DandNHill

Think you summed that up perfectly!

DandNHill

What is everybody's definition of "home"? I think that makes a big difference as to whether you feel settled or not. Home to me changed the day I boarded that plane, Canada became mine!

Shard

Good point.

HGerchikov

I absolutely agree. I was talking the other day to someone that had been here for 40 years, they said they were going home for a visit. I could only think how sad it was that they had lived their entire adult life in a place they didn't consider home.

Shard

Yes, that's a curious mindset. I suppose the only rationale is when one partner wants to stay, and the other acquiesces but deep down wishes to be in the former (home) country.

BristolUK

Where I live. Always has been.

Even back in Bristol when people at work would ask if I was going home for xmas I'd say, "no I'm going to my mum's for a couple of days" in another part of Bristol, about a half hour walk away.

Oink

I think you are all coming from a rather privileged perspective. Ask all the millions of economic migrants across western countries where their heart lies? Ask them why are they living in a country they don't emotionally call home?

Shard

If they are economic migrants, they have chosen their new home, and should be thankful.

Oink

They are probably thankful that they can eat, have shelter and provide education for their children but I suspect they are emotionally attached to the places where they grew up. You find that with people from Canadian prairie cities. The ones I've met in Vancouver, all seem bang on all the time how amazing places like Regina are, and what a wonderful places they are to live and their wear their Canadian football team colours as a cultural symbol of their homeland but of course they all live and work here in the warm.

Shard

Yeah...I suppose there's something in that.

not2old

my heart lies is Canada, my home is Canada and as for that place over the pond, its somewhere I visit now and then. I'd be at home anywhere I could lay my head & get a good nights sleep.

What about you oink, where is your emotion home?

Oink

The Academy, one that preferably has a large treelined and grassy quadrangle.

BenBuzz

Very true, I usually always say 'home' in reference to where I am living. Guess I am just not feeling especially settled at the moment, hence the change of wording!

Partially discharged

Not familiar with that concept. We don't have any posters on this forum who convey that feeling

scilly

We moved to the US in August 1967, 5 days after we married. OH had 1 year left on an 18 month contract.

Towards the end of the year, we realised we were not ready to go "home" ............. yes, we did call it that.

So he applied for jobs elsewhere in the US and in some parts of Canada. He got what turned out to be the ideal job here in Vancouver.

We settled down, and took our first holiday back in England in 1973 .............. those were the days when you had to go Vancouver -> Toronto -> London or Manchester. AND had to walk down the steps from the plane to the tarmac.

After 6 weeks of travelling around the UK, to some fabulous areas ........... many of which we had previously lived in ............ we flew back to Canada.

Walking down the steps of the plane in Toronto, one of us turned to the other and said "Isn't it good to be back home?"

Then we both burst out laughing because we were only half-way.


But the realisation that we now considered Canada to be home, led us to take the steps to becoming Canadian citizens as soon as possible. We were swearing allegiance to the Queen in December 1973.

Unlike so many, we gave up our English passports ..............

Neither of us has ever been sorry that we left the UK and took up residency in Canada.

If we had to leave Canada for any reason ............ we would most certainly not go back to Canada. We'd go further, to wither NZ or parts of OZ .............. both countries in which we have spent considerable amounts of time.

And yes, we both had very good jobs in the UK, both lived in beautiful parts of the country before we married, and would have been able to pick and choose where to live in the event that we had stayed there, or gone back there.

But England is not the country that we grew up in, it had changed even in the 5 years between 1967 and 1972

The friends we had have all moved from where we and they used to live, and are spread around the country. We still have contact with many of them ............... but none of them live close to each other!

This is the country that we settled in, that has been good to us ................ and that we proudly support, on most occasions anyway!