This past weekend, my grandparents moved out of their home in the Berkeley Hills of nearly half a century. As many of you know, that house is very near and dear to my heart. As I told them, if they were selling it (they’re not), I would sell everything that I owned to be able to keep that house in our family. On Monday evening, I took a tour of the house, in its empty and soon-to-be-rented state, and went from room to room and recorded nearly two hours of interviews with them about their tenure and memories in that house. One of the final poignant things that my grandmother said toward the end of the interview was: “We’ve lived in lots of places on and off over the years, but this will always be home.” And absolutely, they have — ranging from Ibadan, Nigeria, to Seoul, South Korea, and to Atlanta, Georgia, and Wooster, Ohio.
It got me to thinking how much I want to live outside the U.S. again sometime before I’m 30 and share in that experience. My aunt Heidi Hadsell has had similar experiences over the years as well. She’s lived in Montpelier, France; Geneva, Switzerland and Rio de Janiero, Brazil, among other places. She travels more than anyone that I know.
While I’ve had some of those experiences already (Switzerland, Australia, Senegal), I’ve been thinking how I’d like not just to be a travel bum/journalist with a travel budget, but also to actually live in a place for awhile. The top places right now on my list are France (perhaps an off-the-radar city like Lyon or Marseille?), and definitely Iran. Maybe again in Africa somewhere?
I’m fortunate to have friends in various places around the world. Aside from the friends that I’ve made over the years that I’d love to see in Thailand, Singapore, Switzerland, and Turkey (and I’d love to go back to all those places) — I *really* want to visit David in Lucknow, India, and Susan, who will be moving in a few months for a year with her new Guinean husband to Rabat, Morocco — and Katie in rural Georgia, two hours south of Atlanta. I’ve got invitations to come visit, and I’ll be damned if I don’t take them up on those offers.
I’ve got roots in Berkeley/Oakland now, and that’s very comforting.
