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( I have just gone through this and feel there should be some sort of disclaimer. You know like people put Warning! SPOILERS! Well I think this post should have a Warning! TANGENTS! I can only hope that what I lack in coherency.... You know the rest.)
As you may or may not know, I currently live in the lovely English city of Leeds, but I am not from there. Here. Anyway. Also, last year I did not live in Leeds, but the also quite lovely French city of Nantes. So I have come back to Leeds and have fallen hopeless back in love with it, in short, I feel like I have come home. I have a theory about why this might be, which I call The Duckling Theory.
Allow me to explain. I have moved around a lot. When I describe my parents as nomads but without the camels I am not kidding, by the time I was 5 we were on house number 5 and continent number 2. Apart from the first move from South Africa for political reasons, and knowing my parents probably because they felt like it, all these moves have been basically just on a whim. This, as you can imagine, did not go down all that well with Little Lal when given as a reason for having to leave her friends and her house and be The New Girl at school again. I made new friends and now realise that it was a pretty amazing experience, but I have been left with a frankly bizarre accent and a sense of not belonging. Everywhere I have lived in my life I was dragged to, mostly kicking and screaming all the way, and none of the places feel like home. But Leeds, I went round the country looking at universities, and I chose Leeds, it was mine. Therefore, like a duckling looks at the first thing it sees and thinks 'mother!', I look at Leeds, the first place I chose, and think 'mother city!' When people say "Where are you from?" I have an answer. That may not sound particularily exciting, but to me having a hometown is amazing. I can only hope this made sense (and that The Duckling Theory becomes a widespread, academic term).
I love Leeds for lots of other reasons too. For a start pretty much the entire student population is remarkably well dressed. I spent the summer on my Isle, where most people's idea of high fashion is designer sportsware, so I makes me happy to see lots of people being both stylish and individual. With a few notable exceptions. *gets on soapbox*
People of Leeds, nay, of the world. Can we all agree that this skinny jeans thing has gone on far too long and collectively move on? Please. They are NOT flattering on most people, I'm including boys in this as well. If you are too thin they make you look weird and unwell with massive feet, if you are even a little bit curvy they make you look huge. There are many cuts of jeans out there, ones to suit everyone. Be original, diversify!
Also, shorts with tights makes me feel quite violent. But for the most part, everyone just looks cool, beause Leeds is a damn cool place.
I love Leeds even though today the weather went from for-October-almost-tropical sunshine to End-Of-The-World rain in a matter of 15 minutes. Hey, no one's perfect, and love is acceptance of flaws right?! It also gave me an oppurtunity to indulge in one of my favourite sports, umbrella watching. There are some amazing umbrellas out there that give me lustful and covertous thoughts. I only found out recently where the word umbrella comes from (the latin for shade, like ombre, which means shadow in French.) In a rare example of the French language being logical they call an umbrella un parapluie - for the rain. And weirdly in English we use their two other words like like this parasol - for the sun and parachute - for the fall (totally my favourite), but not parapluie. English fails at logic.
I love Leeds because I love my uni. It has the best Student Union, which is both a massive central building and an organisation. The building has shops and facilities and the organisation runs literally hundreds of societies and also helps students with any problem. I love my departments, who are filled with crazy but cool and enthusiastic professors. I love the uni library, the Brotherton. If you've ever seen the film The Mummy the library in that is our library. It's the closest I will ever get to Hogwarts...
Today I also realised I love Leeds because it contains people I love, but also hundreds of thousands of people I don't know. I walk along and look at people and that other bit of my brain, the bit where all the crazy is stored, wonders who they are and what their story is. They could be anyone. They could share my interests. They could be someone whose story I have read on lj, whose opinion I've agreed with or who said they liked my Havemercy fic. They could be one of my favourite online authors. Or not. I love that. Before I lived here I lived on The Isle of Man (haven't heard of it? Don't worry, no one has. It's a tiny country in between England and Ireland, part of the British Isle but NOT the U.K ) and it is about as far away from that as possible. I know everyone, and everyone knows me. I should say that I am the worst representative of the IoM ever. I tend to dwell on its bad points, the dullness, the narrow mindedness, the isolation, and not point out, for example, that it is remarkably pretty. Seriously, google it, it couldn't be more picturesque if it tried. But I can't make up stories for people I see in the street, because I know them already.
So if my last post was an ode to fandom, this is an ode to Leeds, to finding somewhere where you feel you belong, which is a lot more difficult than it is made out to be. It is a long and crazy loved up ramble, but I hope you've got something out of it, even if it is just finding out where the Isle of Man is...
