Looking for Home

We have purchased our plane tickets back to the states. We’ll be stateside September 9^th. Our return raises several questions, the big one is about where we’ll be living.

            Answer: We don't know.

Both our horoscopes indicate a lot of focus on home (maybe because we don’t have one?), creating home and finding a house. Our horoscopes also say this is not the time to settle, that we should get exactly what we want, and trust that things will out to our advantage. 

            Still, it is a bit nerve wracking to take a leap of faith with only your horoscope in your back pocket.

            Consequently, we’ve been doing a lot of soul searching for where we should live. I even asked all my facebook friends. 

            They answered the Netherlands. After researching Amsterdam and the quality of life to be found there, I now agree with them, except there’s a small issue about employment and visas. Still, it helped us identify the qualities we want in the city we end up in. 

            Stateside, our top choices are San Francisco and Brooklyn. I suggested the Canadian cities of Toronto, Vancover or Montreal, but while we’ve heard really great things about all these cities, Kent doesn’t really understand Canada. He says, if we live in Canada, we might as well live in the US. 

            I said, Canada is like the US, but with benefits, like National Health care and schools without No Child Left Behind. It’s like the US but with the Queen. It’s what the US would be like if we lost the war. It’s like the US but with an abnormal hockey obsession. Living in Canada, we could have half and half, and still be living abroad. Our cake and eat it too, so to speak. If we lived in Montreal, we could eat cake and speak French. 

            Because we do like (love) living abroad. While it will be good to spend some time in the states, we don’t want to stay there in the long term. 

            Kent’s parents asked us why. We said, isn’t the better question why would we want to? Granted, we are backwards in several of these questions, people ask us why travel so much? We ask, why stay home?

            Nonetheless, it is where we are headed for now. My pro-Canada arguments didn’t sway Kent.

            So, we’re back to San Francisco or Brooklyn. Occasionally, we think of spending some time in Portland. Maybe Seattle. Every once in awhile, one of us says, but oh, we loved living in Denver, didn’t we?

           

            The qualities we’re looking for? Progressive, forward thinking, International, and hip is what Kent says. 

            I want seasons. I want a reason to knit again. Plus, libraries, museums, parks, a city full of the arts, oh, and good take-out, not to mention good farmer’s markets that make it easy to eat as locally as possible. Naturally good schools (in the Waldorf/ unschooling/Montessori vein). Abundant bike paths. Good transit. Lots of innovative and creative small businesses. Does this city exist? Whether it does or not, we're looking.