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Sept 25, 2007 6:48:56 GMT -5
Post by EA Observer on Sept 25, 2007 6:48:56 GMT -5
I wouldn't recommend USA if you don't want to put up with the suffocating thinly-veiled racism. I also wouldn't recommend the USA if you don't want to put up with people who need external scapegoats (especially fantasy-based ones) for the difficulties they encounter in life. I know... how typically American, isn't it? I'll be sure to pass your remark to George. ;D
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Sept 25, 2007 11:49:03 GMT -5
Post by ladystacey on Sept 25, 2007 11:49:03 GMT -5
Good question, I'm not sure since I l spent a few years living in many different places but in the end I always went back to L.A and I'm like totally for sure like a L.A girl, like for sure... totally But out of all the many cities I have spent time in San Fran has been the only one which I felt like I had always lived there which I never have and I just adore it and always felt at home there... no idea why.
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Sept 25, 2007 22:04:07 GMT -5
Post by helles on Sept 25, 2007 22:04:07 GMT -5
The only place that feels like 'home' is my Grandma's place. It's been the only stable place - location and people wise, and hasnt really changed very much in all its time I've been visiting her.
Otherwise, I'm easy, wherever I currently am living s considered 'home'.
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Sept 25, 2007 22:50:31 GMT -5
Post by jenming on Sept 25, 2007 22:50:31 GMT -5
Having grown up in two different houses due to divorce, home has always been a flexible concept to me. Home is anywhere that has people around whom I can relax.
Having lived in many different houses, apartments, dorms, etc., I find that if i haven't vomited in a place... it doesn't really feel like home yet. Something about being so broken down, humbled, and hitting bottom in a place makes it closer to me, i suppose.
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Sept 26, 2007 21:07:15 GMT -5
Post by jenming on Sept 26, 2007 21:07:15 GMT -5
Having lived in many different houses, apartments, dorms, etc., I find that if i haven't vomited in a place... it doesn't really feel like home yet. Something about being so broken down, humbled, and hitting bottom in a place makes it closer to me, i suppose. I haven't heard of it put that way before. Do you feel closer to a public place or a street corner where you've previously puked? What about peeing? Other intimate bodily functions? I can't remember the last time I puked in a public place.... maybe high school. But no... vomiting somewhere to which I have no previous connection doesn't really do anything for me. But doing it at home sort of just fills out the range of experience I've had at that place. Living in a place, you usually get a chance to experience a lot of the things on the list of human experience (sleep, eat, catch a cold, recover, relax, laugh, cry, love, hate, clean, hide, host, etc...), the vomiting is kind of like one aspect that makes it more complete, in a way. I suppose other bodily functions also do this, but they are so common, that it doesn't feel like something special. I don't vomit much...
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Sept 27, 2007 7:39:07 GMT -5
Post by Nikki on Sept 27, 2007 7:39:07 GMT -5
Nikki: I just talked about this w/ someone today... That when I was living in Oporto I wasn't making an effort to make my rooms (I lived in two over the year) homely whereas in Berlin in my room I have all this decoration etc. to make it "my" place. In Oporto it was only transient... just for a short time span, a place to sleep at. But e.g. there is an area in the city center of Oporto where my dad has his shop and ever since I was a kid I was around that area. When I was older I explored the streets around (eventhough an actually small area in total ) and last time I was there I said to someone I'm like a stray cat who lives there. So there are places OUTSIDES of buildings that I like to think of as "home". I still have to think about whether or not my room is some sort of home, too. I guess it is - but how important? I think you're spot on. I have places like that too. I by no means have things scattered around the streets of Trastevere in Rome, but if I ever go back there after living there-- just because I have so many memories collected on those streets it's going to feel like home. Good point. @ Jeremy - heh, the vomit-theory is an interesting one. You're right - when I toss my cookies somewhere it registers with me and it kind of, well, settles in a way. I can recall pretty much every single place I've had that happen to me. I wouldn't by any means call it home-- especially those street corners -- but I do, for some reason, make a stronger connection to the place if it's like a friends apartment or something. Something to do with hugging that good ol' ceramic.
