Advertisement
Published: October 6th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Its been 18 months since we first boarded that jet plane in search of unknown adventures half a world away. Setting out we had no idea how long we would be away from home, nor what to expect from life on the flip side. Undoubtedly, we've travelled to some amazing places and experienced many wonderful things we could never have dreamt of before setting off on this journey. In many ways our appetite for travel has only intensified as we've met others on a similar path who have shared their stories of the remarkable places that they've been and seen. Through these exchanges, we've often felt compelled to add to our list of 'to-do' on the advice of fellow travellers. At such times, the world seems to get bigger and smaller in the same instant. The more one sees, the more it seems there is to see.
We have been blessed to catch up with some of our dearest friends and loved ones in the UK and of course, during our visit back home earlier in the year. This has helped us both to 'stay the course' of our journey-anticipating catch-ups with our special ones has helped us deal with the incredible homesickness we've often felt as we've longed for the comfort of what is familiar, or to be present for an important family event or even just for a beer or coffee date with a close friend. I have certainly wished for magic ruby slippers to click my heels together and find my way back home on more than one occasion.
Despite all the emotional ups and downs of living in a foreign country, the day to day life is not altogether different from life back home. We both work in Leeds city now and have based ourselves in Clarence Dock-an up and coming area that houses Leeds' Royal Armouries Museum, a casino, and several great restaurants. There are now a string of retailers opening up shop on the waterfront which has typically been home only to riverboats and amateur fishermen. It is here we share a flat with Alex, a German scientist who works with Adam and who has become a very good friend to us both in the UK.
The routine of everyday very much mirrors our life in Australia-we drag ourselves out of bed each weekday, head off to work, the gym and then home again. Adam typically spends his evenings catching up on all the day's sports news while I find myself surfing the net, reading or catching up this travel blog! The weekends we spend in Leeds involve lots of tea dates out together, usually a meal at one of our favourite restaurants and much time spent sipping wine. Occasionally baking is on the agenda, as is shopping, but most often, Adam is trying to talk me into a few hours at a pub to watch the football premiership. I often comply, but if one isn't careful, the whole weekend could pass as you watch game after game, each interspersed with the latest headlines from the premiership clubs pertaining to game woes, player injuries and fan anger at club management! If the weather is good, I love to spend a few hours laying in the park soaking up the sun for however long it's on offer (which often isn't very long at all!) We've also developed a strong affinity for weekend papers and much of each weekend morning is spent perusing the headlines, followed by a stroll to the local farmers market to source the latest fruit and veg. All in all then, its a portrait of the typical mundane domesticity of most married couples!
The difference between the life we have here, and the life we once knew at home, becomes most evident when we venture further afield and explore unchartered terrain. Certainly, every adventure we've had in the UK or abroad, has left us feeling drunk on discovery and hungrey for more! However, within Leeds itself, one doesn't have to look far to find a multitude of differences lurking just below the surface of everyday life that both colour and dampen our experience of being here. Living in a foreign land, we've slowly learnt that all that we once took for granted or knew 'to be so' back home, is no longer so. The incongruencies between what we once assumed to be true, and what is actually real here, are endlessly surprising-sometimes pleasing and sometimes unsettling. Despite England once being our motherland, there are many nuances that define and magnify the difference between the Australian experience of the world, and the experience of those who share our ancestry. Its often humbling to see how much we share in common, but also unsettling at times to realise how much the political, social and organisational aspects of this country have created a world view so very different from my own. Many times since we moved here, just as we've begun to feel that we've developed a true sense of the people and the place in which we've based ourselves, something will be said or done that completely shocks or surprises us. At these moments, even that which is on our very doorstep seems completely alien to us. This constant process of discovery and the reconfiguring of our view of our world here, keeps a degree of novelty in the routines of everyday. One day I expect the novelty will wear off and we'll once again long to return to the place that will always be 'home' in our hearts. But until then, we travel on...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0621s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb