"Tenerife is full of British expatriates who have nothing good to say about England. I imagined it to be a frozen, violent, depressing island."
Gisela originally lived in Tenerife but moved to England in 2001 to be with an ill friend. Gisela decided to tell her story as Brits often moan about the UK's bad points, such as the rain. Gisela wants us to realise that this country has many great attributes.
I was living in Tenerife when I got a call from my Brazilian friend Malu who had settled in England. 'Come and visit me!' she said, but, as always, I declined. Tenerife is full of British expatriates who have nothing good to say about England. I imagined it to be a frozen, violent, depressing island. Then one December morning in 2001 I found myself boarding a flight to Manchester. My friend Malu wasn't at the airport to greet me. She'd been ill for some time, and when a phone call came telling me to fly over as soon as possible, I didn't pack my bag with excitement, but with tears in my eyes. Malu had died of a brain tumour the day before. When I got here I found it just as cold and dark as I had imagined. But I decided to stay for a few weeks. Over three years later I'm still here. Why did I stay here? Why do I stay here, so many people ask me, when a lot of English people dream of living in Spain. Well, England is cold, wet, overcrowded, expensive and dangerous. But it is also exciting, friendly, beautiful, tolerant and colourful. I love Earl Grey tea and fish n chips, the countryside, the usually polite motorists! Sadly, Malu never lived long enough to show me England. But I think she would have enjoyed hearing me now, when like her I tell my friends to come over and visit me.
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