The United Kingdom had always been a long-held dream of mine. I had wanted to visit England for a long time, and when the opportunity finally arose not only to visit the country but also to live there for a while, I was thrilled. Even though it was during the period of COVID restrictions, I got a visa and was ready for the trip. Many people tried to talk me out of it: “Igor, it’s COVID, they might not let you in,” but I was sure the border was open, and I couldn’t imagine they wouldn’t let me in. One fine day, I packed my things and flew to England.
Upon arrival, I faced a lot of questions at customs. The officers asked, “Do you realize it’s COVID, and there’s a lockdown?” But I was full of enthusiasm and replied, “What COVID? I’ve dreamed of this trip for a long time, saved up money, and now I’ve finally come.” They listened to me carefully and asked where I would be living and how much money I had. Of course, I didn’t mention that I was planning to work remotely, since I arrived as a tourist. In the end, they asked me to show return tickets, which I didn’t have.
I had to urgently buy return tickets, naturally with the option to get a refund. While I was searching for and purchasing them, there was a shift change at customs, and to my surprise, after that, they let me through without any further questions—they didn’t even check the tickets. That’s how I ended up in London.
I rented a room in the city center, and it was important for me to have roommates who could become my friends. That’s basically what happened—the people I lived with became my company for the first while. During the first days, I hardly went outside because strict lockdown rules were in place. If you broke the rules, you could get a £200 fine for the first offense, increasing to £6,400 for repeated violations. But soon, I started going out to the store and noticed that many people weren’t following the rules very strictly—they walked freely in the streets, and enforcement seemed much less strict than I expected.
Although at first I tried to follow all the rules, over time I started going out more often for shopping and exploring the neighborhood. And after a month, when the restrictions were eased, I was already freely walking around London, enjoying its history and atmosphere.
That was how I spent December 2020. Closer to the end of the month, I got a call from EPAM, a company that offered me the prospect of moving to the United States. This offer came after they found out I was living in London. We scheduled an interview, but on the day it was supposed to happen, I got sick—it turned out to be COVID. I spent two weeks in bed, watching all the episodes of the new “Sherlock” series with Benedict Cumberbatch. When I recovered, I got back in touch with EPAM and we had the interview. Fortunately, everything went well and I got the job.
Immediately after that, I informed my manager that I was quitting. At the same time, I reminded him that his interference in my personal life, when he tried to pressure me because of Nadia, was a violation of the Constitution and my right to privacy. It was important to me that Nadia stopped living in her fantasies about me and finally saw reality. It matters to me to be heard, and I wasn’t going to leave that issue unresolved.
After that, one of my flatmates in London also decided to become a programmer. When he found out I was a software developer, he asked me to help him with a test assignment. We solved it together, and it helped him move to the next stage of the interview process. This flatmate had previously worked at Bloomberg, a large international company specializing in financial data, news, and analytics. I was happy to help him.
Another flatmate was a kindergarten teacher from Brazil. We communicated with her and other housemates, which helped me maintain social connections in London.
On one of my last days before leaving, I visited Cambridge. It’s an amazing place with magnificent architecture and history, and I was truly delighted by the trip.
At the beginning of February 2021, I returned to Moscow to wrap up everything at my current job and prepare for the next stage of my life. I was full of motivation and joy, because I had a concrete plan: within a year, I was going to move to the United States and start a new life.
