In the summer of 1970, I and some 30 young bright students were awarded 5-year scholarships to the study in the UK having achieved top marks at the Iraqi Baccalaureate examinations. Of course I had mixed emotions about such a bold move, for on the one hand there was trepidation to have to leave home and family at the tender age of 17, on the other hand there was a great sense of anticipation as what the future holds studying in a country that was until recently the greatest empire the world has seen.
On 28 October 1970 we landed at Heathrow airport. We stayed a couple of nights at a London hotel, and then every 5 or 6 of us were sent to different colleges to do A-level studies. I ended up at Dudley Technical College in the West Midlands.
My first impressions of the UK then were rather negative. It was the middle of autumn, it was cold, dark and dreary, while Baghdad tended to be rather nice in the autumn with mild temperatures and bright days. Then there was the food. Meat then –and there was so much of it- was almost always deep fried while vegetables were plain boiled. Food was just bland and without imagination. However, it was in the evening that I had the most depressing feeling, for the town was dead barring a few pubs. The Baghdad that I have just left comes alive in the evening with streets buzzing with people shopping, eating, drinking and generally having a good time.
Matters came to a head around our first Christmas. We had high expectations that it would be great fun expecting it to be like our equivalent Eid which normally was a hive of people socialising and merry-making. It turned out for us to be so very boring, there was not much to do as it was (and still to a degree is), English family time with not much else happening. Our day was saved when my then kind landlord invited me and all my friends to join his family for a lovely and our first UK home-cooked dinner.
You can tell that it was a challenging time trying to adjust to a totally different life style, entirely on your own. But like most young men we soon discovered wine and women!