Returning To The UK

Although I'm not going to write here about the actual details on this weekend, I am going to share the experience of going back to the Motherland after spending 6 weeks living here in Prague.

So I got off the plane and it was warm. Whaaaat? I then entered Manchester airport and was welcomed very warmly and Britishly with a 25 minute queue. Welcome to Britain.

My friend picked me up at the gate, and when we went outside, I'm not going to lie, but I had no idea which way the traffic was supposed to go. In the UK we drive on the left, on the continent (and most of the world), you drive on the right. It had taken me about three weeks to get used to looking the other way in Prague, and even so I'd look both ways just to make sure I was looking the right way. So imagine my confusion when I had to start looking the other way. Again, I just looked both ways to make sure.

When you live in a foreign country, you also get used to not understanding a single thing that is going on around you, so you end up living happily in your own little world. So obviously, when you hear someone speaking English your ears are immediately picks up on it. This happened to me, in England, I'd be walking down the street and my ears would be hearing English being spoken and I'd then think "Oh! English speakers!" and then my logical thinking would follow with "of course its English, you're in England." That took around 24 hours to get used to.

Normality. I walked into College where I have studied for the past two years, and it was all so normal. And nothing had changed. But at the same time everything had changed. This is difficult to put into words, but I happily went back into my own habits and sat on a sofa in the refectory and chatted happily to those who walked past. I mean, who wouldn't? I looked around and it was as if I had never been away. It was all so familiar. And normal. I mean, this was my normal, right?

It's also difficult returning to somewhere after being away, where life has gone on without you. I went to the college Halloween party. Despite everyone being dressed up and me not having a single clue who anyone was, I felt like a total outsider. It was as if I shouldn't really have been there. Did I belong there? Technically I should. I studied there for two years. I am a registered student there. I have my friends there. But yet, I didn't really belong there.

I think for me, the strangest and hardest part of going back to the UK was the constant questioning of what is normal? College and being around my friends felt so easy, it was as if I had never been away. But yet, landing back in Prague, and hearing Czech being spoken, and getting off my local metro station and walking back to my flat, It felt so normal and familiar. Prague is my norm now. This is where I call home.

But what if I never again feel at home in the UK?