Decisions, decisions...

PART 1

So, my boyfriend then, has decided to come to the UK to earn some money for us. We were then 20 years old...
It was suppose to be only for 3 to 6 months. But, I couldn't let him go on his own... I just couldn't!
So, decision was made - we're going together!
I have at the time been studying Low & Administration at one of Poland's most respected universities. Well, some things were more important and I gave up.
We've set a date, shortly after Christmas and so we've left on the 6th January 2001.
As it was then there were no" no frill" flights in Poland and we had to take a coach. It was the worst travel ever. 26 hours long, sitting on your butt. But we've made it.
(I'll write about going through Border Control separately)
We've arrived in Victoria Coach Station early afternoon on the 7th January. It was cold, windy and miserable.
We had no accommodation and no clue how to find it. My English was fairly basic although I had privet tutor for about 6 years. It's just so different in the class room then in real life. My boyfriend didn't speak any.
We were scared to death but believed that we could do it.
Oh, and one more thing. One of our friends Dad was in London and supposedly going to help us.
We were waiting for him at Victoria for couple of hours but he never showed up. We've finally managed to get hold of him and he told us to take a mini van to a hostel somewhere in Kensal Green. We did get a shared room there, it was suppose to be for 6 people. Luckily we were there alone. First night on the English soil.... far away from home with no clue what to do next. Relying on friend's Dad, it was so scary!!!
He came to see us next morning. Explained to us how to go search for work and where to find cheap accommodation. The, we've started panicking! HE WAS SUPPOSE TO FIND WORK FOR US!!!
He's given us some documents and told us where to find this agency that was employing Eastern Europeans.
It was based in West Kensington, right outside station. At the time, we didn't know how to use underground. He took us to the station and showed us the map. It looked fairly easy.
We've bought daily travel cards and went to West Kensington.
It felt so weird travelling underground and there was such a mixture of different people. We were so not use to it. Poland was 99.99 percent white and probably still is, well maybe 99% now.
We took Bakerloo Line and had to change at Paddington and then Earl's Court. But how to do it? How to recognise which train goes in the right direction? Hmmm, we've asked fellow passengers and some friendly person did explain to us that at every platform you have a direction and map of stops displayed. Ok, that's easy enough.
We've finally arrived at West Kensington, shared a cigarette and went in. Agency was on the first floor. You had to take a stairs and they've looked like they've seen better days.
We've entered a room and were a bit disappointed but then again what were we expecting?

SEE PART 2