The Exeter project.
1.
It's been almost three months since I arrived in Exeter. I was with a group of support workers, sent by an agency to help the NHS teams. We were all foreigners in the UK, three Romanians, one Greek and one bulgarian. We were more Eastern Europeans when we started the training but the others were sent to other places.
It was the first time I've came to work in the UK. I did visit a couple of times and I had friends already settled here, and I was accustomed with the language and the culture.
It was also the first time I've worked in this domain. I've spent my past years in Romania doing all sort of things, just to get by, but I didn't find any calling or profession that would make me advance in one direction or another.
As a kid I wanted to know everything and do everything. I had a passion for many arts and sciences, but I didn't have the ambition to actually do them all.
And after 10 years of drifting away from my initial plans and dreams, I decided to start a new life in the UK. Not the most original idea, 500000 Romanians beat me to it. I came just before the doors would close, just before Brexit.
You can't imagine how desperate the brits are in finding carers for their elderly and disabled. The job is easy, as I'll soon find out, but the pay only attracts immigrants.
In our case, we got a fairly good deal from the Agency: free accommodation, new work car, a phone and 1600quid after taxes. Although the accommodation was less than expected and we had to argue with the Agency and the NHS several times for several things, we finally got used to it. It's a nice feeling not to pay rent, and to spend that money on whatever you want.
