The "Not At Home" thread

killpanda

wants to fondle your manboobs
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As some of you know, I'm originally from France and in my time on this forum I lived in Peru, Canada and now China.

Anybody else not living in his original country? It would be fun to keep track of everybody :)
 
So the Not a Dudes are all staying at home to make babies and do housework?
 
As some of you know, I'm originally from France and in my time on this forum I lived in Peru, Canada and now China.

Anybody else not living in his original country? It would be fun to keep track of everybody :)

:thumbsup:

How long is the job for in China and do you go to Africa next to complete* the set of continents?

* and Australia too
 
I guess technically I'm not in South India, but that doesn't really count seeing as how I've been living in San Diego/the US for 17 years and in India for 7.

Carry on
 
Nearly one score ago, I was abducted by a deceitful wench who once declared her love to me, but as of present, is void of it. I was taken from the land of rolling green pastures, silken cheese and plump cows whose milk is second only to ambrosia.
The scorned land I now reside in is of a flat plane and featureless, teeming with far too many imagineless, soulless humans, corrupt and deceitful leaders, and Raptorjesus.
The metropolis I reside in has people who speak a strange southern language, who brows and rents are lowered and operate vehicles that have an excess of chromed metal and lack of taste.


In other words, seven years ago I moved from Wisconsin to Illinois and I hate it.
 
I have no idea how long this one is going to be, could be for a few years as the company seems really great and there are good evolutions opportunities :)

Australia is definitely on the map as a possible next destination (I'm going there for sure to visit at least at some point), Africa on the other hand looks more like a place I'd like to visit extensively (a Long Way Round / Down kind of road trip is planned at some point during life :-d), but maybe not live. Well, I guess we'll see, life is full of surprises, I was only planning to stay two weeks in Vancouver after all and I stayed nearly two years!
 
Nearly one score ago, I was abducted by a deceitful wench who once declared her love to me, but as of present, is void of it. I was taken from the land of rolling green pastures, silken cheese and plump cows whose milk is second only to ambrosia.
The scorned land I now reside in is of a flat plane and featureless, teeming with far too many imagineless, soulless humans, corrupt and deceitful leaders, and Raptorjesus.
The metropolis I reside in has people who speak a strange southern language, who brows and rents are lowered and operate vehicles that have an excess of chromed metal and lack of taste.


In other words, seven years ago I moved from Wisconsin to Illinois and I hate it.

Oh jay, I love you too. Don't worry I think Chicago will be fine without you, but Aurora, nothing can save that place.
 
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Are you planning to go back to Wisconsin at some point?

Hopefully in the next five years. I admire people like you who can globetrot and adjust to it. Myself, I am not an explorer. Wisconsin is my Hobbitshire, dig?
 
Hopefully in the next five years. I admire people like you who can globetrot and adjust to it. Myself, I am not an explorer. Wisconsin is my Hobbitshire, dig?

Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Jay? It'll be spring soon, and the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields. And they'll be eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries? :p

I know what you mean, though, Jay. I spent 20 years away from my loved ones and I can't wait til I go back home to New England.
 
I've been lucky enough that some of my friends and family have been able to come visit every once in a while.
Plus, as my mom is originally from Peru, I had the opportunity to see members of the family that I had never seen before. Same goes with Canada actually, quite a few of them having moved in the US, that made it real easy to connect with them. I was also living with my brother in Vancouver, which was cool :)
 
Jay, I know how you feel. Born and raised in Philadelphia, then moved to Baltimore for college and ended up living there for a total of 10 years, now I've been in San Francisco for 5 years. I move here for a change of scenery, mix things up a little, but now I'm regretting it. I would like to move back to the east coast.
 
I've said it before and I will say it again, after missing your loved ones, missing your homeland is the worst thing for a man.
I truly believe it's something instinctual....
 
I'm British, moved to Germany, and then escaped there after a fairly long sentence across the border into Switzerland. I can never go home :cry:
 
I've said it before and I will say it again, after missing your loved ones, missing your homeland is the worst thing for a man.
I truly believe it's something instinctual....

