What happens if you meet a Chilean journalist? A particularly active type, who is only here temporarily but would like to add some value to the place where you met? And what if you also happen to have a German colleague and know a British book designer? Well, you write a book together! Or at least, that is what we did.

We met Magdalena Palma (our Chilean journalist) in the summer of 2022 at the 25-year-anniversary party of Blaauwberg. At this event, we held a masterclass in English, to make sure that it was also accessible to the many non-Dutch(-speaking) citizens of Leiden. As a result of this first acquaintance, we decided to offer Magdalena a temporary contract to join us at our office and write a book about “our internationals” and their lives in the city. By doing a lot of interviews, she constructed ten stories of people who were not born in The Netherlands, but for various reasons and in many different ways, made Leiden their home. Those stories are bundled in the book ‘Green Glasses – adding perspectives to the Leiden experience’. The book is published by Blaauwberg and was designed by Euan Monoghan. 

On the evening of June 12^th, we gathered with a diverse group of guests at book store De Kler for the long-awaited launch of ‘Green Glasses’.

After the interview, all attendants were given a copy of the book to quickly browse through. When everyone had had the chance to take a look at the beautifully designed pages, the first official copies were presented to three women with special positions in the Leiden society. We had secretly already provided them with a copy before, so they could share their comments on the book with us.

Leiden needs its internationals

The first recipient, Elianne Wijnands, member of the Leiden city council for ‘Studenten voor Leiden’, recognised her own experience in the sunglasses analogy. Even though she is Dutch, she moved to Leiden from a different city. “My glasses are maybe the same colour, but kind of a different shade. (…) When I got here as a student, I also had different sunglasses than I do now as a politician. You really look at the city from a different angle and a different perspective”, she shared. She noted that a few stories in particular appealed to her. For example, the one about the refugee who started a hair salon and offered discounts to people who came to speak Dutch with him. Elianne joked: “I think he very early understood a very important and fundamental thing about Dutch culture: we love discounts!”. There was also a more serious point in her review. Internationals are definitely not always seen in a positive light, also not within the student community. We are not yet as welcoming a city as we could be. She concluded: “Leiden is a gem, as Magdalena said, even a paradise, but I do think it’s still far from perfect. Leiden needs its internationals and I think this book wonderfully tells us why.”

What is home?

The second review came from Kristel Rust, from the Hogeschool Leiden. Reading the book inspired her to think about her own moving around the globe and the question: what do you say when people ask you “where are you from?” She herself had lived in Swaziland, Nijmegen, Maastricht, South Africa and Amsterdam before she moved to the Leiden region. Green Glasses taught her new things about Leiden and helped her explore the city. More and more Leiden is starting to feel like home for her and her family. So what is home? According to Kristel “feeling at home has to do with feeling familiar and safe. It isn’t connected to one place and it has nothing to do with the number of miles you move, but it refers to a number of places, groups, people or situations with which I feel connected”.