Moving to Europe

My journey started when my family had decided to move our living to
Europe, specifically in England. I’m Rodrigo Perez, a 17 years
mexican boy and that’s my story about my first contact with the
European society. I’m in 11th grade in high school, the basic subjects
of study being foreign languages. I’m passionate about studying
English, French and German. Everything related to other societies
and cultures fascinates me.I could say that my passion is the desire to
know. As I said before, my life was about to change when my parents
decided to move permanently to England, in Southampton.

My father,
who works in it, found a new job more profitable and beneficial for
the whole family. I didn’t know very well what an European society
meant. I had about a week until I said goodbye to my life in the
Mexican city of Tijuana. Everything familiar to me would disappear
from my daily life. In that week my ecstasy was at its peak, in an
unconscious way, wanting more and more to discover the new world
in the UK. The flight would last about 10 hours, during which time I
kept my physical and mental energy to face the new challenges.

Southampton looked completely different from my town, both in
architecture and nature. The climate was completely different
and I had to change my way of dressing, since it was colder
and it rained almost every day. I somehow got used to the
weather and the new surroundings but the school was my worst
nightmare. They were having people from different cultures and
complexions but not Mexicans. Everybody considered me
different and was asking me bizzare questions and I even felt
they were kind of afraid of me. It was difficult to find friends and
even talk to someone during lunchtime. And then something
happened.

One day as I was walking to school I noticed dark smoke
coming out of the school building. Everyone outside seemed
panicked and was running chaotically and screaming for help.
When I approached the burning building I heard that Mat, a very
famous football player from my class, was stuck in the gym. The

fire brigade hadn’t arrived yet so I rushed down towards the
gym without realizing how hot and stuffy there was. I could
hardly breathe. The flames were everywhere but somewhere in
the distant fire, I could hear Mat calling for help. I took my jacket
off and wrapped my face and headed towards the screaming.

I
don’t remember much but my next memory is me and Mat
sitting in an ambulance and the whole school gathered in front
of us and applauding me. This was the day when everything
changed and I was accepted by my classmates and my life
came back to normal in Europe.

This short story was created by Hristiyan, Martin and Borislav from Bulgaria and Sabin from Romania for the project ERA+ Integrated learning challenges