Scattered Strawberry Summer

This post is somewhat prompted by recent Euro parliament elections. There was a lot of talk about UKIP in the media before elections and I had a very pleasant encounter with a UKIP supporter too.

A large percentage of the British population can’t stand foreigners. It’s all over the media and sometimes the way you’re treated changes as soon as they  spot your foreign accent. Last year before UK had to open the borders to Romania and Bulgaria every single day BBC breakfast and news  were talking about the upcoming  influx of immigrants. It seemed there was a report on it every single day. I'm afraid it felt rather xenophobic and it was unpleasant to watch the whole Romanian bashing on TV every day for a few weeks.

I don't get involved in  about immigration arguments, but sometimes I'd really like to suggest people to watch BBC documentary "The Day Immigrants Left" and consider the fact that: Immigrants to the UK in the last decade contributed £25 billion - more in tax than they received in benefits - and were less likely to claim handouts or live in social housing than people already living in Britain, a report has found.
 source
But there is also  a bit of double think- British are proud of their multicultural society and want to be known as a very tolerant country yet they want to close their borders and keep foreigners out.

Fortunately, most people I encounter are very nice and do not show xenophobic views, I love living in UK and I now consider it my home.

To end this post on a more positive note, I include some immigrant related funny and/or insightful British problems from reddit:

Two women in my toddler playgroup who live entirely on benefits and are not seeking work were complaining loudly about immigrants coming over and being "first in line for jobs."

My dad just complained about immigrants. We're immigrants.

My uncle constantly complains about immigrants, yet has plans to permanently move to Spain

I felt compelled to politely nod along to the car mechanic moaning about immigrants, despite being a Swedish immigrant getting my Volvo serviced.

According to numerous Facebook posts, illegal immigrants get put up in the Grosvenor Hotel and bathe in champagne, but if a British person loses their job, they are executed with a single bullet to the back of the head and have to pay for their own bullet. 

My aunt immigrated to Spain. She still complains about immigrants in the UK taking benefits and not integrating with the local culture.

Man in front of me in a queue was talking so vehemently about the exams, contributions and value immigrants should have to show before they 'earn' a British passport I'm beginning to feel like an underachiever for getting mine simply from being born

I always enjoy coffee in Spain & Portugal, much more than form any coffee shops in UK (except one in Edinburgh, that had really good coffee, if I remembered the name, I would leave some good feedback for them). It is so cheap yet so nice and I never knew how they manage  to do it without espresso machine. Well, it seems they use
Amazon, I use prime and got it delivered today, I will report my results!

       me and my lovely Jess at Edinburgh Castle last week.

      A selfie at the hostel in Santo Domingo
    Beautiful sunset but it's pretty cold, I miss warm evenings in Spain. We ended up at Italian restaurant, had a snack and cup of tea (already had dinner!).  I had lovely time with them.

  Everyone at the wedding kept telling me that we look like sisters.  When we used to work together, people would often mix us up, but I don't think we're thaaat similar. What do you think?

  We did some sightseeing in the little time that we had, it's such a beautiful city, me and Marta are planning to come here for a weekend to fully explore this city.

   We spent some time exploring the streets around Plaza Mayor looking for food. It's not easy for vegetarians in Spain. We ended up eating at Subway, how lame, I know!


After siesta, we had dinner at Italian restaurant and then had walked to Palacio Real. The sunset, buildings, the warm temperature made it  very atmospheric.
   We spent another hour or two having wine at Plaza de San Miguel, just chatting away and enjoying ourselves and let me tell you, there is just something about having a glass of wine in a good company on a warm Sunday night without having to feel rushed or thinking about work.  It is the life. I could live there. Just giving me an opportunity.

It might have been only 4 days in Spain, but it feels like a lot of things happened.

   Hello!

I'm back from the sunny Spain, I enjoyed my long weekend there very much. I have so many pictures to go through, I hope to share some of them with you, but it will take a bit longer than usual as I have many upcoming things. I'm working in London tomorrow, we have a big work thing in Brighton the day after and I'm going to Edinburgh this weekend and only coming back Tuesday evening.

                  Just to rub it in, I'm going to be in Madrid tomorrow and it's going to be hot there! What a nice change from a gloomy British weather we're having right now.

My SO has been listening to this song non-stop the whole week. It grew on me too.

It has an interesting story, which I wasn't aware of: "In the Pines", also known as "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", is a traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s, and is believed to be Southern Appalachian in origin. The identity of the song's author is unknown, but it has been recorded by many artists in numerous genres. <...> Like numerous other folk songs, "In the Pines" was passed on from one generation and locale to the next by word of mouth. 
source

For my trip to Spain, I bought DK Eyewitness Pocket Map and Guide: Madrid. We going to be there for a very short time, but I hope to see a thing or two. I like DK Eyewitness guides, I have a small collection of them, I have used other guides but I didn't like their format as much as DK Eyewitness. I bought this one on Amazon, thank god for amazon prime or otherwise I would have to rely on print outs. I also could go to a bookshop, but I have no time and it's usually much more expensive.

I also bought a used copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I have read it but I would like to read it a few times and I saw a used copy under £3 with prime delivery.

Speaking of books, I'm sure you have noticed I have posted about my project 52 lately, well the things with my time away and sickness I got very behind my schedule I decided to drop it. I will be  aiming to read more still, but I need a different system.

I bought a couple of H&M dresses online, I couldn't find them in the shop when I was in Brighton, so that was my only option.
I would love to say to you that I love them, but I haven't received them yet and it's been a week since I placed the order. I don't think I will be ordering anything again unless they change their delivery times to more acceptable 2-3 days.

I was planning to take them both to Spain, but estimated delivery for the white dress is 12th May and I'm not sure what happened to the blue dress, it was dispatched on 30th April. Not good enough H&M, not good enough.

Being an immigrant is quite interesting. You don't fit neither in your adopted nor your home country. You experience cultural differences everyday and often you're viewed as a bit weird because you do things a bit differently.

I will share my own experience which is obviously very subjective, influence by my own cultural background and it might be a very different experience from that of other immigrants.

My first topic is tea.  British have a reputation of being a bit obsessed about tea. Lithuanians do like tea too, you can find so many varieties, though a lot of British people would probably insist to call  some of  them infusions rather than tea. But we Lithuanians just called all of them tea. The weirdest thing British people do is adding milk to their tea. I had tea with milk willingly just once, I thought I'd try, see what's the fuss is about.  It was awful. You can't really taste tea. It tastes what I imagine water  squeezed from dirty dish cloth would taste. That is an abomination. I had tea with milk a few times because even though people ask you how do you take it, they'd still add milk. I just try drinking and never mentioning it again. I skip drink rounds  at work because I don't want to drink it. Speaking of drink rounds, what's up with that? It would be so much easier if everyone's just got a drink for themselves or otherwise you end up doing drinks for 6 people.

What British have perfected is cream tea. I'll be honest, the first time I heard of it, I though it was  is literally tea with cream. I thought if they drink tea with milk, putting cream is just as crazy and equally plausible. I do not remember when I discovered the actual meaning of cream tea, but embarrassingly it wasn't that long ago. I do enjoy it now very much.