The little things

When you've been living outside your own country for a while you start to take for granted the little things that, at first, marked your new place of residence as Other. It is only when you return to or entertain guests from your homeland that these items again acquire a sense of strangeness. Having left the UK two and a half years ago to move to Belgium I am now attuned to reading in three languages and looking the 'wrong' way when I cross the road. But with an impending trip to London it struck me this evening how bizarre the concept of chlorophyll-flavoured chewing gum (one of the most popular flavours here) is to a British person. In the UK, the same flavour would be called something like fresh mint and chlorophyll would sound as right a name as moss or bark.