Surrounded by Lovely British Accents

I'm in Leicester, England. You know what that means right? I'm half-way (well 9hrs by flight) to Mumbai! I've actually taken the plunge!

I'm pretty relieved. The news director at my old station okayed my time away. He's giving me a bit of time to either find journalism work in India or come back and still have my freelance position. Phew!

Anyhow, there's a lot of Indians in Leicester. If the kids aren't playing 'football' than it's cricket. It kinda feels nice not to be a visible minority here.

I'm noticing a lot of anti-(radical) Islam sentiment here. I went out for dinner with some locals to this Muslim-run restaurant and they deliberately brought a newspaper along with them, it was covered with mugshots of terrorists and a re-cap of 9/11. Each time the waiter passed by, they'd rant about terrorists and how they've ruined everything for the rest of the world (i.e. having to take off your belt at the airport security, not being able to bring bottled water on-board, etc). I see where their views are coming from, but it's unfortunate that innocent Muslims are having to take the slack for what certain extremists from the community have done.

On another note, people are so passionate here about what's going on in the rest of the world. It's even putting me to shame as a journalist. I've gotten a few 'I hate America' comments even though I'm Canadian. Some of the English have ranted about how their country is always the first to fight in wars, yet Americans walk away with all the undeserved glory for coming in once all the dirty work has been done, or so they say.

I walked through Abbey Park yesterday, it was beautiful, massive, and very serene. There's a huge playground for children, a farm area to feed animals, and large ponds for ducks and swans. I wish I had photos to share but my camera broke down on me. I've got so much more to write, I guess this is what happens when blogs aren't updated regularly.

Am off to London by bus, will try to offer more regular updates soon.