Why I Love London

There are many reasons I heart this city, dating back to the mid-'90s, when I spent a summer in Shepherd's Bush playing groupie to a college boyfriend's band. (How things have changed.) But the main reason I really like living here is very similar to why I love New York. As someone who has lived, both as adult and kid, in a number of random places, including suburban Houston, bucolic Southern Holland, eurocratic Brussels, and New York City, London is the kind of place where I just feel at home. No, I'm not from here, but it doesn't really matter. This city is one of the most, if not the most, international in the world, the kind of place where it just might be normal - whatever that means - to be a Chinese-American psychologist mom from Houston who lived in New York for a long time. Via Brussels. I also kind of enjoy the look of revulsion on North Londoners' faces when I say I'm from Texas, which tends to be followed by a sigh of relief when I mention New York.

Here in London, I'm relieved not to have to answer questions like "But where are you really from?" Meaning, you can't possibly be American, because you look so . . . chinoise! "Mais tu n'es pas vraiment américaine. Pas vraiment." In Brussels, I had to answer this question all the time. Even at a party with a bunch of psychologists - people who are meant to be somewhat culturally competent. I know they were all drunk, but still.