Ask someone who moved here from another country what surprised them. You’ll see your own town with new eyes.

Nobody sees clearly the place they grew up in, because nothing in it looks like a choice. Somebody who arrived last year noticed all of it: how people queue, what counts as polite, what the silence on a bus means. Their surprise is a map of everything you stopped registering. Hearing it hands your own street back as something that could have been otherwise.

Ask one person what seemed strange when they arrived, and what they miss. Ask what they expected and got wrong. Resist defending the place while they answer, since the useful part is the observation rather than whether it is fair.