Some things only make sense after you've left home.

Hello.

I'm Jane.

I've spent much of my life learning how to feel at home in unfamiliar places.

Sometimes that place was a new country.

Sometimes it was a new career.

Sometimes it was simply a conversation in a language that didn't quite belong to me yet.

Over the years I've realised something.

Whenever I don't understand a place, I start paying attention.

I notice the way people queue.
The questions they don't ask.
The shoes people wear on commuter trains.
The sound snow makes in different countries.
The words that exist in one language but disappear in another.

Paying attention has become my way of learning.

This website grew from that habit.

Some pages are practical.

How the UK healthcare system works.
What it's like to study for the ACA.
How to raise a pet here.

Others are quieter.

Thoughts after a film.
A train journey.
A memory from northeastern China.
Things that probably don't matter—
until, somehow, they do.

If there is a common thread running through everything here, it is this:

I like helping unfamiliar things feel familiar.

Whether that's a country.
A language.
A system.
Or simply an idea.

Welcome.

I'm glad you found this place.