The Eternal Travel Syndrome,now I have name for my sickness.. In it’s most simple form, it would be something like this: when you leave a city your memory of that city is frozen on that moment and doesn’t change substantially over time. In our new home, we always miss that city and we even idealize that memory, forgetting the things we disliked. It’s not until we return that we realize that we suffer this syndrome and that’s why this illness is so cruel: we realize that the idealized city we remember has continued to change without us and that things do not seem that familiar all of a sudden. The effect is usually as strong as the distance between the cultures and increases with time. And that’s how we enter the path where nothing is home. You end up wanting to live in a city that’s a collage of memories, experiences and people. A mix of styles, architecture and gastronomy… A city that’s a chimera of all the memories of the cities you have loved. But that city doesn’t exist. And those who have only traveled on vacation won’t understand you. They’ll just say you’re exaggerating, and for them “home” will always be a defined place. You have to live abroad at least a year to notice the effects. multilingualliving/2012/02/12/the-eternal-traveler-syndrome/
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 13:33:18 +0000
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