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for those that have been here a year or more
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chest rockwell



Joined: 16 May 2005
Location: Sanbon

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 12:39 am    Post subject: for those that have been here a year or more Reply with quote

have you found that when youve gone home for a holiday or whatever that everything that you knew and loved back home has changed?
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 12:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's a bit of an illusion.

You've changed more than they have - a lot more.

Some have said from their experience: If you stay away long enough, no place will seem like home.
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chest rockwell



Joined: 16 May 2005
Location: Sanbon

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 12:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If so, wouldnt you feel alienated and always searching for something. Everyone needs a home.
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chest rockwell wrote:
If so, wouldnt you feel alienated and always searching for something.

I hope it doesn't come to that. I've been out of my country for three years and on my visits back there as well as elsewhere in Asia I've felt equally at home, as if every place is home. The city I went to high school in seems like a part of my past not my future though. Life is an adventure and about moving forward and growing and learning and thriving. Quite the opposite to a feeling of alienation.
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Tiberious aka Sparkles



Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:30 am    Post subject: Re: for those that have been here a year or more Reply with quote

chest rockwell wrote:
have you found that when youve gone home for a holiday or whatever that everything that you knew and loved back home has changed?


Last time I went home I was shocked to discover that my parents have joined a right-wing militia. And my brother has a tail!

Sparkles*_*
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itaewonguy



Joined: 25 Mar 2003

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think nz pretty much stays the same..
its us who have changed.. I havent been back for 5 years now..
but I can imagine its same as when I left.. just as if I left korea for 5 years and went back.. it would be same..
I think every place stays the same its just us who change..
but it doesnt take long for us to fit right back in. if we choose too..
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desultude



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 3:15 am    Post subject: Re: for those that have been here a year or more Reply with quote

Tiberious aka Sparkles wrote:
chest rockwell wrote:
have you found that when youve gone home for a holiday or whatever that everything that you knew and loved back home has changed?


Last time I went home I was shocked to discover that my parents have joined a right-wing militia. And my brother has a tail!

Sparkles*_*


Gee, the same with all of my family. I thought maybe it was a new citizenship obligation in the States.
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Gorgias



Joined: 27 Aug 2005

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
wouldnt you feel alienated and always searching for something.
Going home or not, have you not felt this way all your life? Don't go back anyway.
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ChimpumCallao



Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: your mom

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i appreciate little things i never even thought about...like all the consumer choice that the u.s. offers, or how nice it is to talk to random people, or how not crowded it is and NO ONE bumps into you...cleanliness...i could go on forever. you dont really appreciate where you are from until you leave...

i feel completely at home when I get back, it doesnt feel strange...but i also feel that for now, seoul is my home, because, duh...i live here.
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crazylemongirl



Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Going back to New Zealand:

It seemed a lot more nationalistic. Flags fricken everywhre.

Everything seems so quiet. I walked down the main street in wellington the night before new years and saw no one or more importantly no food establishments open.

My friends seem the same as they were when I left, but I find myself with less in common with them.

Everyone speaks english. Drove me crazy listening to that much english. It was like I could understand people's thoughts.
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Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
everything that you knew and loved back home has changed?


I agree with the others. It isn't them who have changed. It is you. Thomas Wolfe was on to something when he said you can't go home again. (Good book, by the way.)

Quote:
Everyone needs a home.


This may (or may not) be true. It doesn't mean that everyone has one.

You deliberately gave that up when you chose to leave. Now only a handful of people (if any) in your hometown have had experiences similar to yours. Your friends and family stayed home and struggled with paying the rent, hassling with the boss down at the factory and juggling two girlfriends. You have struggled with being an illiterate in society and other major daily communication problems, adjusting to an entirely foreign culture, dealing with some weird employment laws, living as a minority...

You are different now in ways far more extreme than the ones who stayed at home.
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victim of love



Joined: 12 Sep 2005
Location: might as well be on mars because that's how far away i feel from you.

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't go 'home' anymore. The last few times just broke my heart. Thailand is a lot more fun. Cool
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endo



Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 8:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I left Canada for Korea in September 2004. I don't plan on comming back until August of 2009.

Boy its going to be strange.
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mindmetoo



Joined: 02 Feb 2004

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's weird. The first few days back everything seems alien. By about day 4 it's like you never left.
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the_beaver



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I went home in 1998 after just 2 and a half years and things seemed strange and stupid.

I'm going home for a couple of weeks next summer and I suspect everything will be really wacked.
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