Do people ask you where you are from?
I get that question all the time. Probably because of my accent - being a German living in Oslo - I´m confronted with suggestions of my origins all the time.
"Are you from Bergen?", "Long since you´ve been home, in Denmark?", "What, German? I thought you were from Iceland."
And mostly it´s fine with a simple: "No, I´m German, you know". But then Norwegians are quite fond of Germany, especially people in the East who have it easy to hop onto the ferry to Kiel. This is the result then for the next question:"And where in Germany..?"
Yeah, where? Born in Sachsen, my Mum moved near her home in the Northeast where I spend most of my childhood - but in three different places so to say. And then we went to the West - the place with milk and honey as we Easterners thought back then. I finished school there for sure, but call it home for that? With all the moving around with my mother I sure did meet a lot of people, always making new friends quickly. But forgot and lost as many as well, and at the same speed.
And then the lust for roaming started to call me. I went North, to Norway. First Drammen for a year, then Oslo, then Tromsø and now Oslo again. The last 8 years, I won more friends and through my boyfriend, family here than I have left in Good Old Germany.
Where the hell, I ask, is home for me then? What expect people to hear? Is home where you´re born? Where you have your memories from - the best, the most, the steadiest? Or is home where your suitcase stnds for now?
I guess, I´m homeless. Not in the negative sense, but not in an entirely positive way either. maybe I should see me as a wanderer, with wings rather then roots.
Maybe I have to move soon again, maybe I go west this time. Or south? Just for a change...