Job Discussion Forums

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Good topic.

At this exact moment, I can't imagine living back home. It's just more interesting to live overseas, in a completely different culture. This interests me.
My friends are back home making tons of money (esp. relative to me ), moving onward with their lives, accumulating things... This interests them.
When we get together, once a year or so, we have great conversations about what I'm doing *wherever* and what they've been doing "back home"; it's intriguing for both parties, all the changes.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

P.S. To answer the OP, it's taken me anywhere from 6 months to 1 year to feel at home.

[moonraven]

I have felt at home in Mexico, quite literally, since my first day here. I made several friends that first day--now almost 13 years ago--and they are still my friends.

[Sweetsee]

Japan is home and started feeling like it when we got a car last year after 15 years wheelless. We rent a place with a garden and lots of light near my school and that goes a long way to making me feel at home.

Taking my 4 year old daughter to my hometown in Santa Barbara next week for some serious reverse culture shock. This is a special homecoming for me, sort of a milestone.

[willy]

I settled into Taiwan with in 2 months and it felt like home, I was sad to leave.
It took about 4 months in Indonesia, now on a different island for 1 year and it still doesn�t feel right.

I knew when I left home in SF (China town) I would never see it the same again; most of my friends have moved others have died; all of my favorite places have gone so my time there has pasted never to return.

At this time I have no home other than the home in my hart

[Sadken]

Ok, different slants: Which friends do you feel closer to? Those at home or the ones you have met since being away? Do you really feel that you could connect with your back-home friends in the same way as before if you were to return? Do you think there comes a cut-off point when it is just out of the question to go home or else extremely difficult? If so, how long?

[travelingirl68]

Good questions Sadken... I feel closer to my friends outside of the US, not just ex-pats, but the friends I made in country. I don't know about a point of no return yet, but I am in the US and it does not feel like home to me.

[denise]

I still feel closer to my friends at home, because I have known them for so long and we still connect even after the years and the distance. I always hope to keep in touch with the people that I meet in my teaching jobs, but sometimes I get the impression that, just as it's a temporary home, the relationships are temporary as well. People move on to new countries and new people. Very sad. So far I have watched three people whom I considered good friends leave Japan. Have had emails from two of them, but the other is just gone.

d

[Deconstructor]

Pardon the clich� but: home is where the heart is. I've travelled the world and seven seas; everybody's looking for something... yada, yada, yada.

Wherever I�ve been, I've eventually wanted to go back home. What keeps me away and near are my friends and family. Don�t misunderstand: I stay away with the strength I get from the people who love me and I must ultimately return to them.


WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR ANYWAY?! After all, aren't we painfully aware that we're never going to find it? Like the coyote, we ain't never gonna catch the road runner. As smart as we may be, the game has already been rated.

Beep beep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The battle is never won; it's not even fought.
_____________________The Sound and the Fury
_____________________William Faulkner