Some reflections after the trip to Britain

When we got back I had an email from a fellow-student at the DEFLE, an American who had spent a year in France and who said that during that year she had become French.

I am not able to say that. I leave it to you to decide whether that's a good or a bad thing!

However, it was strange to see how foreign Britain seemed.

It hit us hardest the first weekend. We kept beginning to speak to strangers in French. We said "Bonjour" on entering shops. I stared and nodded at people. It's a wonder we were not arrested! When driving away from Pat's sister's house we started off down the road and went round various corners and junctions in the village - then Pat said "Oh look, there's some horses coming down the wrong side of the road."

"Oh no they're not!" I said, swerving quickly over.

The weirdest thing was at church. Nice church. Nice people. Warm. Welcoming. But nobody even shook my hand. We grinned at each other and nodded enthusiastically. But not even the vicars shook our hands. And it felt very odd indeed. (In fact, when we got to Wales and the folk at Deeside hugged us and the folk in Cardiff shook our hands vigorously it was a great relief!)

I'll put some more reflections on some time. I am getting back to the mortgage forms now. Tomorrow I have to get an insurance quote for the house we are buying, and find out our weights in kilogrammes to finish off the forms.

Comments

papyrus said…
I can relate to most of what you wrote. By the way as for the car thing the rule is never to park on the right hand side of the road in the UK. If you do, you will almost inevitably drive off on on that side. I know!!!
6:58 am
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