Have you ever moved away?

I suppose this is a bit apropos given we have just moved TFP to a new place but I am referring to moving house. Have you ever moved cities (or countries)? Did you (do you) miss your old place?

I moved to Singapore five years ago on July 30th. As you can imagine, it was a big move. I didn't actually go back for a visit until last summer. Going back after four years was an eyeopener. It reminded me of all the reasons I love Toronto. Now here I am am, one year later and I am missing the summer in Toronto. I am missing the smells. I am missing the beach. I am missing...

I think it might have something to do with the fact that I haven't had a vacation in a while and am just in need of a break.

I know it isn't that I want to move back... I just want to have my cake and eat it too.

How about you? Ever move far away? How did you feel about the place you left behind?

 

I just realized that I am moving house (again). The move is happening on July 30th.

This move is not quite as far as the one I made five years ago. This one is just across town. Our lease was up and our landlord sold our apartment. We had to move. The good news is we are moving to house with a yard. I just bought a bbq and some outdoor furniture as well.

It's just odd how things change... even when you aren't trying.

Thanks for the offer on the couch Martian. I will keep it in mind if I end up back in Toronto.

 

Actually, the house is a bit smaller than our current apartment and there are fewer places to store things.

It has more living space when you include the outside space, which you can use year round in this part of the world.

If anything, the move provides an opportunity to get rid of a few things.

 

It really is amazing how it can pile up. When we moved out of the house in Toronto, it was astounding how much we stuff we had accumulated. Even last year, it was amazing the stuff we had kept in the basement when we moved away.

I found it quite liberating to slough off all the extraneous stuff I didn't need. My wife, however, found it quite distressing.

I suppose, this is one of the biggest parts of moving, whether to a new country or just a new house, is the way it puts your stuff in relief. You are never more aware of what you possess than when you have to move it.

 

I lived in Ohio for 28.5 years and then moved across the country to Oregon just a little over a year ago. I had wanted to move to Chicago or Philadelphia so that I could stay close to family, but no one was hiring for my particular skill set other than a university in Oregon. So here I am. I don't really regret the move as the job is incredible and will open so many doors. I've been too debilitated to enjoy what Oregon has to offer outdoors-wise. If I didn't have that awful MS relapse, I think I would be happier. The town I live in is ok, but I think I like the town I play rugby in better. I do think that is changing though.

I was just thinking in the shower today how I want to move back to the Midwest eventually. (Even though it's hot as balls out there right now.) I still want to live in Chicago to be with one of my BFFs Mikey and to stalk monkie. (I also think there are some other TFP jokes in there somewhere.) It would be halfway between a brother in Cincy and a brother in Green Bay and would be able to visit both easier when they start spawning. I'm close to my brothers and I miss them. That's the hardest part.

I don't miss the town I grew up in. I miss the Ohio town where I went to college and I miss the Ohio town where I lived before moving to Oregon. I consider that town my hometown.

 

I find it interesting that you can't feel comfortable in a place until you know its flora. I can't feel comfortable anywhere until I have a strong mental map of where I am in relation to everything else. When I first moved to Singapore, I spent a lot of time looking at maps and then going for long walks to get a better understanding of where thing are.

Recently, I have been going for long bike rides to fill in a few of the places that I have yet to explore.

I am like this when I travel as well. I find it completely disconcerting when I can't orient myself.

 

When I was 20, I moved from Ohio to Georgia. Less than a year later, I moved to Portugal (the Azores. My ex-husband was military.) I didn't feel any real attachment to Georgia, but daaaamn, I miss the ocean on Terceira. I had a place that was "mine," on the cliffs overlooking the sea, and I'd really love to sit there again someday (not very likely, though. And I've mostly come to terms with that.)

Moved back to Ohio when I was...uh...23ish? And there I stayed until last summer, when I moved to Clinton, NC. I remember saying there was ONE THING I missed about that place, but for the life of me, I can't think of what that was. There was a pig processing plant right in the middle of town, so it always smelled TERRIBLE. I grew up around steel mills, paper mills, and farms, and all of those combined didn't match the awfulness that was Clinton. Plus, it was a very small town, not really anything to do, and the sidewalks rolled up at about 8:00. Not so much fun.

I'm in Hickory, now, and we've talked about leaving again once our lease is up. I'd love to go to Boston, but it's too expensive. Chicago is too cold. My BFF is in Oregon, but that's too far from home for me. Our roommate has been talking about Charleston a lot lately, and I am more than a little impressed. Just sounds like it would be a great match for me.

I don't miss much about my hometown. I miss my friends, and I really miss seeing my mama every day. But the town itself? Not so much. I don't ever see myself living there again, although I COULD see moving back to one of the cities close to it...Cincinnati or Yellow Springs (where ZS lived), maybe.

 

I want to live in YS again....you should live with me then since you don't want to live in Oregon.

 

I also want to note....as much as I love discovering new places...I HATE the act of actually moving. Packing everything into boxes, trying to decide what I should keep and what should get tossed (I'm such a packrat...), loading up the truck....ugh. I'd like my futuristic teleportation gun, please.

I would totally be down for that.

 

I've moved three times after I moved out from my parents home. All within a 10km radius, so there haven't been much that I've missed apart from a great climbing tree at our previous house. If I where to move further I would probably miss everything from my friends and family to the nature and the water in the tap

 

I moved from my parent's house in Oregon (and yes that is pronounced just like 'organ' and no other way) to Florida for the Military. After a brief stint in Orlando and three+ years in Jacksonville I moved back to the liquid sunshine state. From there it was Idaho and then right across the border to Washington.
My main gripes about the eastern washington/palouse area would probably be the winters have actual snow any given year (yuck) and clam chowder is a complete joke around here. Potato chowder is fine but adding two small pieces of clam to it does not make 'clam chowder'.

 

When I moved out of my parents' house years ago, I only moved ten minutes away to a nearby apartment. When I bought my first house, I'm still only ten minutes away from where I grew up.

I got roots.