“ID please”…

At my age, I don’t often hear that at the checkout counter.  Apparently, in the USA nowadays, you need to look under the age of 50 to be able to buy your basic cough syrup.

When did my “home” country start feeling like such an alien place?

There are water fountains everywhere in public places, when so many countries don’t have safe running water to drink. The grocery stores are filled with an insane abundance of every product you could possibly imagine…. and many that you couldn’t (PB&J swirled Goober spread, I’m looking at you).  America is one of the few places in the world where you can stand next to a stranger waiting in line for the bus, strike up a conversation, and end up learning intimate details of decades of their life. Then, never see them again. And that’s totally ok.

“Home” is a curious thing, after all. It changes, evolves over the years and can mean very different things to different people.

Our family has 3 “homes”, though we’ve never actually owned a house: The USA, where my husband and I were born and raised but where we left not long after our teen years; Italy, where our two kids were born and raised; and Hong Kong, where we currently live and thrive.  I lived previously in Spain, Portugal, and France and enjoy heartfelt memories of each, but none of them reach the “Home” status.

The USA is our original place of reference, where we were educated and reared and hold on to so many childhood memories. Most importantly these days, it’s where our original family resides, and the friends we grew up with that know us best.

Italy is where we gave birth to and raised two beautiful children.  Rome and is where I fulfilled my greatest dream of becoming a mother: I could never express my gratitude enough for that life-altering gift. The nearby Medieval stone village of Monteleone is where our children spent so many meaningful, carefree, healthy, joyous moments together with their childhood friends; running naked in the gardens, eating fruit off the trees, building forts, exploring the countryside, cultivating a love of natural, locally-sourced food that was cooked and shared with the local community, learning about life and love and friendship. This will always be my soul spot, Monteleone, one that feeds me in every way.

Hong Kong is our current home, where our immediate family lives and thrives.  We’ve spent 6 wonderful years there, enjoying the adventure of discovering greater Asia as a family and each of us having our own journeys, exploring countries on our own with school, work, or for pleasure. As my mother was born in China (my grandparents had been missionaries there), it’s been exceptionally meaningful to understand more deeply this part of the world, and how it fits into several generations of my extended family story.

The thing about being a long-term expat is that we recognize that we will never be 100% at ease in our host foreign country.

What we come to learn is that we will never be 100% “at ease” in our original home country either.

The trick is achieving the wisdom to be at peace with that.

Home, sweet homes.