Email from a fellow blogger

When I checked my inbox this afternoon, the following email was waiting for me:

Dear GB,

I’m the author of the blog A-Philosophical (Here: in my world). We exchanged links to each other’s blogs last year. As you may remember I am Uruguayan-born, with a Spanish-background, and I relocated to Spain in 2007 from Latin America. I have been a LGTBQ Advocate in Uruguay and then USA since my ex is American, and did advocacy in NYC "Human Rights Campaign" (HRC).

Moved to Valencia had little jobs and too few work opportunities. I stayed there for one and a half years, it was around that time that I found your blog and started to follow it.

I recently relocated from Valencia to London. It has been difficult finding jobs. But still, much better-off of a situation than in Valencia where there's plenty of discrimination to foreigners. I feel fine.

Now I am working in a corporate café (20 hours a week) and started last week another part time of 10 hours a week doing cleanings in public buildings early in the morning.

During all this time I have been trying to get involved with LGTBQ Charities like: Stonewall, The Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, GMHF, PACE, LGBT History Month, and many many others.

Still, contacted all, met in person many of them but there seems there's no chance to have a work placement with any of them.

My morale now is very low. I came to London because it is a hub for charities and world wide human rights organizations. I am very passionate about Human Rights. The thing now, is that I am making minimum wage in the two jobs I have. It is not enough to survive in London, especially because housing is so very expensive.

My question is: would I enjoy a better quality of life if I were to move to another British city like Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, etc?

I met an advocate last week and as we were speaking about my possibilities, we thought of the idea of asking the corporate café I work for (and I enjoy their work methodology) whether they could relocate within the company to these cities.

Do you think it would be a possibility?

The advocate told me that in order to volunteer and work opportunities I would have it much better outside London, far more!

What could you tell me?

I am very happy to be in London, I love it but I feel I am not having quality of life at all.

Let me know please. Thanks.

Sincerely

The honest answer to his question about moving out of London is that I'm not sure, so I thought that I'd post his email here to see whether anyone else has got any ideas. The good thing about the other major cities in the UK is that they're definitely cheaper to live in than London. In terms of gay life, Manchester is famous for Canal Street, and I'm sure that the other big cities all have their own gay scenes too. But I'm not sure what kind of job opportunities there'll be for a guy like him.

In terms of staying in London, rather than working in low-paid minimum wage jobs I'd have thought that he could do much better if he gets jobs that relate to being a Spanish speaker. For example, he could teach Spanish, alternatively he could probably do translations from English into Spanish, and perhaps he could even work in a call centre dealing with Spanish speakers. After a similar experience with low paid jobs in London, I know that the Mexican guy that I met early last year eventually found himself jobs relating to speaking Spanish, and managed to earn much more as a result.

Anyway, do any other readers have any good ideas for this blogger?