Following the previous post (but not only...), I wanted to (i) share again some observations etc. about English people, (ii) tell you more about my trip to Europe. This time I am lazy to distinguish between the two topics or keep them apart - so I won't. :-)

These days, it rains a lot in Mcr. Which brings funny consequences.

For example, when it rains, instability of the internet triples. I tried to skype with people in various European countries during rain, and it was awful every time. Once, download was fine (so I could hear the other side well), but upload was practically non-existent (so when I wanted to say something, skype collapsed). Many times both upload and download went low, and the call sounded like a creaky landline.

Or the trains. The more it rains, the more anarchy there is with the trains.

On the other hand, I would expect the magnitude of the traffic jams to increase sharply when it rains (this is what happens in Prague), but surprisingly this does not happen. The traffic jams obviously follow some complex and sinister pattern which I still need to discover.

English people do not greet each other when they enter a lift. Or when they leave a lift. I find this strange. I was always told to greet people when entering a closed space where there are actually some people, or when leaving such space. Applies to rooms, shops, school classrooms, lifts. Does not apply to trams and buses, but applies to train compartments. And so on. But every morning I just wonder, because when entering or leaving a lift, no one says a word. (Afternoons are the same.)

The little fences which are supposed to block 'wild drinking' on the streets of Manchester were mentioned in one of my previous posts. But now that I've visited Europe (and Germany, of all countries...) again, I realized that the beer in Manchester is not really worth the trouble. First, it is too warm. Second, it has very little gas. Duuuuh! The Germans who sell the beer in Manchester obviously did their homework, and adapted their beer to local taste, but I would prefer if they had not. In Germany, the beer is so much better! And it is actually half the price! (Like, 3 euros for excellent beer compared to 4 quid for that warm, gas-free liquid which looks like beer, oh come on!)

When I came here yesterday, I had to cross Schengen area border. I am not used to that! I am not used to that. I am used to travel across Europe with my ID card only, no worries and no problem at all. But wait... yes, now I live and work in a country which talks about leaving EU all the time (and which issues no ID cards). Ah, screw that.

Btw, ID cards and permanent addresses are two things that you just won't find in the UK. Yes, everyone knows that... but I wonder whether people also realize how funny and silly the address rules are in the UK.

For doing nearly anything, you need a proof of address. To rent a property, to have a credit check done (which is also needed for everything from buying a house to buying a toothbrush), to open a bank account, to buy a cell phone and pay the bills for it, etc. etc., you need a proof of address. Which of course you won't be able to show if you live in a shared place and/or with a private landlord (because many institutions just do not accept letters from the landlords or tenancy agreements) and/or in a place where someone else (like your husband for example) pays the utilities bills. It's a bit like Catch-22 really.

Funny aspect is that every year, you get a letter which invites you to input the names of all people living in your house into electoral register. If you don't, you can go to jail and/or pay an unlimited fine. Wow!

Summarized: you need proof of address for nearly everything, and sometimes it is terribly difficult to get one. But of course, introducing anything loosely related to a permanent address is a big no-no in the UK.

I have also noticed, for the first time in my life, how cheap a country Germany is. :-) This is not a joke, and I am not trying to be disrespectful. I think it is a matter of perspective.

When living in the Czech Republic, one just sees everything through the filter of salaries and prices there. In the Czech Republic, the average monthly salary before tax is ~ 900 € (in local currency it;s 25 000 Kč. I would expect the average in Germany to be something around 3500 € (yes, I know that not everyone lives in Bavaria, but that's reality - in the Czech Republic, not everyone lives in Prague). The prices of things are in correlation with the average monthly income. Consequence? I always considered Germany to be rather expensive for us.

However, now. The exchange rate is roughly 1.5 € for £1, and some things cost little bit more in the UK (in pounds) than they cost in Germany (in euros). Stuff in the UK is expensive (kinda). So I got used to the 'high' prices, and now I am in Germany, and I am like, is this really so? Am I considering Germany to be cheap? What kind of person have I become?

Today, it was raining in Germany (or at least in the city I am in). It probably started during the night, and it continued throughout the day, with more or less the same intensity, and with grey clouds all over the sky. In the morning, I was like, oh this feels like home!

But then I realized just how wrong the rain really is here.

In Manchester, it rains for few hours, and then the clouds go away and we have sunshine, and then it rains again, and so on. So far I have not seen a day which would be like this: heavy grey clouds low above the city and endless rain. This is wrong! :-)

And here comes the most funny thing: right now, I am experiencing some kind of mild identity crisis. I feel like I do not belong anywhere. Cars go on wrong side in the UK as well as in Europe now. When avoiding people, people go to wrong side everywhere. The weather in the UK is ridiculous, but the weather in Europe is not right either. Things that were taken for granted (Germany is expensive for us, we are part of the Schengen area, you can get cheap and good beer everywhere you go, etc.) are no longer true. I miss stuff from Europe in the UK, but when I come here, I suddenly miss some UK stuff. Things seem unfamiliar there, and here as well. I don't like English people adding articles (a, the) everywhere they can in my English texts, but now I do it to other people. And I desperately need to eat sandwiches at least once a day.

I mean, am I the only expat who experiences this, or this is normal and will adjust soon?