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Sept 27, 2007 18:08:10 GMT -5
Post by waywardwolf on Sept 27, 2007 18:08:10 GMT -5
Hah ha, I don't really feel connected to places in which I've hurled, but I do feel connected to certain streets around a city or behind buildings I've stopped to rest.
I've never heard of people feeling connected to places of up-chuck, that's pretty funny. May you both spew in grand palaces.
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Sept 28, 2007 19:17:44 GMT -5
Post by Emily on Sept 28, 2007 19:17:44 GMT -5
Does anyone feel they might not ever live in their "ultimate" hometown? Let me explain. I was born in Montreal, live here and still do to this day. I adore it here and everyday feel thankful for the luck of the draw having it that I got to live here. I could have been unlucky and live in the middle of nowhere, America until I was able to pack up and go. As much as I think I'll always be a Montreal homie, I feel the world is just out there and I refuse to think Montreal will eternally be my only home, simply by default. I'm hoping I might eventually settle down in another city that'll scream out home to me. Yet, there are so many potential cities, thus as many potential homes and one cannot expect to fully tap into that potential. I'm neurotic to the point where I can envision myself perfectly happy in a city and readily calling it home, while periodically visiting Montreal - still home for me - but thinking there's a chance I could have a "better" home somewhere else. Really, home is a matter of the experience and people that are part of one's life there, but one's choice of location could heavily impact this without one having any control over this. Hell, when my father decided to leave France, he virtually flipped a coin to decide if he was going for a Canadian visa or an Australian one. Could you imagine? He chose Canada and I'm missing all those happening Australian meet-ups.
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Sept 28, 2007 22:32:36 GMT -5
Post by Freecia on Sept 28, 2007 22:32:36 GMT -5
Very good thread, and I just happened to have an epiphany about the meaning of home too.
Recently I went back to my birthplace, Taiwan, where I thought was definetely my home and roots for the longest time. When I was in Taiwan though, I felt as if I was just a stranger traveling through the city without identifying any significance of this country. I was definetely depressed. I parted Taiwan for 16 years and longed to go "back" to Taiwan, but I just felt that I merely went "to" Taiwan now. I remember all that was fun about Taiwan in my childhood memories, but seeing Taiwan again made me realize I'm a different person now. I've grown, and I've grown apart from this country. I've come to realize where my roots truly are now. And that is America, where I've lived for 16 years, developed my knowledge, mind, and even started a family of my own. America, is my home now.
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tbw
Full Member
Posts: 332
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Home.
Sept 28, 2007 23:40:04 GMT -5
Post by tbw on Sept 28, 2007 23:40:04 GMT -5
My home has always been [North of] Sydney. Even when living in Melbourne for 4-5years, I came back to Sydney because it felt right. It has my family and friends. The best and worst of memories linger here. It reminds me that i'm me. I hope to live overseas for a bit at some stage, but this place is home, enough to know that when I have kids its something I would like them to experience.
First thing that came to mind was "Take me home, country roads' the song done in [ftp]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_of_the_Heart[/ftp] (a movie by Studio Ghibli.)
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Sept 29, 2007 4:13:59 GMT -5
Post by waywardwolf on Sept 29, 2007 4:13:59 GMT -5
I'm curious.. Has anyone found "home" in ..a person? I guess I do feel at home around my younger brother and my best friend, and, as sad as it may sound to feel at home on the internet, any place I can check EAN is alright with me.
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Oct 2, 2007 22:21:44 GMT -5
Post by Emily on Oct 2, 2007 22:21:44 GMT -5
Phew, thanks for understanding part of how I feel Claudia and Cel, I thought I was just a freak. ;D
Claudia, about wanting to travel and it being harmful for your kids, I feel you.
