I enjoyed this thoughtful, sensitive, and humorous entry very much. Thank you for sharing it.
Having lived in Madrid for less than a year, I am borderline between craving nearby friends and realizing my dearest friends, like you, are spread around the world, and we can’t just go to the movies together. Instead, I find great pleasure in talking to the baristas, the owner of the wine shop and his yellow labrador, the women in the bread shop, the neighbors, and others I see regularly. These interactions help me feel I belong here. One foot in front of the other. Like walking.
I like your comparison to walking-one foot in front of the other. I too find my conversations with the various shop and restaurant/cafe/pub proprietors are very satisfying, and I usually learn something useful too. But mostly they are important signals that you are knitting into the new community. And it feels so good to have someone local recognise you!
Having made a major transition from our alpaca farm in Maine to living in a rental on the island of Martha's Vineyard on Boxing Day (2017), by way of putting most of what we didn't sell, toss, or give away into storage so we could move aboard a boat, I get it! Hurrah for long walks on the beach and along dirt lanes!
Yep, we started those walks on dirt lanes when we were growing up, didn’t we Pam? Walking is still my grounding place and where I think the best. I hope you’ll keep sharing your insights from your recent transitions here too. You’ve done a big change in lifestyle where home has a lovely shifting rhythm with the seasons. Thanks for joining here!
I'm finding it very rich with interesting places and people! I loved reading your descriptions of the more northerly parts of my adopted country that I have yet to visit. You've given me some new places to add to my ever growing list!
Great - lovely to hear I've given you some ideas of where to go! That's what I love about the UK - there's such diversity in the landscape despite it being such a small chunk of the world. Mind you, I never appreciate the rolling landscape of the South Downs, near home, so much as when I'm coming back from craggy peaks elsewhere!
Your pic of the meandering path is so fitting, Sabrina…what ideal imagery for your provocative musings which are so well-titled too -- the Geography of Home. It’s actually something I’ve thought about at key times in my own home-leavings, so I just love being here at the outset of your endearingly thoughtful and engaging exploration of this topic…kudos! I so admire your courage in becoming an expat and starting anew in the UK, and am looking forward to “meeting” the Isle of Wight via your settling-in experiences…my Anglophile curiosity is duly piqued!
(and don’t feel too guilty about that earlier interlude in your transition – after all, gloomy January and wallowing can go hand-in-hand anyway…so maybe it was just The Weather!)
I had to come back to the beginning to see if you found a house!
I enjoyed this thoughtful, sensitive, and humorous entry very much. Thank you for sharing it.
Having lived in Madrid for less than a year, I am borderline between craving nearby friends and realizing my dearest friends, like you, are spread around the world, and we can’t just go to the movies together. Instead, I find great pleasure in talking to the baristas, the owner of the wine shop and his yellow labrador, the women in the bread shop, the neighbors, and others I see regularly. These interactions help me feel I belong here. One foot in front of the other. Like walking.
I like your comparison to walking-one foot in front of the other. I too find my conversations with the various shop and restaurant/cafe/pub proprietors are very satisfying, and I usually learn something useful too. But mostly they are important signals that you are knitting into the new community. And it feels so good to have someone local recognise you!
Andrea, where in Madrid are you? We lived there for four years, a lifetime ago, on Serrano one block from the embassy. We were newlyweds.
Having made a major transition from our alpaca farm in Maine to living in a rental on the island of Martha's Vineyard on Boxing Day (2017), by way of putting most of what we didn't sell, toss, or give away into storage so we could move aboard a boat, I get it! Hurrah for long walks on the beach and along dirt lanes!
Yep, we started those walks on dirt lanes when we were growing up, didn’t we Pam? Walking is still my grounding place and where I think the best. I hope you’ll keep sharing your insights from your recent transitions here too. You’ve done a big change in lifestyle where home has a lovely shifting rhythm with the seasons. Thanks for joining here!
I love the Isle of Wight - sounds like you do, too! :D
I'm finding it very rich with interesting places and people! I loved reading your descriptions of the more northerly parts of my adopted country that I have yet to visit. You've given me some new places to add to my ever growing list!
Great - lovely to hear I've given you some ideas of where to go! That's what I love about the UK - there's such diversity in the landscape despite it being such a small chunk of the world. Mind you, I never appreciate the rolling landscape of the South Downs, near home, so much as when I'm coming back from craggy peaks elsewhere!
Your pic of the meandering path is so fitting, Sabrina…what ideal imagery for your provocative musings which are so well-titled too -- the Geography of Home. It’s actually something I’ve thought about at key times in my own home-leavings, so I just love being here at the outset of your endearingly thoughtful and engaging exploration of this topic…kudos! I so admire your courage in becoming an expat and starting anew in the UK, and am looking forward to “meeting” the Isle of Wight via your settling-in experiences…my Anglophile curiosity is duly piqued!
(and don’t feel too guilty about that earlier interlude in your transition – after all, gloomy January and wallowing can go hand-in-hand anyway…so maybe it was just The Weather!)