Sounds from my street:
- Young dog locked on balcony, weeping loudly at his masters to get in. At least twice a week.
- Different young dog barking at people on the street for no reason. Seems to have stopped.
- People of subsaharan African origin, loudly talking to people at balconies. Applies to all ages.
- Young people of African origin (including Maghreb), loudly talking to each other. Usually from 2pm to 2am.
- Vans that collect garbage and clean the street, and which happen to be extremely noisy. Around 5am and 5pm.
- The crazy lady that yells incomprehensible things in English to herself while quickly strolling down. Once a week.
- The music from other flats: church organ, AC/DC (once each).
Q: Do I resent any of this? After all, I just listed how my neighbours talk to each other and how they treat their pets with the noise of garbage collection; the analogy is clearly racist. The crazy English-speaking (White) lady is, ironically, the odd one out—and half of the irony comes from the fact that I am probably the only one on the street to understand what she yells.
A: I do not know. I come from a quiet, cat-loving, middle class White background, so by flawed ecological inference and habitus, I should instinctively start resenting my neighbours and their pets (or at least the way they treat their pets). My current residence is a daily exercise in class betrayal. I have yet to start complaining about the smell, but I hardly smell anything in my near-constant tobacco fog.
My lack of taste for the countryside and life in rural areas might be gradually vanishing, and I wonder if I will end up hating any of the large cities that I love today.