Home

There is wide literature on the internet on expatriots, third world kids, repatriating immigrants, etc. On people who lived abroad for an extended duration at one point in their life or in the majority of their life. The main argument is always about "where is Home". Some opinions say there will be no Home anymore, others say the origin country, or the parent's origin culture remains always Home. Some says - and I came to the conclusion of supporting this approach - that all those countries will be Home.

I was in the UK on business in June, and one Sunday I felt I should visit back to Bath, where I had not been since 2004, but lived there for one and half years before. One of my old time friends is still there, so I gave Joanna a call. And we had excellent good time!


The experience of going back to Bath was overwhelming. At one point, I told Joanna that I felt at home. I had the same feeling in different other cities as well. So here is a list what defines Home in my opinion.

1. Have friends in that city. Friends with common memories of the times you spent together in the city.
2. Know what is around the corner. Know the bus lines. Know at least 5 different location outlets from the same chain.
3. Have a memory of the city. Be able to say "oh, this pizza place used to be a bookshop before" or "how come they are changing the road here again, they just created this roundabout a couple of years ago".

And I am quite confident having multiple Homes.

Whenever I feel homesick, it is actually a longing for one of these places. Sometimes it is for Budapest, but most of the time it is not. When I watch some American program on TV - and this is quite frequent, as so many movies are made there - I am crying to go back to the USA. Then I smell something, that triggers memories from my childhood in Turkey. And so on.

Twice every week, I want to leave Dubai. But I know I would miss it a big time.

As most of my friends reading this blog are experienced in abroad living, please feel free to suggest items to my Home definition list.