywhere in the wind, and then there’s just garbage everywhere. There are cigarette butts everywhere, outside of every pub and every bar will be a collection of cigarette butts on the ground or in the road. I know not everywhere can be as clean as Moscow or Minsk, but the trash is a real downside to living in England.

And just a reminder, City of York Council doesn’t recycle all plastic from the curbside. You can only put out plastic drinks bottles that will get picked up to be recycled. ALL the other plastic will go in with garbage, or you can take it to one of the drop-off points in the city. There are TWO drop-off points in the entire city, the Sainsbury’s on Foss Islands Road, and the Sainsbury’s at Monk’s Cross. These are the only two places in ALL OF YORK, A CITY WITH 200,000+ PEOPLE, where you can recycle plastic. I am ashamed to live here every day because of this. It is pathetic and embarrassing.

British drinking behavior. I know that technically British people aren’t the heaviest drinkers in the world (I think that’s Belarus?). But as a whole, British people drink very heavily, frequently use alcohol as a social crutch, and regularly binge drink on big nights out that lead to very unhealthy (and dangerous) habits like throwing up, blacking out, etc. I don’t mean to stereotype all British people this way! I know plenty of people who drink without throwing up, who can just have one drink after work—I even know British people who don’t drink at all! But as a whole, as a stereotype, Brits exhibit a lot of behaviors that I (as an American from a different type of drinking culture) would say are alcoholism.

Again, I’m not trying to paint everyone in the UK with the same brush. I have made my fair share of poor choices with alcohol too! (Anyone who was friends with me in college will know that, ha.) I’m not saying I’ve never drank too much and regretted it (I definitely have), but I have a fairly healthy relationship with alcohol. I know when to stop, I know when I’ve had too much, and I feel comfortable not drinking if I don’t feel like it.

I’m not saying that unhealthy alcoholic behaviors are only something British people do. But having known so many different people who are British, I can say there is underlying alcoholism in the country. Things that I would say are unacceptable and exhibit a dependency on alcohol to function, are normal here. For example, I went on a work trip earlier in the year, and many of the (British) people I was with were going out and partying every night until 2am, then waking up at 6 or 7am to do our day excursion. Now, I didn’t do that, because I know that if I only get a few hours of sleep, I won’t make it through a jam-packed day of excursions. But also because my work is paying for me to be here to experience and learn, not to get shitfaced every night. Whereas for all of the other British people, that was what it was for them: a free-for-all to go wild every night and have fun. There were no repercussions from our team leader from the UK for doing this—in fact, she actually seemed to really dislike me because I wasn’t going out and getting wasted every night like everyone else. What?!?

There is also a huge social backlash against people in the UK who choose not to drink. And it can be really tough to not fall into unhealthy drinking behaviors when everyone else is doing it. This is a great article about sober shaming in the UK.

While yes, part of living in England is access to great pub culture, the general alcoholism just isn’t good. It isn’t healthy. It doesn’t help anyone. It is why I have to step over piles of puke most days when I walk through town on my way to work. I never want to be dependent on alcohol to function, and (again, to stereotype all British people as a whole) I think Brits have too much dependency on alcohol.

Henry Hoovers. Everyone in the country is obsessed with these vacuum cleaners (Brits call vacuums “hoovers”). It’s a little circle thing with a face on it that has a long tube attached. These are SHIT. They don’t vacuum things up very well. They are awkward to drag around when you’re actually vacuuming. Everyone seems to be obsessed with these vacuums and think they’re so cute because they have a face on it. It doesn’t matter if they have a face on it, but if it’s a shit vacuum it’s a shit vacuum. I cannot stand these things!!

Supermarkets have very limited Sunday hours (if they’re open at all). Most supermarkets in the UK are only open from 10-4 on Sundays. This can be very inconvenient and means that (especially when I’m working the weekend) I need to plan out grocery shops and food way in advance. And while yes, this is super inconvenient, it took me a long time as to why it bothered me so much.

