I spent the week rushing hither and thither, attending interviews, parties and meetings, seeing people I haven't seen in almost a year and generally forging new and renewing connections. It's been a busy week.
It's very peculiar, the things you come to appreciate when you're away for a bit - and some are very small things, too, linked across countries.
I've come to notice that there really is a difference between the amounts of please and thank you people say in shops, and that there really is a difference in whether or not to queue, and whether to close the curtains.
But not all differences are substantial. I had chats with multiple people in which the fact came up that I'd managed to bring my bicycle across the sea, and the main question was - can you even cycle there?
Well, yes. Leicester's magnificently bicycle-friendly. We've bike lanes and most motorists are very courteous - more courteous than Dutch motorists, in fact - although most seem to have some trouble anticipating velocity. I can park it just about anywhere, in the centre we've lots of dedicated bicycle spots. In that sense, it is not much different from any moderately large Dutch city, except for the fact that my bike stands out a bit because it has a luggage carrier and is clearly very old according to non-Dutch standards - if I calculate correctly, I must've had it for, oh, eleven years now. The biggest difference, however, is that Leicester's not flat.
I used to yearn for stroopwafels and paprika crisps, but I've found replacements - flamed grilled steak crisps taste similar enough, and there are so many other biscuits to try. Besides, I don't eat those on a regular basis anyway.
I do still miss bread, because English supermarket bread is generally fairly dense and heavy, and some of the brown breads lean towards tasting like rye bread, which I've never liked. But I've found that the cheapest white bread more or less takes on the flavour of whatever I put in my sandwich and isn't nearly as sweet as white bread in the Netherlands, so I'm satisfied there too.
And there are things that are so much better here. I love the cleanliness and comfort of the Greater Anglia and CrossCountry trains to respectively London and Stansted, and that you can reserve a seat when pre-booking a ticket. Pre-packaged sandwiches (with bacon!). The fact that real bookshops (still) exist here on a relatively large scale (related is the fact that they're all English-language books - I generally dislike Dutch literature, it's generally pretentious pseudo-existentialist nonsense). Queueing. Please and thank you. The way some elderly ladies and gentlemen dress. The fact that left-handed side roads feel strangely calming to my left-handed brain (or that might just be me, any other lefties willing to weigh in on that?). The fact that British English has cutesy words like 'lorry' and 'wheely bin' for things that are generally loud and/or filthy. For that matter, British English and its many, many accents. The BBC. The fact that if you have to go to some institution of national importance, it's bound to be in London instead of all over the place (Netherlands, not so much - could be in Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht - or, in the stupid case of DUO, Groningen). For that matter, London. The fact that paper money still has people on it (and cool people, too - Charles Darwin and, in a bit, Winston Churchill). The fact that pound coins are shaped funny. Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Sherlock (Holmes), Narnia, His Dark Materials, Lord of the Rings, Shakespeare. The Beatles (and generally most of the stuff done by Paul McCartney), The Rolling Stones, The Who.
I often like to complain about things, such as that I don't think Leicester is very pretty (as it isn't), and that the weather's foul (as it is), etc.. But it's not all bad. In fact, if I'd get the chance to stay, I would, without a doubt, stay.
There's a place where a lot of my friends live. And there's my room in Leicester. And having been away for a week, after having lived here for eight months, they're both home. Funny, that.
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