Media laden…
Hello everyone,
I am back, sorry I haven’t posted in a while.
I have been in London on my exchange for a while now — this Friday marks exactly 6 weeks.
Unfortunately, I don’t remember all the details for all 6 weeks anymore, so I will just share my general thoughts and feelings in this post. I am planning to write at least once a week from now on, so everything stays fresher in my mind.
I hope you enjoy!
I arrived here on Friday, the 19th of September. I took the airplane to London Heathrow Airport and took an Uber from there to Loring Hall, my accommodation.
Thankfully, I live on the Goldsmiths University campus, so I can basically roll out of bed into the lecture hall. 😊
The first week I just focused on settling in and getting to know my fellow students and the people living at my accommodation. I arrived right before intro week started, so there were a lot of activities to do. Goldsmiths University had its intro week starting from the 22nd of September, and classes started on the 29th of September.
By Wednesday the 24th, I was more comfortable and felt ready for some more adventure.
I heard from people that London is a big city and that I had to be more careful with my safety than in Amsterdam.
However, I didn’t really get that impression in my area, so I decided to go exploring on my own, experience the vibe, and talk to people.
I decided to go to Ministry of Sound — they had a party that evening.
To start with the conclusion: people were really nice, I had a great time. I left Loring Hall and asked someone for help to get to the bus stop. When I got off at my bus stop, I asked someone else to help me to Ministry of Sound.
All of that went well.
When I got there, I went to the back of the line to get in. I just asked the person in front of me if I could walk with them into Ministry of Sound. I was really lucky — the group was really nice, and I just spent the night with them and took an Uber home.
Since then, I have been out multiple times and to different events on my own, all without an issue.
It just affirmed my worldview, which I am really happy about and grateful for.
I personally think that what you give to the world is also what you get back. In practice, if you’re nice to the people around you and give positive energy to your surroundings, you tend to get the same back.
Of course, that’s not always the case, but it has been most of the time for me.
Of course, I haven’t lived everywhere, but I hope and also believe this tends to be true no matter which country you live in.
At least, this is the way I want to live my life — trusting in my surroundings, being there for the people around me, and striving to leave the world better than I found it.
I can’t speak for the entire world, but at least my experiences so far in London have affirmed this way of thinking.
I’ve been to quite a few places on my own here, and things have always worked out so far. Sometimes I got lucky and found someone the first time I asked, and sometimes I had to ask multiple people before finding someone.
But it always worked out in the end, one way or another.
I even got a lift from the police this one time, lol.
Someone helped me to the wrong bus stop. I was supposed to be at New Cross Bus Garage, but they brought me to New Cross Station, which is about a 10-minute walk from where I was supposed to be.
So I was looking around to ask someone new to help me get to the stop I was supposed to go to when a police car stopped in front of me. They asked me if I was alright and if they could help with anything.
I told them that I was alright and was just guided to the wrong stop and looking around for someone new to ask to help me to the correct place.
After talking to dispatch for a bit, they offered to drive me to the correct stop. They told me that they were almost at the end of their shift anyway, so it was no problem.
And that’s how I ended up getting a police taxi to the bus stop. 😊
I always figured that if I ever ended up in a police vehicle it would be because I was at a protest or something, but this is a much nicer reason, haha.
I also wanted to share this to counter some of the negativity surrounding people in public office lately. When you see the police in the news, it is often because of structural discrimination, racism, or other horrible stuff in the force. Unfortunately, this tends to happen quite often, and it goes against everything people in public office are supposed to stand for.
The punishment for such behaviour is also way too light in my view, and leadership always underestimates the size and scope of the problem. That’s why it persists so much. I saw the documentary by the BBC as well about all the horrible things happening at Charing Cross Station for years, which just makes you angry, sad, and causes you to lose faith in public institutions.
But it is important to remember that for every person like that, there are officers helping and saving others — and that this often doesn’t make it to the news.
The same applies in my case. It isn’t in the job description of the police to drive lost travellers to their correct public transport stop, even if they have a disability. They went beyond what the job description told them they had to do and simply acted according to what they felt was right. That’s always something to look up to and aspire to.
It’s important to remember that officers are simply humans, for better and for worse.
I won’t say their names for privacy reasons, but I do want to thank them — not only for helping me to the right stop (I could have figured that one out myself as well), but mainly because they helped me regain at least some of the faith I had lost in public institutions and people holding public office.
Let’s talk about the accessibility of London vs Amsterdam for a bit.
