A few weeks back, Adrian was invited to speak at Cambridge, and I tagged along for the weekend. I left our house in Brussels at 5:15pm on Friday, and I was walking down the streets of Cambridge by 8:35pm.

Our hosts for this trip were Grant and Michelle, Kiwis that we met in Australia who are now post-docing in Cambridge. They fed us, entertained us, and even put us up for two nights. They gave us a tour of the old and mysterious colleges, took us to a bakery that sold cupcakes, and showed us the Mathematical Bridge. I hope this won’t be the last trip that we make to visit this charming and picturesque town.

Being in England is so strange. In Brussels, when eavesdropping on fellow travellers I struggle to pick out a few common words – manger (to eat), travailler (to work), mes amis (my friends) – and see if I can piece together a vague understanding of the context. Over there, it is almost like I can read minds – as I can understand everything that people say to each other, even if spoken quickly or quietly. The announcements, the fine print, the instructions, all of these communications are instantly comprehensible to me. In Belgium, it takes me ten minutes to translate a text message, but over there, I can absorb a page of text in a moment. I can express myself quickly and easily. My linguistic burden dissolves whenever I travel north through the chunnel.

We were even able to pop down to London to go see a broadway play, because over there, most of the theatre is conducted in English. We went to see Avenue Q, a play about muppets on the wrong side of the tracks. I laughed, I gasped, and I cried as I watched the little monster puppets struggle with the challenges of life. Afterwards we had dinner at one of the many delicious curry houses on Brick Lane. We haven’t found any good Indian restaurants in Brussels yet, so it was a great chance to fill up on some cheap and delicious naan and palak paneer.

We ventured into the supermarket to pick up the little things that we can’t find easily in Brussels – crumpets, hot cross buns, korma and tikka masala and tandoori sauces, crème eggs and other Cadbury’s chocolate, and gravy granules.

Grant and Michelle have found that one delight of living in Cambridge is walking to the next town for a pub lunch, and then walking back. They took us for a picturesque walk past Midsummer Common and Jesus Green to The Plough in Coton. The food there was amazing – for dessert I had a toffee bread and butter pudding that just melted in my mouth. Not only that, our hosts cooked us a hot breakfast of pancakes or waffles every morning. Another reason to return soon.