sEttLinG dOwN

Almost everyone I talk to now a days ask me whether I have settled down here in the UK. It made me think, what actually is settling down? How do you know that you are settled?
Here is what I did with myself to aid my settling down, week by week...

1st week: Still jet lagged, a little euphoric....it is actually a wonder that we have at all landed up in the UK, considering the visa problems we had. Settle the house, unpack, start filling up cupboards, closets...remember the stuff that was forgotten or could not be bought due to insufficient luggage allowance...cruse the airlines company five times a day..get international calling card....call home....get connected to internet....eat out and plastic spoons, paper plates and ketchup from the take aways start piling up...digest that fact that reaching civilization from our home involves a 20 minute trudge...

2nd week: Stop eating burgers and chips.....cannot have them anymore....yeh Bangali wants bhaat...so go grocery....google maps is the new best friend...go round and round the city center to realize through aching feet that the city center is actually pretty small...it was just that we kept going round in circles....

3rd week: Go laundry adventure...phew dont have the necessary coins...man last time i.e. my first laundry  time in Canada I faced the same problem (then I was smarter, landed up to do laundry without soap, that is another story for another day)...berate myself for not learning from previous experience...excursions to city center continues...internet usage drastically increases...

4th week: New hobby....getting cheap deals in everything...haunt Sainsbury, Primark, M&S and every other store offering 10% student discount...got myself membership in the public library....now have stacks of MBs to read...

5th week: Diwali knocking....homesickness sets in....just want my mummy and my daddy....and want to go home.....nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.... missing India big, big, big time....

6th week: Bored to my skull....left alone to my own devices...encouraged by husband started tentative job search...

7th week: Start applications, browse job sites....fill up endless forms in these sites...get depressed....eat  eat ice cream...spend inordinately long time on Facebook...get depressed agsin...sulk...get pampered by husband...Halloween comes...do not like dressing up like dracula or whatever...

8th week: Couple of applications I made, came back with rejections...down in dumps...ah my job back home, where are you? my heart bleeds for you...cheer up cousels a mashi who has lived here for 7/8 years...you have to make 50 to 70 applications to get a job...you made how many....gulp two...gulp three...oh ok....so 67 more....straight back to depression...on my way pick up a large bowl of ice cream...

This is what life is...do'nt know whether I am settled...but yes I know it is cheaper to buy vegetables in Covered Market than in Sainsbury...M&S makes great croissant....know the shops on the High Street...going to watch fireworks in November is a badddddd idea...I would do diwali any day...mail comes in cute little Royal Mail trucks...finally discovered a convenient bus to the city center...how to apply for NI no...where the nearest surgery is (doctor's chambers)........

Next month I would be more Oxford wise I guess. Hopefully will get a job and hopefully before long...then one day can counsel whoever comes to UK fresh from desh about the ways and rules...life sure goes on settling and unsettling us :)