21 things I don't like about the UK

Hello again, everyone!

We all know that moving to another country is never an easy task, nor is it for the faint-hearted. A different culture, gastronomy, timings, traditions, customs, habits, language... For this reason, in today's blog post I am going to tell you about the 21 things that I don't like about the United Kingdom. Tension. Getting there and adjusting to some things is sometimes almost impossible and you end up just sick and tired of it all. I hope that this will be useful, and so that when you go to the UK, it won't be a huge shock to you. Obviously, everything that I'm going to say are my own impressions and opinions. Of course, this doesn't mean that the entire United Kingdom is the same, I am generalising and I am sure that many of these things depend on the area.

Let's go!

1. Everything shuts early. Why?

   I mean, I know that things shut at 7pm, like they do in Spain, but at 5pm? It makes it impossible to balance your university life with everything else. What a nightmare! When am I supposed to do my errands? It's crazy to me, I don't know. In Aberystwyth, thank God (? ) for my beloved little supermarket called Texto, it shuts at 11pm - incredible.



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2. The weather. Surprising?

   It's not a myth. It rains. Many times it is the kind of rain that doesn't seem like it's that wet, but you arrive where you're going absolutely drenched with a raindrop dripping from the end of your nose. It rains four times in two days. True story. Buy an umbrella, although the truth is, my dear readers, that British people (I say this so that there's no distinction between English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish) don't use them. The rain is part of their identity. Furthermore, Wales is one of the areas where it rains the most throughout the entire United Kingdom. I will never understand those who say that they love the cold and rain. Honestly, they're from another planet.



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3. Situation: your friend goes to the supermarket to buy alcohol. You accompany your friend to buy alcohol, but you're not buying or drinking any of the alcohol. Your friend gets the alcohol. Your friend gives the alcohol to the cashier. The cashier asks your friend for their ID. She says that your friend's ID is fine because she's 18 or over. What's the problem? YOU ALSO NEED YOUR ID BECAUSE YOU'RE WITH HER, OR YOU WON'T BE ALLOWED. Honestly, what a headache, especially when you have to go all the way back to your halls because, oops!, you didn't bring it with you.
4. There are no blinds.

   I have already spoken about this in another post, but it's the truth. Why don't blinds exist in the UK? Spanish people wake up with the sun! We are human, the light hurts our eyes and a lot of us don't have classes on Friday and so we don't want to get up. When I was in Aberystwyth, in the residence specifically, it occurred to me to make a MacGyver plan: every night I would stick the curtains to the window and hold them at each end and on each side with a book ('The Odyssey', specifically). A classic novel never benefited humanity so much. Anyway, it was the same and most of the time I woke up the same way, but it was always better to wake up at 7am than at 6am. My friend Paula used an eye mask to sleep. Well, take this as a little bit of advice for today - buy one. One day I decided to buy one, but they were all from Frozen (it was everywhere) and it cost £10, in other words, a lot. I passed.



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5. I would also like to take this opportunity to say that many windows can only be opened a quarter of the way.

   Do you understand? They are VELUX roll windows, the ones that are usually placed on roofs, but normal windows... and I do not know, you cannot open them completely. It's horrible. And you'll wonder, why do you want to open the windows? Well, you see, there was one week when the laundry room was broken, the dryer, specifically, so I had no choice but to scatter my clothes around my room to dry and open the window, so:



6. It's 4:30pm and it's nighttime.

   Yeah, 4:30 and even before. Actually, in winter it's about five or six at night, but when the clocks go back, at four o'clock it's already the dark and fearful night. In fact, this particular photo is of one day when I left to go on a run at 5:15 in the afternoon, and you can see, never again. I don't want to imagine what time it gets dark in countries further north, what horror, I'm not surprised that the party starts at nine o'clock in the evening. My deepest condolences to all of you.



7. Pounds!

   Why! Honestly, why. Why can't we use the bloody euro. For God's sake.



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8. Each house has it's own rubbish bin.

   Let's see, well, reading this at first it may sound like a good and useful idea, but not really. Many little houses (mythical cute English houses) have the bin at the entrance of their house, outside. I don't know exactly how the waste collection system works. The problem is that many houses accumulate more and more rubbish. And when the rubbish bin is full, they start to put more rubbish by the sides and they make small piles. In other words, the same thing happens in Spain when there is a strike, but there's one in each home. And I don't know, the truth is that it is quite unpleasant to pass these houses and to see and smell their rubbish. It's true that it doesn't happen in all of them, of course, but it does happen in quite a few.

