An analysis

It has been over three weeks that I have been living in London now, and something is missing. I couldn’t really name it, neither was I really fully aware of it, but whilst running along the Thames this evening after work things got somewhat clearer to me. Please don’t get me wrong, I fully enjoy my time here, and I really hope for a permanent placement at the desk I am currently working, so that I can enjoy living in London for the upcoming three years or so, but what is missing is the thrill of living in an entirely different country. Because it is not entirely different. Because it’s a Western, developed world that I live in here. Because the other places I lived do not compare to this world, to the Netherlands or to England. Spoiled Dutch guy who thinks he has seen it all? I wouldn’t say so. Put me in Jakarta or Santiago or Lagos and I would experience comparable or even more stringent adapting processes as when I started my life in India or China, respectively. But London is different from that, and too much of the same compared with home to really, really, feel abroad.

Take language. For the first time I don’t have to use awkward gestures, written symbols, or mimic animal sounds to make myself clear to people around me. I don’t have to dig deep to scramble up some German to complement the three words of Polish I remember, or whistle like a locomotive to make sure the Chinese taxi driver knows I’m heading for the train station. I can understand the people passing by in the street, I can understand fellow grocery-shoppers at Tesco, and I can understand the shopkeeper mumbling the charged amount for my bar of snickers. It made me feel more alien in the Polish Tesco when I had no clue what the people around me were chatting about, and it enhanced the feel of adventure, of a different world. Here people either know I’m Dutch and take me for an expat, or they genuinely think I’m English. Language could not be less of a barrier here, which makes life very easy, but also takes away some of the adventurous vibe, so to say.

Take money (purchasing power). Sure, I cannot use Euros, but for the first time my Euros are actually worth less than the common currency. London is a more expensive place than any place at home, and that is new to me. Where a sliver of my savings money could get me three dinners in India, per week, and withdrawing five Euros from the bankomat in Poland got me through a night of clubbing, here spending Pounds as if they are Euros still makes things feel expensive. It’s different from what I had been used to, and it makes me stand out less.

Cops nor the guy checking your tickets on the train are bribed here, stray dogs are neither cherished (India) nor eaten (China), and unlike in Poland bums here don’t grow metre long beards. London is as developed and rich as towns back home, and I am less intrigued by its dwellers. It’s a magnet for people from all over the world, and one of the cities with most nationalities (after A’dam eh Dana ;)). Spanish, Indians, Pakistani, Italians, Greeks, Bangladeshi, Australians; they all flock here for work or travels, and the city is welcoming all. Which makes you not stand out as a foreigner, not at all. Katowice, having been voted for as the ugliest city of Poland, didn’t attract any tourists, and neither did New Delhi really. Sanmenxia no one has even heard of. So my appearance there was something of a curiosity, while here it’s as common as a Barclays bike in Eastern London. So the many nationalities here make it less special in terms of a foreign experience. And the real English life style is not something to marvel about for months, it’s not that weird to comprehend. Definitely I want to engage more in it, explore the country side, get to know the nation better, but it’s still Europe, and it will never intrigue me as much as cultures in the Far East have intrigued me. And sure, London’s big, it’s really big, but it still has less than half the population of New Delhi. It’s not overpowering.

Take social life. Basically all my evenings are filled with people I like and love, but very few of them I didn’t know in advance and were living here already, I have met at work and are Dutch, or are visiting me. Because of this I am not forced to invest in new friends, to bridge the gap of cultures as I had to do in China, to hang out in hostels just to meet fellow travellers during the weekend. My social life is a continuation of my life pre London and it doesn’t add to the authenticy of it all. Unlike in my other foreign adventures I get visitors, and unlike before I could be back in the Netherlands within two hours. Different.

My mind was full of examples while running but now I ran out of more inspiration and although I know that saving the file, reading it later, improving it, adding to it, and posting it then will enhance the quality, I put it online anyway now. Satisfier, not maximiser, that’s one thing I learnt about myself this year. Soon more, perhaps even better too. Good night.