KL noise

When settling in a new place (especially in another country), one has to adapt (at least) a bit to one’s hosting country and its way of life. Among the changes, some are obvious: I mentioned about food in a previous post. Switching driving side is another obvious change you have to comply with, etc…

But after a while, when those new habits which were real brain surgery at first begin to become part of your everyday life, you can start focusing on those more subtle differences. Namely the noises. Yes, the noises. Places often have a very typical noise. Most of the time it’s barely noticeable. It’s just part of the environment. As I said, your mind is too busy to notice them at first, but thereafter you can identify them.

For instance when I moved in Brest, one of the biggest harbor in France, I got woken up every foggy morning (so basically each other day in Brittany…) by the foghorn… When I moved in Muncie, a small countryside town in Indiana, USA, it took me a while to identify this weird noise haunting the streets: Muncie is a major crossroads for train freight. And one surprising thing about US: as per federal law, trains are supposed to honk repeatedly while approaching the least crossroad… Thus this noise days and nights…

It took me while but I finally identified the typical noise for KL: having a mosque nearby my house, I can sometime ear the chant of the muezzin’s preach…