On Homesickness

[agincourtgirl]

It seems I only come back to LJ when I am in crisis; I wrote thispost this morning as I have had enough time and experience in London to recognize how out of place I feel most of the time, even though I have lived here for several years now. Just now I got a form rejection email from Oxfam, a place I have been a volunteer at for nearly 5 years -

Comments

[goose_entity]

homesickness is a tricky thing :-/

I hope it will help, in some small measure, if I tell you the problem with you in London is London. It *is* a hard and unfriendly place, intensely cliqueish, and the locals are intensely provincial in their outlook. I hated working there for 7 months, and would never voluntarily live there again.

Are there any clubs or societies for your interests? SF fan clubs, chess, anything like that?

[belle_marmotte]

Hi, I read your other entry too, but thought I'd post here rather than in your personal journal

[agincourtgirl]

London isn't the place I first got to know in 1988 when I visited for nearly a month; it's not even how it was when I got engaged here in 2006! And it is a difficult place to make friends. The Midwest sounds a lot more like home to me and ironically I can feel for the Londoner who feels she is stuck out there and probably hates the long winters, too.

I could volunteer at the library I suppose, I have no idea - I never see any volunteers there, really. I have been at the Oxfam I'm volunteering at now for two years and have learned all I can learn and am restless for something new - something beyond books.

I've never been to the Lake District but I'd suspect it would be like that, I wonder what areas of the UK are friendly? I've been to Glasgow a few times and like it, is there anywhere else?

[austengirl]

I definitely felt 'who will want to hire me?' when applying for jobs and not getting anywhere and it can be very difficult to see past that. Do you want/need a paying job? Are you able to cast the net more widely in terms of job applications? And I know at least one other friend did not have a good experience working for Oxfam, so I don't think it's just you.

Can you consider leaving London or are really important things keeping you there?

[agincourtgirl]

I do need a paying job - I would love to cast my net more widely in looking for work as the Oxfam route seems to be something of a dead end. (As it turns out, the Islington job wasn't a possibility for me as the other applicants were already managing bookshops; and I'm sure these people are also applying for the others open now as well.)

What did your friend do? I am interested to know others' experiences in Oxfam!

The important thing keeping me in London is that my husband is here, but he is strongly thinking of moving elsewhere - just where I don't know, but outside of London, for sure...

[austengirl]

I believe he managed or had another responsible role in an Oxfam shop (whether it was a bookstore or clothing shop, I don't know). He'd been my manager at another company and he is a lovely chap so I don't know where the problems lay

[agincourtgirl]

I have applied to bookstores but have yet to get an interview - both at Foyles and Waterstones. There are other places that I can apply to but (Daunt Books, mainly) I haven't yet. I've been working with books exclusively for two years and am feeling a bit burnt out by being in retail; I'd love to work in a library, but I'm not sure how to get started there.

My husband is working - it's been about 2 1/2 years since his mini-stroke and he's fine, though working only four days a week. His health is steady, thank goodness.

Since my husband is Scottish he's partial to moving up to Glasgow, he's from there originally (though he grew up in Uddingston and Bothwell).

[thekumquat]

For some reason, charities and charity shops are really popular places to apply to for work, despite usually having crap nepotistic HR and not being great to work for. I'd take your retail experience from it and look elsewhere. Good luck.

[agincourtgirl]

The last time I was at an Oxfam interview it was with the area manager (expected) and an HR and I didn't know what to make of that. The recent jobs I've applied for have all had applicants within the system who were already Oxfam employees, and in such a small company (relatively speaking) I don't know how I could work my way up experience wise. I have been at my current Oxfam for two years now and feel like a clockwatcher now, and not part of anything...