I've just had a really enjoyable holiday in Sri Lanka. At times it seemed like hard graft as we trudged kilometres or puffed and panted up steps but it will give me stories to bore anyone who will listen for years to come.
Teaching English has made me very aware of my native tongue. I am more and more amazed by the power of the English language. In Sri Lanka, in Qatar, people addressed me in English and I spoke to them in English. Sometimes there was some confusion but the truth is that I have more difficulty speaking Spanish in Spain than I did speaking English in Sri Lanka. You'd have to ask the people I spoke to if it were the same for them!
I haven't done the research but my impression is that Sri Lanka isn't incredibly poor. We certainly weren't besieged by outstretched hands or made to squirm at our wealth amongst bodies disfigured with disease or hunger. On the other hand it was pretty obvious that we were from a different, richer, more caring and better organised world. I also spent a few hours in Qatar where I saw more Maseratis, Porsches and Hummers than I generally see in a year in Spain. I think I spotted a Maybach too though I may be wrong.
I left Spain behind for a couple of weeks, I didn't speak or hear a word of Spanish. Traffic drove on the "British" side of the road, the "International" food had nothing to do with my everyday diet. The same is true of the UK of course but there I have my native culture to fall back on. The last holiday that Maggie and I took before was when we were away in Egypt. That time we travelled with Spaniards and used boats and hotels that were adapted to catering to Spanish likes and dislikes. So it was the first time I'd been cast adrift for years.
I was glad to get home. Barajas airport was re-assuring. The cold of the winter in Madrid was as it should be. The hustle and bustle of the bars was as it should be. As I pushed five euros into the Metro ticket machine I had a firm grasp of how much I was spending not based on mathematical calculations but on price comparisons. When I asked for a coffee I got what I expected. When I caught my train I didn't fret that I was on the wrong train going in the wrong direction.
Maggie and I came to Spain for positive reasons not because we were trying to escape bad things in the UK. It's true that leaving things behind like British traffic was no hardship but I always tell Spaniards, who think the reason we Brits are here is the better weather, that for me the draw was the day to day anarchism - the strange daily timetable, sharing food at mealtimes, not thinking that work is the most important thing in life and the incredible parking habits.
Getting off that plane after a couple of weeks away I was reminded of that positive choice and it made me grin from ear to ear.
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