As you know, I recently moved to England.The journey was pretty standard. I made friends with an actress from Calgary as we waited for our flight in the airport. On the plane I sat next to some really friendly people my age: a dairy farmer who had never left his town before, and a girl who works at a ski shop in Calgary. Both were English. The farmer remarked to us how large the engine of the plane was compared to the houses down below. We got a great view of the Northern Lights as we flew over Greenland. I watched most of 17 Again, which ended up being not actually all that unfunny.
After spending some time in Meltham with my aunt and uncle and grandparents I have finally arrived at my permanent living destination. From what I've seen of Leeds, it seems like a very attractive city, with about the same level of traffic congestion as Vancouver and roughly the same climate. So really, there's nothing much different here. The only catch is that I'm going to have to learn how to speak Goblin.
Many of the locals here are only able to communicate through a series of heated, rapid, gummy mumblings that I've come to realise is the Northern equivalent of English. Through body language and polite noises of feigned comprehension, I can convince many of them that I have in fact understood what they've said to me. In time, I hope to be accepted as one of their own.
My house is great. It's narrow, but there are four storeys, and we each get a floor to ourselves. I have a huge room in the basement and I have my own bathroom. I tested the shower; it wasn't even on full blast when the propulsive force of the showerhead sprayed everything in the bathroom.
In a nutshell, nothing interesting has happened so far. If anything funny happens I'll be sure to write about it. Once the teaching starts, I have a feeling I'll have more material. Here are some photos of Meltham, Leeds, and my house:
