Mixing in the melting pot

Imagine the scene; a young Saudi man in a normal late bar in Manchester. Now widen your definition of 'normal' to include transvestites, lesbians kissing (with tongues), and punks. As I said; a normal late bar in Manchester. Now imagine that the Saudi guy is about 21, has never left his country, and has never done more than sniff alcohol.

Result: an absolutely hammered guy who doesn't really know where to look, where to touch or indeed, what the fu** is going on, living a fantastic experience.

The point is, that on a recent work tour of the UK, involving a coach load of unlikely international companions (Algerians, Ukranians, Saudis, Qataris, Bulgarians, Israelis, Romanians, Iranians...) who we were taking to visit language schools, it was fantastic to see all sorts of people mixing, trying new things, experiencing British culture. The poor drunken Saudi is a little unfair example, since the temptation of lesbians and alcohol is clear for someone who comes from a country where the existence of both is pretty much denied and consumption (hmm) of either severely punished!

It was fantastic to see how humans get on. Admitedly the Russians were not open in arms to the two Ukranians, and I heard some rather shocking opinions from many during the week, but to discuss extremist Islamic terrorists with Muslims, to discuss Putin with Russians and Ukranians and to tour Britain while doing all this, is a truely unique experience, that leads you to wonder who it is starting all these wars around the world when people get on so well!

To hear the different opinions on the UK was also incredible; what seems like an entirely normal thing to a Brit is fascinating to others; how a curry in Manchester is the real thing, how many words we have in British English for various types of rain, the collegiate university sytem, the food (and actually most comments were entirely positive!), and even zebra crossings!

We weren't able to count the nationalities or the languages we had between the coach load of us that week, but I'm confident it was over 20 nationalities, and probably double the amount of languages; a little, smiling representation of the world in a green coach on the M25!