#changing countries

[confessionary77]

Murky Places

We lived in many places

Each bright coloured and radiant at first

Then slowly

The murky undertones take over

Dimming the brightness

We ran

Before it got too dark

Now, nearing the next stop

I wonder if

The darkness,

The murkiness

Travels within us?

[bevsmith]

End of Winter is here

Well, I have survived my second Winter in a house in Europe and live to thrive in the coming Summer of central Portugal which is wondrously hot and dry and just lovely. I will never understand how people get warm in the European winter by just putting on layers of clothing. How does that work? If I am cold, and I mean bone deep cold that I have never experienced before in my previous little warm South African life, how does wearing more clothes warm you up? All that happens to me is that I remain bone deep cold with lots of clothes on top of the bone deep cold. I require artificial heating to warm me up, ie. a scalding hot shower, hot water bottle, heaters of various means (electric, gas, wood, anything hot). Without artificial means of heating me up I would die. Just die of cold.

Actually one really important lesson I learnt this winter was the importance of eating in winter. Through hard experience I found that a light meal when you are cold and your surroundings are cold does not work. No amount of hot showers, heating, etc. will work in this instance. Your body needs fuel from the inside to burn and warm you up. It seems I really am learning how to survive in the North.

I recently found the first person I have ever met who is like me. She is from Canada, strangely, as that is a seriously cold country to live in. That said, she struggles with the cold as I do. Nothing will do but some artificial heat to warm up.

But on a positive note, I lived through winter whilst being on a steep learning curve about lighting fires, keeping them stoked, getting the right level of red hot burning coals without wastefully burning up the wood too fast. This is a serious business. Knowing how to keep a fire burning constantly at just the right temperature. Adding the right amount of logs at the right time to maintain the optimum temperature. Not an easy task. But I surmounted this obstacle and have come out the other side of winter as a fire stoker of note and some experience. Still a comparative novice but on a learning curve.

The thing is that, in my opinion, it is a relatively easy thing to get cool when it is hot. You wet your head, spray a little water on your arms and sit in the shade with a breeze, natural or electric fan. Aircon is not even necessary (be kind to the planet people). Or jump in the swimming pool and wander around with a towel. But getting warm is really hard work. It involves acquiring wood, carrying said wood up to wherever your fireplace/wood burner is, lighting said wood, keeping it going through the cold, cleaning out the fireplace/wood burner the next day and repeating the procedure each day during the whole cold winter. Wow!

The thought of the warm summer sun on my skin keeps me going...

[changingpathsresources]

New friends

Changing Paths Challenge day 3 — new friends I’ve met some lovely new people in Canada — in the Wiccan and Pagan community, at pottery class and also Morris dancers. Plus we’ve joined a (secular) choir recently. Continue reading Untitled

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[crwrassignment3]

#3 - Moved

^ First song on this playlist

src - https://www.opendoor.com/w/guides/moving-guide-checklist

There’s something saddening about an empty house. About an empty room. Especially if you’ve lived in it. Each box you pack, steals a bit of the house’s soul and personality. What’s left behind is an empty shell, the skin without the body. It becomes something impersonal. With your belongings, the house is intimately yours, familiar and unique. Without them, it’s a bland husk, filled only with the memories of what used to be. I stroll through my room, full of cardboard boxes, and… I am sad. So much has happened in this house. This very room is one that my brother and I share, the image of what was, still fresh in my mind. I see the blow-up swing suspended from the ceiling in the centre of the room - it was nothing more than a dizzy trap for our unsuspecting friends. The box TV lies just in front of it, we would watch a movie every ‘non-school-night’. Our matching bunk beds and colourful drawers are on either side. And I can almost hear the sound of the Harry Potter audiobook we listened to every night. In reality, I stare at an empty 4x8m room packed only with boxes and memories.

Perhaps I am just sad, and the house is just a physical reminder of why. We are leaving. Again. Moving to a different country. The close friends I made at school, I would likely never see again. The reputation I had cultivated amongst both friends and teachers would be gone; good at sports, the best at tag, good at acting and smart enough to join extension classes. All of these titles would have to be earnt again. New friends would need to be made. Mama tells me it’s an opportunity to change who I am, to be new and to be better. But I didn’t want to change, I liked my role, I liked my friends and how I was perceived. I was happy. But now we were moving to the other side of the world, to start all over again. Again. Three years here finding my place, but now it was straight back to square one.

My home is like me. I can take most of its contents with me. But the new house will be a different size, a different shape. It might not fit what I bring. Some things might get left behind, some things might have to get thrown away and some new things might get bought. What I know for certain, is that it will be different. Maybe better, but maybe not.

It’s easier to be something if people expect it from you. I have found each successive move slightly harder as I get older, the extra years make roles more established and harder to break. As I walk through my dying home I can’t help but wonder, what if? What if I didn’t leave? The me that stayed here might be completely different to the me that moves away. Who would I be if I stayed? And who will I become when I go?

^my childhood room

[alegriaspain]

Just Say Goodbye -- 2/3

Just Say Goodbye — 2/3

by Mike Booth How to Begin

You need to start out with a mission statement. That’s your North Star; it has to do with the essence of your project and your objectives. That is to say, what are your priorities and where do you want to go, not only geographically, but philosophically? Think hard about it and get it right. Again, you’re not in a hurry. This is the genetic code of your expatriation…

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[lil-rei]

Can anybody tell me how to make moving to another country with no special skills to offer any job work? I really need to get out of were I am, and I’ve always wanted to try living outside of Canada, but I don’t have any sort of skill set that would justify me packing up and taking off. 

[lylesbrother]

What age to change countries?

A post sharing some insight from another family man on the experience of changing countries.

Emily and I ran into her friend’s father today at Irvine’s Central Bark dog park. While Emily played with the dogs, the father and I got to know one another and compared notes. He’d brought his family to the United States from Japan four years prior, and we shared some interesting war stories about the challenging process of finding work, getting a visa for our spouse, and acclimating children to…

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