I've a friend who moved around all here life because her mother works for the UN. She had and still has quite an exciting jet-seeting life getting to see places with such ease. But on the flip side, as expected, it was very hard for her at times.
I've long debated - and still continue to do - about the pros and cons of raising a family while not having a homebase. Really, I don't think it's fair for the children to move them around so much at a crucial stage of their development. Children need stability. Many have trouble being shuttled around from one house to another when their parents are divorced, imagine losing everything that represents security to you?
It's just too bad, extensive travelling like this can mold them into quite worldly and well-rounded human beings - provided you know how to take care of them and don't let them become one of those international brats. It forces them to learn a great deal about adaptation to different situations - a skill always valued, even if you spend your whole life in the same exact dump.
So... I think I'm going to try as much as possible to stay in one spot as I raise my children. Which means that if I want to do some extensive travelling, I have to do it all before I have children. While I obviously have no maternity plans for the near future, I plan on studying for a couple more years and don't want to be too old of a mother...thus implying I don't have much time left. Does anyone have a couple of years to spare? Gosh, I'm too young to be anxious about missing time.
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Oct 5, 2007 6:41:07 GMT -5
Post by halfbreed on Oct 5, 2007 6:41:07 GMT -5
My house is my home. <3
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Oct 7, 2007 8:33:07 GMT -5
Post by Guy in the white shirt on Oct 7, 2007 8:33:07 GMT -5
Phew, thanks for understanding part of how I feel Claudia and Cel, I thought I was just a freak. ;D Claudia, about wanting to travel and it being harmful for your kids, I feel you. I've a friend who moved around all here life because her mother works for the UN. She had and still has quite an exciting jet-seeting life getting to see places with such ease. But on the flip side, as expected, it was very hard for her at times. I've long debated - and still continue to do - about the pros and cons of raising a family while not having a homebase. Really, I don't think it's fair for the children to move them around so much at a crucial stage of their development. Children need stability. Many have trouble being shuttled around from one house to another when their parents are divorced, imagine losing everything that represents security to you? It's just too bad, extensive travelling like this can mold them into quite worldly and well-rounded human beings - provided you know how to take care of them and don't let them become one of those international brats. It forces them to learn a great deal about adaptation to different situations - a skill always valued, even if you spend your whole life in the same exact dump. So... I think I'm going to try as much as possible to stay in one spot as I raise my children. Which means that if I want to do some extensive travelling, I have to do it all before I have children. While I obviously have no maternity plans for the near future, I plan on studying for a couple more years and don't want to be too old of a mother...thus implying I don't have much time left. Does anyone have a couple of years to spare? Gosh, I'm too young to be anxious about missing time. Its a hard one.. I've travelled all of my life b/c of family, so I'm just used to moving around (and, it means that I always feel that I'm never quite home). But I've now realised that wherever I am, I'm home as long as I'm happy with myself. Sooo, its hard, you shouldn't move your kids around at all... but then... I love my life and think that maybe it is a good thing to introduce family to new places?? So yeah, its all about the values you raise your kids with, not where you are.
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Oct 8, 2007 20:33:46 GMT -5
Post by Emily on Oct 8, 2007 20:33:46 GMT -5
Lol, Cel, I know I'm being excruciatingly anal about this. I think it's a matter of me freaking out over my PROFESSIONAL future and the incidence it could have on my personal life. For example, I don't know until when I'll be studying and maybe by then, I'll want/need to get cracking on my career right away, with no time to travel. Again, it's all a matter of choice, but I'm aiming for optimization of my time... which is probably going to drive me insane.
By traveling extensively, I meant a job that might require traveling as part of the job description. I have no ambitions of being a diplomat or anything remotely like that, but I also don't know if I'll have a standard 9-5 job... or if I'd like it otherwise.
But you're right, I should go take a chill pill right about now.
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