Well, I'm originally from The Black Country. It's not a racist name, rather, it's the name of an area between the cities of Wolverhampton and Birmingham (making up most of what is known as the West Midlands Conurbation), so called because during the Industrial Revolution it was full of factories and workshops that churned out a lot of smoke, making the sky often appear black. Now, the Black Country is actually a pretty crap place to live. It's full of chavs and scum, and the local facilities are a bunch of crap. One council (sadly, my local council), Sandwell MBC, decided to make the town of West Bromwich a nicer place. So what did they do? Build a new police station? A college (though to be fair they are doing that right now...)? A new community leisure centre, which is what the public wanted? No. They built a massive modern art gallery, despite the fact that no-one in the area is interested in art. The building looks like a really bad example of modern design, and they decided to charge about £6 per person entry. Unsurprisingly, it's had zero visitors at all since it opened, even when they lowered the price. And the biggest insult is that they named it 'The Public'. Little wonder I hate going back to the area for holidays. I'm glad I have a job now in Leeds so I don't have to go back as often...
And that brings me to where I live now. I'm at the University of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, and it couldn't be more different to home. In fact, though my family are still in the Midlands, I pretty much consider Leeds my home now. It's a really beautiful city, with such a lovely mix of architectural styles and so on. There's plenty to do, some great parks, really nice museums, and since Leeds is right in the middle of Yorkshire it's really close to other nice cities such as York, Harrogate, Manchester, Hull, and Bradford (well, I like Badford mainly for the National Media Museum, and the curries...). Plenty of great pubs and bars in Leeds too, and there's also the Leeds Festival each year. Being a student there's plenty of stuff to do and get involved in through the university, and each year there's a city-wide cultural thing called Light Night, where various shops, museums, public buildings, and the University, open up and host a series of arts events, music events, and exhibitions, to celebrate the history and culture of the city.
Overall, we can basically say, the West Midlands is a complete dump, and West Yorkshire is a really nice, beautiful place. Both still have their good and bad points, but on the whole I feel I've summed up the overall feeling of both places fairly well. If you want to know more about either place, just ask
. Hope this helps...
And that brings me to where I live now. I'm at the University of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, and it couldn't be more different to home. In fact, though my family are still in the Midlands, I pretty much consider Leeds my home now. It's a really beautiful city, with such a lovely mix of architectural styles and so on. There's plenty to do, some great parks, really nice museums, and since Leeds is right in the middle of Yorkshire it's really close to other nice cities such as York, Harrogate, Manchester, Hull, and Bradford (well, I like Badford mainly for the National Media Museum, and the curries...). Plenty of great pubs and bars in Leeds too, and there's also the Leeds Festival each year. Being a student there's plenty of stuff to do and get involved in through the university, and each year there's a city-wide cultural thing called Light Night, where various shops, museums, public buildings, and the University, open up and host a series of arts events, music events, and exhibitions, to celebrate the history and culture of the city.
Overall, we can basically say, the West Midlands is a complete dump, and West Yorkshire is a really nice, beautiful place. Both still have their good and bad points, but on the whole I feel I've summed up the overall feeling of both places fairly well. If you want to know more about either place, just ask
. Hope this helps...