The reason supermarkets have limited Sunday hours is because the people who work in supermarkets deserve a weekend too, they deserve time off too, they shouldn’t have to work long shifts on a day that the traditional working world is off. While I completely agree with this and absolutely believe people who work at a grocery store should have time off, to me it is just based on a system of class hierarchy that puts retail workers (in this instance, supermarket employees) above food service workers. Because surely if supermarkets can shut early on a Sunday, so could every bar and restaurant in the country? Surely people who work in food service deserve a day off or shorter shift as well? Surely the people who stand for 90% of their shifts deserve a break like retail workers who usually get to sit down for a part of their shift?

This really bothers me. Some people will think I’m totally crazy for making this assumption and connection, but honestly that’s how it feels for me. It’s an inconvenience for me sure, but it also just props up a class hierarchy of some of the hardest-working and lowest-paid workers.

Living In England: The Ugly

Unfortunately, there are a lot of “ugly” parts about living in England. Unfortunately, I know these aspects of life abroad all too well. These are the things that make me advise against moving to the UK. These are the things that make me want to move home. These are the things that make me wonder if I will ever be able to live here permanently. Here you are—the ugly things about living in England.

Racism. I know it might be naïve, but I never thought the UK was that racist a country. Coming from the US, where racism is entrenched in so many systems, I just didn’t think other countries would be that bad. I more or less never experienced racism during my year studying abroad in Nottingham. This might be my white privilege talking, but I honestly never really noticed much racism.

There are a lot of very, VERY, racist people in the UK. I have encountered lots of racist Brits. I have experienced racism that genuinely shocked me to my core. Following the EU referendum in 2016 (more on that below), racists have been emboldened in a way I don’t believe they were before. Aided and abetted by a government that has condones and even creates discriminatory systems, these people have opened my eyes to the horrifying reality of everyday life in the UK when you are not white/British.

The racist microagressions, where people would look me up and down and say, “what are you doing here?” and constantly being made to feel different, was one of my main motivations for me to find a new job in 2018—one that didn’t have as many face-to-face interactions with the general public. The inexcusable interactions, such as when a man came into my place of work and shouted and harassed me about how much I pay in tax, frankly made me not want to live here. It is important to call them out for what they are: they are racist. And unfortunately, living in England has showed me that a lot of people here are racist.

And I’m white. And I’m American. And if people will do and say racist things to me, what are they doing to people who aren’t as privileged as I am?? I feel a duty and obligation to speak up about the racism here. Because there is always someone who is experiencing prejudice from racists, but can’t speak up. And I need to speak up for them.

I encourage each and every person reading this to self-reflect. If possible, please speak up against racism when you see it happening.

Politics and Brexit. Where to even begin with this? Honestly, I could spend a whole post talking about the shambles that is UK politics and the Brexit debacle. I firmly believe the European Union is an amazing way to create and promote unity across Europe, facilitate trade, and as an immigrant I will of course always support freedom of movement. Obviously, I wanted the UK to Remain in the EU.

Politics has been wrapped up in Brexit for the entirety of my time in the UK since I moved three years ago. Things have taken a particularly nasty turn in the past few months, as the Prime Minister shut Parliament down (in an attempt to stop discussion of Brexit) that the UK Supreme Court has ruled was illegal. Inflammatory language has been used to fan the flames of the right-wing. I honestly don’t know what will happen, and that is scary. I believe the UK exiting the EU market will be a disaster that will force the pound into further decline, as well as causing huge issues as the UK is an island and imports a lot of everyday necessities. I believe ending freedom of movement will mean entire industries will collapse overnight—from fruit picking, to banking, to car manufacturing. I believe there is no solution to the question of the Irish border that does not jeopardize the Good Friday Agreement and therefore risk the recent peace, besides the UK staying in the one market. These issues are very real, and I believe they will have a negative impact on millions of lives.

Politicians in the UK are also, simply put, embarrassing. It is maddening to me that people (who earn more in a year than I will probably ever earn in my entire lifetime) can make racist statements that directly lead to hate crimes and show flagrant disrespect for their jobs and not face any repercussions. Politics in the UK is an old boys game, with the same rich white men deciding the future for millions. I have very little hopes for politics here. Brexit, and the categorically false claims that won voters in 2016, has divided the country. It is so depressing.