First, public transport. The broadcast system in London buses works a lot better than in Amsterdam. The bus is supposed to have a broadcast system that announces each bus stop so you know what the current stop is and when you need to get off. However, in Amsterdam they often simply don’t work. It’s 50/50 if the broadcast system functions. In London, however, it is the exception if the broadcast system is broken. I’ve had it happen a few times, but it almost always just works, which is really nice. In the Netherlands, I just got into the habit of always sitting in front and always telling the driver where I have to get off, just in case. I still do that here, but it’s a lot less necessary than in Amsterdam.
I’ve noticed that public transport is just a lot more accessible in general here than in Amsterdam.
Another huge difference is assistance at stations. Here, they also have assistance in the metro — that’s completely absent in the Netherlands. Not only that, you can just enter the station and walk up to people working there to ask for assistance, not only in the train but also in the metro.
That stands in huge contrast to the Netherlands. As I said, in the metros you just don’t have assistance at all. In the trains you do, but you have to book it an hour before the train is scheduled to leave. Not only that, but your assistance is only valid for one train. Let’s say you book it for the train leaving at 16:30 — if you miss that one and take the train leaving at 16:45, your assistance is gone and you have to book it again for an hour later.
To the credit of people working at NS in the Netherlands, they often do help you if you just walk up to them and ask. However, officially they aren’t supposed to do it. You’re also often told that they’re making an exception for you this time, and if you want to travel by train next time you have to book it beforehand.
As a result, I’ve just gotten into the habit of not using assistance at all in the Netherlands. I just ask my fellow travellers, which is a lot easier and gives more flexibility and freedom. It’s a lot better than relying on facilities that simply don’t work properly.
There are also more facilities in general. If I were living here or studying here more long term, I could get a disability card and travel throughout London for free. Unfortunately, I can’t now because of Brexit…
I can also get a disability membership at the swimming pool and swim for free.
They also have a carer system here so that someone can help you with day-to-day things. Though I personally don’t use it, they can help you with travelling and other things that are more difficult because of your disability.
Unlike the Netherlands, a lot of places also have accessible toilets — not only public places but also cafés, restaurants, and clubs.
Things are also a lot more organized at my university when it comes to accessibility. The library helps convert articles to make them accessible, there is a room in the library that has computers with screen reader software, and there is a disability office.
In general, I would just say that things are a lot better organized here. There is an actual plan, and that is just lacking quite often in the Netherlands — you just have to figure it out as you go.
In the Netherlands, we just talk and talk and talk about accessibility but don’t act. There are no commitments; everyone is just doing whatever and trying to put any responsibility on other parties.
There are also downsides to the system here, however. I would say that things are better organized here, but being well organized has its drawbacks.
For example, people with a physical disability have what they call a “protected status” here. As a result, if I wanted to research accessibility in London and interview someone with a physical disability, I would have to fill in a huge amount of extra paperwork — way more than if they didn’t have protected status. Even if someone gives consent to be interviewed, even though I am part of the group myself, this would also apply to me. They do that to avoid any liability should they be sued for something — to cover themselves. This makes it really hard for people with a disability doing research to do anything related to their lived experience in practice.
Not only that, if you go into the city for a course, you have to fill in something called a risk assessment form.
There are a lot of questions you have to answer, even if they don’t really apply to you. They had a question on how I deal with uneven terrain, for example. Come on — I live in Amsterdam! If you look up the definition of uneven terrain, you should see a picture of the Amsterdam city centre next to it. I had a hard time stopping myself from giving a really sarcastic answer. Something like: “Well, it’s really complicated. I just lift my foot up really, really high and put it back down.” Unfortunately, if I really did that, I wouldn’t be able to participate in the course, so I had to say that I always had a buddy with me. This is also because they want to cover themselves legally.
In short, it’s very degrading. Since everything is so clearly defined and you’re in such a corner, there’s a big drop in your autonomy.
So it’s a trade-off. I think the result is worth the hassle, but I also think someone should really sue the unis here for how they treat people with so-called protected status. Especially the part where you’re not allowed to interview someone with a physical disability, even if they give consent, without filling in a whole bunch of paperwork — that’s insane. If I lived here longer, I probably would do it myself. I already see myself getting so fed up with being treated like I am not able to take responsibility for myself and needing to be “protected” that I would kick up a huge fuss.
Anyways, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed reading!
I am happy I finally got back into writing — thank you all so much for sticking with me during my absence!
Yours,
Ihab
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