I arrived back in the UK today after nearly four months in Chad. There are always adjustments to be made when transitioning from one country to another but within a couple of hours of landing at Newcastle Airport I realised I may have become more Chadian than I imagined.
- I had to remind myself it probably wasn't acceptable to shake the immigration official by the hand and say 'Bonjour, ca va?'
- I picked up a friend's car and drove home. I remembered to drive on the left but had to focus in order to not drive straight onto a roundabout, expecting that the vehicles on the roundabout would give way to me
- I stopped at a shop to pick up some milk and a newspaper and as I got out of the car I instinctively looked around for the group of young girls wanting me to buy their bottles of peanuts
- My shopping came to £2.09 and as I handed over a £10 note I expected that the person serving me would a) give me an exasperated look, b) offer me some small sweets to make my bill up to a round figure, c) ask if I had the 9p and when I said 'no' he would d) hand me £8 change and make a big show of circling the 9p on the receipt to make sure I knew how generous he had been in reducing my bill because he didn't have any change
- When the man serving me gave me a handful of coins and apologised for not having any notes I found myself thanking him profusely and feeling a great sense of achievement that I'd managed to get small change
- I got home and decided to make a cup of tea. I looked around the kitchen for the water filter so I could fill the kettle
- When I washed up my cup I was surprised that there was hot water coming out of the tap
Living in another country is a myriad of small experiences, which added together make somewhere seem like a different world.
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