Poll Results: "The Tourist" vs. "The Resident"

A bit ago, we asked what we believed to be a valid question: How many days / months / years must you spend in one spot to say you "lived" there? It's the important distinction that separates the embattled "red" vs. "blue" colors on our map. Many kind people answered our poll and there was a clear-cut winner (results after the jump), but like many things in life, the original question begat more questions until we learned something different altogether:

Je ne sais quoi.

That is, in other words, it's probably in the "how" -- not the "how many."

While you may wish to use an arbitrary length of time to qualify your experience in another place as having "lived" there, many -- if not most -- people believe it's more about feeling that causes you to say "Hey, yeah, I live here."

But how do you achieve that feeling? We had a ton of thoughtful responses -- many travelers took part in certain habits that made them feel at home. Find those and the final poll results after the jump.


What actions qualify one as having "lived" in a place?

• Having a mailing address in your new place. Or, more specifically, renting or owning property in a new place.
• Subscription to the local newspaper.
• Regular hang-outs with local friends and neighbors.
• Routine stops at the local grocery store.
• Applying for and acquiring a student visa or work visa before your travels.
• Getting health insurance from the country of residence.
• Going out on a date with a local from the country in question (saucy!).
• Walking into a bar and getting a drink poured without asking for it. 

Be sure to add any qualifications I may have missed in the comment section.

Thanks who all who took part in the poll. Most of you believed it would take three months to one year to say with certainty that you've "lived" in one place.

How long do you need to have stayed in one place to say that you've "lived" there?