Beyond Selidor

And being another immigrant I'm sure you understand without me needing to explain it, but I don't think I have a home town. The place I was born isn't somewhere I ever felt at home, and while I love it here, everyone sees me as an immigrant first and foremost, so it's hard to feel like this is a place that's part of me. I never felt like I belonged in the place I left, so I came somewhere I thought I'd belong better, and everyone here just sees me as a representative of everything I ran away from.

Ooof, I relate to nearly all of this. The city where I was born has never been my hometown, because my parents were immigrants there at the time of my birth, we left when I was two months old and I grew up in my parents' country of origin. I think in total I've been back four times to the city of my birth and culmulatively have spent maybe six week there during those visits, so I am very much a tourist myself when I go there.

The city in which I grew up and the city where my family is from and now (mostly) live are a bit different. There were periods when both were home, but they definitely haven't been that for a long time and I feel very complicated emotions about them. The city and country to which I immigrated felt like home for a long time, but not since 24 June, 2016 (which, ironically, was the day I received my first-ever UK passport).

Home is other people, for me, I guess.

However, on another note, you sound like an absolutely amazing host and it sounds as if you've got hosting visitors in the town in which you live down to a fine art! There's something for everyone, and to be honest I would personally enjoy every single thing you've listed!


Best of luck with your in-laws this weekend! I hope you're able to find suitable things to fill the time.

Thank you. The challenging thing is that they have been coming to this part of the world for years because my husband has lived here for over 20 years (he first moved from Germany to the UK to do his undergrad studies, and has never left), so they've already done most of the big touristy things, and my mother-in-law has very limited mobility but we don't drive and don't own a car. Normally they've driven here themselves but for various reasons they're flying this time, so we can only do stuff that's in very easy walking distance and doesn't require people being on their feet for long.