(I’m not saying politics in the US is much better at the moment. But right now, the state of politics in the UK makes me not want to live here.)

The UK economy has tanked. A lot of British people like to avoid confrontation and refuse to believe that the economy has been in a steady decline since the Brexit vote in 2016. But there’s no way around it: the economy in the UK is in very real serious danger. The UK is nearly in a recession and Brexit hasn’t even happened (yet?).

Basic everyday items have jumped in price. I used to be able to buy a block of butter in the grocery store for £1.00. Now it’s £1.50. Milk used to be £1. Now it’s £1.10. The pound has fallen an unbelievable amount since June 2016. As I still have a credit card and student loans in US dollars, this means I am spending more and more of my income (pounds) to pay these bills in dollars. The exchange rate when I lived in Nottingham was consistently about £1 = $1.65. Now I’m lucky if it’s £1 = $1.25. This is a very real and tangible way to see that the economy is bad. The pound is falling, and this has made my life here much more expensive and very difficult.

Denigrating foreigners yet squeezing profits out of them. Perhaps the ugliest part of my life in England is that I feel like I am a second-class citizen, and I think I will always feel this way. Simply put, I feel that I am not good enough here—and I am not good enough because I’m not British. The systems that immigrants are entrenched in, particularly around visas, prove this time and time again. I do not feel like the government or the Home Office see me as a person. They see me either as one more number they need to get rid of, or one more cash cow to squeeze money from.

The UK consistently denigrates foreigners as unworthy, yet uses us to increase their profits. The Home Office make up to 800% profit on some visa applications. Indefinite Leave to Remain cost £155 in 2003. Today, in 2019, it costs £2,389. The UK denied legal immigrants healthcare, deported some of them, and 11 people have died as a result of the Windrush scandal. The Home Office issued a forcible deportation order to a woman in a coma. They recently rejected the visa of an NHS doctor who has lived in the UK for 18 years based on a minor administrative discrepancy, when there is currently a shortage of 10,000 doctors. Private companies have made millions in appointment fees for visas by refusing to release free appointments. These are not the actions of a government that sees foreigners as people. These are the actions of a government that does not like foreigners and sees us solely as either a way to decrease their numbers, or to get money.

I’ve written at length about the process of applying for and renewing visas in the UK. I don’t feel like I will ever feel safe here. I don’t think I will ever not be scared of something happening that will mean I can no longer live with Adam. Every day of my life here, I have that thought in the back of my mind, “This country does not want me here. And they can take my life with my husband away whenever they want.” I don’t believe that will ever go away. Maybe if/when I have Indefinite Leave to Remain? But thanks to Windrush, I don’t feel that I will ever be that secure here.

It is exhausting. It is draining. And the stress involved with visas and administrative procedures is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I think because there is nothing I can do to change this, that it weighs on me more than the rest of the difficult things. The treatment of foreigners is bad, it is ugly, and I believe it is so inexplicably wrong.

The Takeaway

Living in another country will always come with ups and downs. There will always be good things and bad things. I love so many different things about my life in England. There are also lots of things that I don’t love. There are aspects that make my life so much more incredibly difficult than the life of the average Brit.

It is easy as a blogger to talk only about the good things. But that’s not real life—so I will always be here to share the good with the bad. The beauty with the ugly reality. England has changed in the last three years and I have changed too. My relationship with this country will constantly be in flux. It will forever be changing. And when things get tough, when the bad and the ugly are daunting, I have those good things to hold close to my heart.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last three years! I would not be here without it. And thank you to each and every person for reading this post and (hopefully) discovering a different perspective of life in England. I appreciate it so much.

Have you ever lived in another country? What things did you like and dislike? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

You might like my other posts on living abroad:

15 Harsh Truths About Living In England

What I’ve Learned About British Culture After 2 Years Living In England

5 Years Since Nottingham: Reflections On My Study Abroad

What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved Abroad

13 Tips For Surviving Life Abroad

The Stuff No One Talks About When You Go Abroad: Birth Control, Student Loans, And More

The Complete Guide To Applying To Renew My UK Spouse Visa

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