Wherever I Lay My Hat... Does the foreign world attract? ( Archived) (12)

No idea if I'll return home..Think about it..As for the bit above...

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Alexander Pope (An Essay on Criticism.)...

Never heard of the guy (heard the line yrs ago in a Ricky Nelson soft ballad type thing)...

I'm not afraid of the unknown (if thats your Q)

the idea of staying in one place filled me with dread too - I couldn't live all my life in my native UK .. the world is far too big for that. I don't know if it's the UK or my spirit, but the relationship was never going to last ..

Well… of some reason it seems for me like an attitude of a man that’s completely alone in this world.

I wouldn’t call it fear, but I sure tried to avoid uncertainty when my child was little. It’s different now.

As to the same view from the window… some people feel free while in jail for the life time, some don’t feel free even being travelling their whole life… When you don’t like the view, you can always look inside yourself – just to check whether something has changed there.

For after having lived a decade in Asia, the question as to where "home" is has become an ambiguous one. I feel at home in my new country, but then again I don't.

I wasn't sure how to respond to your poll since none of the choices offered are completely encompassing and I dare not choose, Would/Will never return home.

I now belong to that curious group of permanent aliens abroad collectively known as "expatriates". So, I exist here in self imposed exile.

I recall a book I read as a boy, Marco Polo. There was a chapter I've never forgotten. It was titled, Dreams of home. With time I've come to understand the true meaning of that.

Being in a racial minority, you invariably remain foreign now and forever. If I never return "home", on the last day of my life, walking down the street an old man, someone will call me "foreigner". That is the reality of it and I accept it.

It has now been over 6 years since I saw my former "home". The last time I was there, standing in the airport, awaiting my family and seeing the Caucasians, my countryfolk, all around me, hearing the cacophony of spoken english, I said to myself, "Look at all the foreigners!" I can only imagine how I would feel now.

That is curiously funny and entirely true. As I've tried to explain to others who haven't had the experience. Living in a foreign culture changes you in inexplicable ways and ultimately, you become a different version of yourself and you can never return to who you were before. Hopefully, some of you can understand and relate to what I'm saying.

Now, I'm neither Asian nor am I Western, I'm something in between and home as it's been said, is where the heart is.

You live as I've done and that was the option for me, for even when I do return "home" to my roots, I feel like a mere visitor.

I am more attracted by the journey and its destination than my point of departure. I could never "return home" as it would most probably strangle an important vein in my person.

Settle down is not an issue, I've been stationary for more than 5 years now, but I thrive on the new, the exotic and the unknown in a way that is best fed by travels, be it beyond the next hill to next town or past an ocean to a new world.

to this world with all its colours and differences.

That's very different, caution in care for others and your own well being, is a healthy thing.

I am more inclined to see it as a love of life itself and its members. Loneliness is not an option as it needs you to close out curiosity and lust for experience.

Funny thing, many expats seem to have a better relation and more frequent dialogues with there loved ones back from home than members of families all living in the same town. How is that?

I think we figured that out a while ago already

Good to see you, mate

Perhaps, it’s easier to love your next ones while keeping some distance.

Wise words.

I don't like changing my home, I'm very conservative about that, get attached to the people easily etc. Travelling however is another story altogether!