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in germany in portugal

a fold back on the temporal isometry

“But do you know this idea of the imaginary homeland? Once you set out from shore on your little boat, once you embark, you’ll never truly be at home again. What you’ve left behind exists only in your memory, and your ideal place becomes some strange imaginary concoction of all you’ve left behind at every stop.”


― Claire Messud, The Woman Upstairs

farewell

i’ll take off the band-aid quickly: we’re moving again — and this time, back to portugal.

i’ve had plenty of time to get used to the idea, and yet, i’m still not sure how i feel about it. it’s an easy move, back to a familiar territory — but it’s also the scariest of moves, the one in which instead of jumping to somewhere new and unknown, one turns around to go back to the place where we started from.

i’d like to try to put my feelings about the whole thing into words, there’s still so much to say… but there’s no time for it at the moment, as our days are filled with craigslist ads and minor reparations, while we scramble to hug all our friends and visit all our favorite places. rationally, i know this isn’t the last time we’re here, but still, i want to hold all these things fresh in my heart.

i guess it’s time to say tschüß berlin then… and we’ll see you all on the other side! :)

ps – our berlin address won’t stop working, but we don’t recommend that you use it for mail. we’ll have a new one sometime after christmas, just ask us for it! :)

5 replies on “a fold back on the temporal isometry”

I know how you feel Ana – on the on hand moving back ‘home’ is easier than moving to a new, unknown country. But on the other hand it is also harder. For me it felt like I now officially had to be an adult. Which I probably already was :) There is a great article about going back on Internations; let me know if you want to read it. And good luck!!

Whereever you are, whereever you go, my good wishes and friendly thoughts will accompany you.
Goodbye for now – will see you again…

I just love your post. I’m still thinking about avoiding moving “back” (not really back, but it’s a long story).

Oh, and I have almost forgotten: thanks for discovering me Listserve!

Have a nice and safe moving and a warm welcome home. We will extremely miss you here in Germany.
Big hugs and all the best!
(Is it the old PT address???)

Hello Ana
and hello Paulo,

as I read that you are on the the way to move, i would like to wish you all the best.
This summer I moved with my husband from Gran Canaria to Hamburg, which is a new place for us. We had the same feelings as you, to take all the good memories with us and say Goodbye to all our friends. It was a hard time not only because of the emotional things, there were so many things to organize and do. I hope that you have a easy move.
Again I wish you all the best, you can do this!
Have a nice christmas time and a very good start in 2015!
Remember, one door will be close but a window will be open!

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