Did you really "live" in Botswana, or do you just like the potpourri of colors?
As you've noticed, your Where I've Been map asks you to mark countries "red" to designate that you've "lived" there. It's an intuitive feature, but admittedly a murky one.
To wit: I studied abroad for a semester in Rome, Italy my junior year of college. If you'd look at my map, upon returning to American soil, I was so enriched with culture and worldliness that I felt entitled to consider myself having "lived" in Italy. I mean, come on -- I'm friends with an Italian person on Facebook! Where's my key to the city?
On the other hand, after three months, I still couldn't effectively navigate my own neighborhood or even roll my R's. So yeah, sure, I could see how someone might chafe at the idea of seeing Italy marked red on my map. (I also just like pretty colors.)
So where do you draw the line? Easy: The only clear way to get to the bottom of this is a highly scientific Blogger poll!
19 comments:
I think it's pretty subjective to have people claim that they've 'lived' there after 6-12 months. All depends on language, culture and so on. But then again hey... some can and some just try extra hard to blend in and 'live'. I voted and good luck with the poll.
Regards,
David
Malaysia Asia
I probably agree with you, David; measuring in "years" is might be a bit too objective.
There might be other more subjective lines that can be drawn though too: When do you feel like you've lived somewhere? Is it when you got a mailing address there? Partied with your neighbors? Subscribe to the newspaper? Maybe that's the more valid question.
I think at least a year is required before you can say you lived somewhere.
Of course there are things you can do to become part of a community more quickly. Check out www.ehow.com/how_4724386_part-community-move-new-town.html
At least a year? Bollocks. A month at most, as long as what you're actually doing is *living* there, not being a tourist.
Do you have an apartment? Do you have a daily routine that includes local shops? Do you have local friends who you spend time with? Do they treat you like a local or do they try and play tour guide for you?
It's not a matter of time, it's a matter of mentality.
I stay a month in a bunch of various cities through Asia once or twice a year, and when I'm in each I immediately settle in to my lifestyle for that city. It's living.
I live in Japan for three months each year. That's the longest I stay anywhere, and it feels like a long stay. I'm most certainly "living" in Japan right now.
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I agree that it depends on whether you are there as a tourist or not. If you're living in a hotel and do nothing but visit the spots in your Rick Steves book, you're a tourist. If you spend three months in a dorm, apartment, or host family's home and spend your days going to classes or working, you've lived there
when you rent/buy an apartment/house
I agree with Sobri, it has to do with how you "live" (or "stay") in a country. I would say that only under some circumstances could a semester abroad be counted as "living." Some people when they study abroad are just taken care of and shuttled around the country by the host university along with they classmates and may only make a handful of native friends. Others might do it on their own, find an apartment and get a job.
I lived for a 5 months in China last year (in total i came and left China 3 times during that time, with the longest uninterrupted time being 3 months) and studied Chinese. During my first stay, I stayed in a dormitory for 4 weeks and travelled for 2. During my second stay there I found an apartment, got a job, shopped at the grocery stores, and my daily routine looked like that of a Chinese person. During my last stay I stayed at my same apartment for 2 weeks. I would consider my last two stays to be "living in China." My first stay I felt like I was living there, but from my Chinese friends' perspectives I was probably nothing more than a blip on the radar as another foreigner who comes and goes--I was in no way a part of society.
I like the stay/live distinction. I was in Ecuador, in a house with a family for about two months. At the time I'd have said I "lived" there, but now, having lived in Chile for six years, it seems more like I was there or I stayed there.
Really, I'm not going to challenge someone about where they say they lived. I guess it's more about what you think about what others think.
BTW, thanks for the blogroll shoutout!
If you needed a student or work visa to be there, you can say you lived there. Travel visas don't count. Just my opinion...but I don't know every country's visa requirements. :)
All great suggestions. Maybe we should add a "Where I've Stayed" marker to our map for the more self-conscious traveler crowd -- I feel more comfortable saying "I stayed" in Italy rather than "lived" there, despite even having a student visa.
I was just having the same debate.
Some mixture of mentality/routine and time seems to be a good answer.
Yes, "staying" is a very useful middle ground between living and stopping in an airport for a few hours.
One day it would be nice to have trip lines drawn onto the world, for a better understanding of travel, ie. somebody who flies into St. Petersburg for a weekend and somebody who takes the TransSiberian both have the entirety of Russia coloured in. Some way of linking cities in a sequence indicating how that voyage was made would be really cool.
i think the best measure of whether you have "lived" somewhere versus visited, is how many times you bought groceries
if you stayed in a hotel and ate out every meal, you can be there for 6 months, and I'm not sure you really lived there, but when you are in an apartment or house with natives, cooking, cleaning, going out with friends on a weekly basis not because its the tourist thing to do, but just because that's what you like to do at home, then you're basically building a life there, and i think 2 months would do it
I only count it as "lived" if it is a permanent living situation. I've been in Spain the last 2.5 months and even have my own apartment. I don't consider it as living here because I'm going home at the end of the semester.
I'm not going to say I lived in Spain to make it sound like something more than it was, I'm only studying abroad.
I "lived" in Canada (from USA)had an insurance card and the whole nine yards, worked there, there was no language barrier, well not much of one, ah? Dated Canadians, paled with Canadian, was ticketed by RCMP, was in Calgary, Alberta. Went to the segregated bar (men and women) Then came "home" to USA. Neil
I totally agree with Eddie and Sobri. It's all subjective, and each of you is more than welcome to make your own distinctions; I don't see anything wrong with that.
But, outside of the home I grew up in, I've never stayed in one place for a full 12 months or longer, and yet I still feel that I've lived in those places - in Tokyo (3 mos), London (11 mos), Yokohama (10 mos), and Honolulu (7 mos and counting).
I had a mailing address, had a daily routine (school/work), went grocery shopping, made friends, got to know my neighbors, paid for nationalized health insurance, had a monthly train pass. I lived in an apartment, dorm room, or host family's house, not in a hotel or hostel. I spoke the local native language (i.e. Japanese). I went for weeks or even months at a time without doing anything touristy.
So, yeah, I feel I "lived" in those places. I sure wasn't living anywhere else at the time.
you have lived somewhere when you return to that city/country from holiday (or vacation for americans) and you call it "going home"...
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