As you may or may not know, I currently live in the lovely English city of Leeds, but I am not from there. Here. Anyway. Also, last year I did not live in Leeds, but the also quite lovely French city of Nantes. So I have come back to Leeds and have fallen hopeless back in love with it, in short, I feel like I have come home. I have a theory about why this might be, which I call The Duckling Theory.
Allow me to explain. I have moved around a lot. When I describe my parents as nomads but without the camels I am not kidding, by the time I was 5 we were on house number 5 and continent number 2. Apart from the first move from South Africa for political reasons, and knowing my parents probably because they felt like it, all these moves have been basically just on a whim. This, as you can imagine, did not go down all that well with Little Lal when given as a reason for having to leave her friends and her house and be The New Girl at school again. I made new friends and now realise that it was a pretty amazing experience, but I have been left with a frankly bizarre accent and a sense of not belonging. Everywhere I have lived in my life I was dragged to, mostly kicking and screaming all the way, and none of the places feel like home. But Leeds, I went round the country looking at universities, and I chose Leeds, it was mine. Therefore, like a duckling looks at the first thing it sees and thinks 'mother!', I look at Leeds, the first place I chose, and think 'mother city!' When people say "Where are you from?" I have an answer. That may not sound particularily exciting, but to me having a hometown is amazing. I can only hope this made sense (and that The Duckling Theory becomes a widespread, academic term).
I love Leeds for lots of other reasons too. For a start pretty much the entire student population is remarkably well dressed. I spent the summer on my Isle, where most people's idea of high fashion is designer sportsware, so I makes me happy to see lots of people being both stylish and individual. With a few notable exceptions. *gets on soapbox*
People of Leeds, nay, of the world. Can we all agree that this skinny jeans thing has gone on far too long and collectively move on? Please. They are NOT flattering on most people, I'm including boys in this as well. If you are too thin they make you look weird and unwell with massive feet, if you are even a little bit curvy they make you look huge. There are many cuts of jeans out there, ones to suit everyone. Be original, diversify!
Also, shorts with tights makes me feel quite violent. But for the most part, everyone just looks cool, beause Leeds is a damn cool place.
I love Leeds even though today the weather went from for-October-almost-tropical sunshine to End-Of-The-World rain in a matter of 15 minutes. Hey, no one's perfect, and love is acceptance of flaws right?! It also gave me an oppurtunity to indulge in one of my favourite sports, umbrella watching. There are some amazing umbrellas out there that give me lustful and covertous thoughts. I only found out recently where the word umbrella comes from (the latin for shade, like ombre, which means shadow in French.) In a rare example of the French language being logical they call an umbrella un parapluie - for the rain. And weirdly in English we use their two other words like like this parasol - for the sun and parachute - for the fall (totally my favourite), but not parapluie. English fails at logic.
I love Leeds because I love my uni. It has the best Student Union, which is both a massive central building and an organisation. The building has shops and facilities and the organisation runs literally hundreds of societies and also helps students with any problem. I love my departments, who are filled with crazy but cool and enthusiastic professors. I love the uni library, the Brotherton. If you've ever seen the film The Mummy the library in that is our library. It's the closest I will ever get to Hogwarts...
Today I also realised I love Leeds because it contains people I love, but also hundreds of thousands of people I don't know. I walk along and look at people and that other bit of my brain, the bit where all the crazy is stored, wonders who they are and what their story is. They could be anyone. They could share my interests. They could be someone whose story I have read on lj, whose opinion I've agreed with or who said they liked my Havemercy fic. They could be one of my favourite online authors. Or not. I love that. Before I lived here I lived on The Isle of Man (haven't heard of it? Don't worry, no one has. It's a tiny country in between England and Ireland, part of the British Isle but NOT the U.K ) and it is about as far away from that as possible. I know everyone, and everyone knows me. I should say that I am the worst representative of the IoM ever. I tend to dwell on its bad points, the dullness, the narrow mindedness, the isolation, and not point out, for example, that it is remarkably pretty. Seriously, google it, it couldn't be more picturesque if it tried. But I can't make up stories for people I see in the street, because I know them already.
So if my last post was an ode to fandom, this is an ode to Leeds, to finding somewhere where you feel you belong, which is a lot more difficult than it is made out to be. It is a long and crazy loved up ramble, but I hope you've got something out of it, even if it is just finding out where the Isle of Man is...
