Lenox

Having given up on the 'is the Euro British?' thread (currently with 536 opinions) I wondered if we could divide ourselves into those who think of 'home' as the UK and those who think of it as Spain. Perhaps one's point of view regarding the EU or the Euro or that UKIP nutter is based on where we hang our hat?

jackytoo

Home for me is where my house and my stuff is I always spoke of my parents house as "home" until they died.

PS why is this thread in the Plaza? Are you expecting it to get argumentative!

jojojojojo

Home for me is where I live, where my "stuff" is and my children. at the moment home is in the UK, but hopefully it will be back in Spain soon, cos thats where I feel happiest. Ultimately, and whether I like it or not I'm British. I was born and bred in the UK, my first language is English and theres not a thing I can do about it. I'm not sure its important enough to worry about tho

Jo xxx

jdr

As the old saying goes "Home is where you hang your hat"

lynnxa

home is right where I am - with my family

my late parents house in the UK will be sold this week - someone asked me if I felt sad that my 'home' was going

I thought for a moment or two - the 'someone' clearly expected me to be sad...

I actually lived in it for less than 1/5 of my life, so that really wasnt 'home' ......

rachelk

I refer to both as home.

I will be going 'home' to see my parents for Christmas but will be coming back 'home' to Málaga for new year.

scampicat

Home to me has always been the UK, despite having lived for eight years in Spain.

Whilst I enjoyed my time in Spain,it was never meant to be permanent and we are now back in the UK during a dark and cold December awaitibng the completion of the sale of our Spanish house, hopefully in January.

We enjoyed our time in Spain, but it was always somewhere we were living for a while, to me especially it was never home.

Lenox

I left Norfolk with my parents when I was 13 and have been in Spain, more or less, ever since. So, besides the passport and a large library of English books I'm slowly working my way through, I'd say that Spain was my home and my 'European opinions' would be based on this.
If I were to leave, I wouldn't go to the UK.

HBG

It's quite a strange question and hard to answer. I don't know when it started, possibly around ten years ago, but whenever I left Spain for a holiday or a business trip, I regarded travelling back as coming home.

Even though I lived in Spain before that, the UK was still home. It no longer is and it worries me.

evamar

I have a "home" in England, and I have a "home" in Spain. The most difficult time for me is always the day before going to one or the other, because although I'm happy I will be going to one, I know that I will be missing the one I leave.

I'm Spanish in both, but when I live in the UK I do speak and think in English (except numbers!), so it does take me several days to get used to the different style of living and the language. This happens every time I go to the other one, be it in Spain or in England.

rafikiphoto

Spain is home because this is where we chose to live and where we feel at home. I always remember as an expat in East Africa so many colleagues always mentioned they were going 'home' on leave. We always said we were going to Holland and UK on leave and would return home in a months time.

HBG

Thinking in another language is a killer, it's horrible and creeps up on you and you can't stop it. I revert back to the alphabet I first leaned but it becomes irrelevant.

Dreams are a nightmare, I dream in more than one language and sometimes I wake up terrified. I get mixed up, totally, and unfortunately I've got three languages to choose from.

It doesn't make me clever, it confuses the f'ucking life out of me.

Lynn R

I've only lived in 3 different towns in my life (so far!) - 2 in the UK and 1 here.

I never liked the town I grew up in, couldn't wait to get away from the place, and it's worse now, so that wouldn't feel like home although all my family still live there. My parents moved house after I had left home, so going back to their house didn't feel like going home either.

I moved to a different town when I got married, mainly for reasons connected with my ex-husband's work, and stayed there after we divorced. It was really just a place to return to sleep as I spent more than 12 hours a day working or commuting and another 7 at least sleeping, Monday to Friday at least, so I felt no great emotional attachment there either.

Then I moved to Spain and I do like the town we live in (warts and all) so this does feel the most like home. When we first bought our house we only came over for holidays and I cried every time I had to leave, I never did that when I was leaving the UK, not even when we left for good.

fionamw

As Lynn R suggests, I think how many 'homes' - ie places you've lived - is relevant. I've lived in 15 flats/houses in my life, and I'm sure I'm nowhere near as well travelled as some. My home is where my 9yo and I live and although I don't think I will ever regard Spain as my 'gut', 'heritage', 'cultural' home, it - my Spanish home - is definitely home.

On which: brief chat with a teacher at school in Malaga this morning. (She's Irish, not sure if N or S). Her: Gosh it's cold isn't it. Me: Yes, but nowhere near as cold as at home. Her: Yes, I know! ..... ... I walk off towards the car. How did she know the temperature at our house up in the wild and woolly hills, I pondered? Then I twigged. She's thinking Home=UK

Rotor

For me Spain is somewhere I like living but not home , Blighty is home.