Trainee-to-be Hannah Gates on moving to London, the Aldi baked beans she's hoping will see her through the LPC and the ancient Chinese wisdom that's helping her adjust to her new life

Those of us moving from the regions – in my case Manchester – to start London-based Legal Practice Courses (LPCs) are in for a shock: a whole new accent to get used to, a faster speed of life, a different transport system. It's like moving around in the EU – the currency is the same, but you can tell the people have changed. There may as well be a passport control station separating London from the rest of the country.

And if the culture shock isn't enough to worry new graduates moving down South, the cost of living certainly is. Suddenly rents triple, food prices double and the cost of a night out increases beyond mention. By final year, any good undergraduate has found the best value-for-money student spots in their university city and sniffed out any money saving scheme they possibly can. Now we're starting again at zero – no local knowledge in a world where simply existing costs much, much more.

As I prepare to move into my not-so-swish new London home next week, I am starting to dread the traffic-clogged London streets and the prospect of choosing between a night out and a decent meal. I'm keeping myself positive by remembering Leo Tolstoy's belief that "there are no conditions of life to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone about him". I'm hoping that London LPC students are a sufficiently large group to find solace in our own company. If that fails to console, we can always remind ourselves that one fifth of humanity survive on less than $1 a day. While attempting this in London would be torturous – and the societal norms we face are, of course, vastly different to those in the developing world – the comparison can still provide us with the comfortable knowledge that, poor as we feel, we should be at least a little grateful for our Aldi brand baked beans.

One other thought consoles me as I reach the peak of student-poor: the Chinese proverb that "when you have two pennies left, buy a loaf of bread with one and a lily with the other." While we may replace lilies with all kinds of silly impulse buys – my weakness being too many shoes – those little bits of a glamorous life can serve to remind us of where we are heading and how very fortunate we really are. Anyway, however I get by, at least as I start my LPC after three years of legal education I can just about see the finish line in sight.

Hannah Gates has a training contract with a magic circle firm and will start the LPC in September.

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