9. The plugs.

   Really, sometimes I get the feeling that everything in the UK is in reverse. The plugs are different, so as your second important tip of the day: you will have to buy an adapter. There are people who don't buy one and who force the Spanish plugs in and well, sometimes it works, but I don't recommend it. It is better for you to buy it in Spain, as they are usually sold in hardware stores and they are cheap, one cost me €2. 50. Well, I only needed an adapter because I took turns charging my laptop and my mobile (and sometimes charged my mobile through the laptop), but that really depends on how many gadgets you have. Also, if you are going to be in a flat or residence and you are going to bring your kitchen appliances from Spain, like a sandwich maker or a mixer (I know it's not essential, but there are people who take them), you'll need more than one adapter. And in this section I have to mention something that I DO like: the button, or switch or whatever you want to call it that is used to turn off the power. I think it's a good idea; it's useful, although sometimes you don't realise it's off (when you still haven't gotten used to it) and you leave your phone charging and at the end, when you realise but it's already too late and it hasn't even charged 1%, but that's a matter of getting used to it.



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10. Why can't you say hello with two kisses?! WHY?

    Those moments when you're on your first few days of Erasmus, getting to know pure Welsh, you introduce yourselves, you go to give them two kisses and you stop halfway because their "what the hell are you doing? " face makes you understand the situation perfectly. What a happy day when you meet a Spaniard (or a Frenchman, some even give you three if they're from the south) and you can give two kisses without being looked at as if you were a weirdo.

11. The driving is quite reckless.

    Starting with they drive the opposite way to us, and it seems like zebra crossings do not exist (actually they do, but cars ignore these) and of course, where does one cross without danger of being run over?

12. I know this is not just custom in the UK, because I have seen several girls from my residence do it. You see, to wash the dishes they fill the sink up to the top with water and they put the plug in.

    (I have no idea if this is done in Spain, but I have never seen it). So, what they do is wash all the dishes, cutlery and glasses in that water. At first it's cool, but when they get to the last plate the water has a brownish color and I wonder, wouldn't it be better to let the damn water run and wash the dishes in a normal way? Normal for me, of course.



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13. I don't like fish and chips.

    I only tried it once and, to my surprise, the fish turned out to be cod. The cod is already salty by itself, they have to spoon (literally, I've seen it) salt onto the chips, why... But, well, I have to say that they are cheap for the amount they usually give you. If you like them, you're in luck. Poor Englishmen, everything that has to do with gastronomy... it's horrible.



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14. Lots of foods come in cans only.

    When they come in cans, I mean those cans full of vegetables, chickpeas or pasta for example. In Spain they exist as well, I know, but in Spain there are more options, and you can find NORMAL vegetables that are almost fresh from the garden. In the United Kingdom there are lots of foods that come canned and often there's not an alternative and... I don't know, it's horrible.

15. The fruit is not very good for how expensive it is.

    Blueberries are very expensive, the avocados are always green and the apples go off really quickly. In Aberystwyth there were a couple of small fruit shops, once I bought the fruit there and it was very rich and very good, the bad thing is that, in the end, you never have it on hand and end up buying it in the typical supermarkets.

16. Serrano ham and olive oil are expensive.

    And when I say expensive, I mean VERY expensive. In capital letters. Yeah, any person can spend a very long time without eating Serrano ham, but olive oil? Everyone needs oil. Right now I couldn't make an estimate, but there's no comparison with Spain. In fact, when many foreigners come to Spain, they gobsmacked at how cheap olive oil is here. Thank God. In fact, once a colleague asked her mother to send her a package of products that were impossible to find here or that were very expensive, obviously she sent her a large bottle of olive oil, it's essential! In addition to this, for me personally - the sunflower oil... Bye, bye.



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17. I don't know... Is it me, or in Aberystwyth, specifically, are there too many slugs on the floor?
18. I also don't like foods being too spicy.

    I hate spicy-ness. In lots of supermarkets, there are mythical plastic containers where you have a meal ready to eat, such as pasta, salad or fruit. I don't know how, but it has happened to me several times when I have bought something pre-packaged because I was in a hurry and I have ended up throwing it away because it was too spicy. I don't know what sauce it is, but a lot of meals have it, especially sandwiches. If anyone knows, please put the name on it. I'll take care of extinguishing it from the face of the earth.

19. Neurofen is too expensive.
20. People say "sorry" too much.

    And don't tell me they're polite, because one thing is to say "sorry" when you run into someone on the London tube or London street, but sometimes it seems like they need to say it 100 times a day in order to live. I don't know, for me it's often unnecessary, and that doesn't mean I'm being rude. I don't live in a big city, but the truth is that I can't imagine the citizens of Madrid in the metro saying "excuse me" every two or three seconds. I don't know. Get some rest, Englishmen. And even so, the rest of Europe has them as cold citizens. It's nonsense.

21. And finally, the only attractive Englishman is David Beckham. Handsome Englishmen do not exist: it's their fathers.



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That's it for today's post! I hope I have not offended anyone, sometimes my tone is humorous and sometimes exaggerated... Rereading it, it seems like I hate UK in general, but I don't! Tomorrow I hope to upload another post but with the things I like about it. Everything will be much nicer, you'll end up having butterflies and rainbows coming out of your mouth when you talk about UK, you'll see... What don't you like about UK? Comment, share, whatever you want. See you tomorrow!

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