Where do you consider "home"?

Haha I think it's awesome you've experienced so many different places but get why you might pause before answering hat question. I'd probably just stick with "the US originally" unless asked to elaborate hahaha I do that now and I only ever lived one place there! I love when people ask "where about?" And ask for specific town/city like they're going to know and they follow it up with "oh not heard of it!"


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Good question to ask me this week - American by birth, in Asia these past six years and a few days away from returning to London, where we have a home and lived happily for seven years. I will say London as we are happy to go back there but neither of us is from there so it will never be 100%


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Now a week+ into the return and definitely London feels like home again. It helps that it is summer (of sorts ) - come November and the short days and I won't be nearly as happy, I know!


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It's really hard for me to say where "home" is. Despite growing up in Ohio, it never felt like home. I just never liked living there and would beg my parents to take jobs in other states (they never did). I never felt like I fit in, either, and now that I've been in the UK for a few years it's feeling more like "home."

Since moving to the UK I've been to the US several times. I try to visit twice a year and each time I feel like I've moved further away from being American, but not exactly British. I'm just bobbing somewhere in the Atlantic. The first visit to the US after getting married, my husband (he's British) and I were in a shop paying for something when the clerk reached over the counter to explain what the coins were! I looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'm American," and he replied, "You don't sound it!" Even ordering a drink at Starbucks raises a few eyebrows, and a barista once said to me, "I could listen to you talk for hours!" I told them I grew up down the road and they didn't believe me. If you heard me speak, you'd know I was American. British people can always tell I am 100% American. But for whatever reason, Americans in America cannot.

My last visit to the US had CBP asking me all sorts of questions about why I live in the UK and if I would return (they even asked for proof of my itinerary). I'm a US citizen, and I only have a US passport (for now). I was shocked and hurt that as a US citizen I had to show that I would actually leave. And then for my flight back to London, the airline didn't understand what my BRP was! They wanted proof I was coming back to the US! It was just weird.

Returning to the UK, I'm always welcomed with a smile, and the immigration officers always welcome me back. They don't say "welcome home," but they say "welcome back."

I feel like I've moved further away from being American, but not exactly British. I'm just bobbing somewhere in the Atlantic.

I've been explaining to people how I feel almost exactly like this for the last two-three years! This is so incredibly accurate. It's like brits know you're not from there (even if they can't tell if you're American or Canadian or whatever) but Americans think you've gone full native when you come back for a visit.Sometimes I get so sick of it on both ends of the spectrum! I know people are just making comments they think are funny but when you've heard them for the 100th time, it gets old...

Since moving to the UK I've been to the US several times. I try to visit twice a year and each time I feel like I've moved further away from being American, but not exactly British. I'm just bobbing somewhere in the Atlantic. The first visit to the US after getting married, my husband (he's British) and I were in a shop paying for something when the clerk reached over the counter to explain what the coins were! I looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'm American," and he replied, "You don't sound it!" Even ordering a drink at Starbucks raises a few eyebrows, and a barista once said to me, "I could listen to you talk for hours!" I told them I grew up down the road and they didn't believe me. If you heard me speak, you'd know I was American. British people can always tell I am 100% American. But for whatever reason, Americans in America cannot.

My last visit to the US had CBP asking me all sorts of questions about why I live in the UK and if I would return (they even asked for proof of my itinerary). I'm a US citizen, and I only have a US passport (for now). I was shocked and hurt that as a US citizen I had to show that I would actually leave. And then for my flight back to London, the airline didn't understand what my BRP was! They wanted proof I was coming back to the US! It was just weird.

Returning to the UK, I'm always welcomed with a smile, and the immigration officers always welcome me back. They don't say "welcome home," but they say "welcome back."

Just wait, someday you might get the coins mixed up!  I do.  Regularly and embarrassingly because while I don't sound like I'm from the South, I do sound American.  Why do nickels, dimes and quarters not have the numerical amounts printed on them anywhere?  It's stumped me more than once because coin designs have changed since I grew up there!

I've found the change in the airlines over the past year (?) very weird.  I've always flown on my US passport for the flight, but now I'm American one way and British the next to prove I belong both places or I have difficultly checking in.  I can imagine that's more difficult for you and others who hold visas with no plans to leave but can't exactly explain that in the small passport number box online.

I despise US immigration.  When they ask when I'm leaving I remind them that I just handed them a US passport and could easily and legally decide to stay indefinitely.  UK immigration is so much better.  It's nice to be treated like a human.

Where do I consider home?  Well, I came out to Saudi Arabia in 1997, as a British single woman.  Mobile (cell) phones were in their infancy and phones with a camera would be confiscated.  We did not have access to the internet.  You had to ween ourself off from going to the Mail Centre every day in the hope of a letter as people back home didn't realise how important such things were and would not reply right away.  Of course, letters would take a couple of weeks either way, so that added to the suspense.  I lived in a one bedroom apartment at first and did not have a television for a year.

I had to realise that "home" was wherever I was.  Mentally I think you go insane if you are forever living in a different place.  So now I take "home" with me.  It is all in my own mind.

Now that hubby has a settlement visa (so thrilled, and so relieved) we are heading to the UK soon.  And then that will be home.