Strangely enough, I have a friend that doesn't really get home sick. He spent some time abroad and didn't feel it. I myself spent 2 weeks in Belgium and I'm just so happy I'm home again. Cliche but there really is no place like home. I could move abroad but I don't think it will ever be home.
 
Strangely enough, I have a friend that doesn't really get home sick. He spent some time abroad and didn't feel it.

And it is not even strange really; some people are just...wired to explore the Earth, whereas you and I are wired to keep the home fires burning for the explorers to come home to. Because of them, civilization and society has grown. I gotta tip my hat to them, really.
 
I'm New Zealand born and raised (first 22 years of my life), and study in the United States with a reasonably firm intention to make the USA my permanent home.

My stay in the United States has included two years in Maryland, one summer in Rhode Island, and one year in Arizona. Since coming here to study, I've made four trips back to New Zealand: Christmas 2008, Summer break (southern hemisphere winter) 2009, Christmas 2009, and Christmas 2010. Christmas trips have only been about a week long each, so because of the hemisphere difference I missed two years of summers; I had a southern hemisphere summer in 2007-08 and a northern hemisphere summer in 2010.

The whole reversal of seasons is something that really took some time getting used to, and made me hate cold weather. I've grown oddly fond of Arizona's blazing heat, though I do miss living near a body of salt water.
 
And it is not even strange really; some people are just...wired to explore the Earth, whereas you and I are wired to keep the home fires burning for the explorers to come home to. Because of them, civilization and society has grown. I gotta tip my hat to them, really.

Oh, I can explore the Earth - I loved the times I was deployed aboard ship in the Navy, visiting Northern Europe, the Mediterranean countries, and the Caribbean - but in the end, it's nice to have a home to return to.

I left Maine shortly after graduating high school in 1984 for the U.S. Navy. I left the Navy after 4 years and spent another year in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where I was stationed. My friend Chris begged me to come back to Maine so I did. But after 2 years in Maine, I was working a part-time minimum wage job at a Kmart that just barely covered my rent and barely saw my family, even though they were fifteen miles away, due to not being able to afford a car. Another high school friend suggested San Francisco as a good place to move to and start a new life. So I sold everything I could, packed my remaining belongings into enough bags I could carry, and hopped on a Greyhound bus for the 3000 mile journey to SF.

Once there, I had to make my way in the City with no money, no place to live, and not knowing anybody. So I did the homeless thing for a few months - sleeping in shelters and eating in soup kitchens that fed the homeless. Eventually, I found a social service organization that sent me out on casual labor jobs and gave me a room in a SRO (Single Room Occupancy) hotel or bedsit. It was a small room, but it was warm, had a soft bed, and I didn't have to share it with anyone. I did eventually score a full-time job with the agency, and left my tiny bedsit for a larger and nicer one in the neighborhood of South Park; right next to some pokey little magazine called "Wired" - I wonder what happened to them?

My time in SF was spent moving from job to job and neighborhood to neighborhood until 2001, when I started my current job with the USA's largest telecommunications company. In 2003, after my office in SF was closed, I took a transfer to Sacramento where I've been ever since.

All was right in the world - or at least satisfactory - until 2009, when a new law in the state of Maine that unsealed the original birth certificates of adoptees went into affect. I got my original birth certificate and used it to track down my birth mother. I found her in New Hampshire, called her, and we started to get to know each other after over 40 years apart. I found out that I have two half sisters and two half brothers. And after I met them last year, I finally understood what people meant by the bonds of family. I had never really felt that bond with my adopted family - I always felt like a stranger, searching for a place where he belonged. Well after meeting my birth family and seeing what we all had in common, I knew where I belonged.

And my birth mom sealed the deal last fall when she asked, "When are you coming back home?" Something that my adopted mom had never asked me in 19 years. After that, I was miserable. I had a home, but couldn't afford to leave my job here to return to it. When my co-workers and I were given the news in March that our office in Sacramento was closing, inside I was shouting "YES!" :dance:

tl, dr: In two months from now, (more or less) I am heading Eastbound on Interstate 80 to move to New Hampshire and be close to my birth family. I finally feel complete and feel like I have an actual home to return to. It's a good feeling.
 
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I'm Indian born, lived there for a full sixteen years when I moved to Germany in 2003. Been here since.
 
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