Comments on: This is Home: Family before Country Part 2

By: David

David — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:03:16 +0000

Dear Ivan
I´ve only recently discovered your blog. I´ve been living here in Valencia for more than two years and am at that stage where I have to “lock in” for a while or head home to Australia with the lingering thoughts of “what if I´d stayed”. I have a beautiful girlfriend here and so the lock in seems more and more likely every day. It has been very useful reading about your circumstances and the concepts you have discussed in this article. I look forward to finding some time later to read some more of your posts.
Regards
David

By: Ivan

Ivan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:08:49 +0000

Hi Beatriz,
Thanks for reading and commenting - much appreciated.
Larry and Anne have a life of their own in Canada. Language, residency (they don’t have EU citizenship like me), employment (they are both a year from retirement) and their three other children, parents (Anne’s live in the same town) etc. Well, the list goes on. We couldn’t expect them to pick up and move here anymore that they could expect us to stay there. That’s just how it goes. It is a bit sad that we can’t be together more often, but we are all making the choices that make most sense for us.

By: Beatriz.

Beatriz. — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:36:58 +0000

Hi Ivan !
I love reding your stories, and they make me think a lot, but with this one, I could not stop asking this question. If Oscar wants to be with his grandparents and your in laws want to be with Oscar, why they do not move here ( in Valencia ) and everybody is happy ?

By: Emilio J.

Emilio J. — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:13:22 +0000

Ivan,every week with amazing thought and experiences, with that good style writting
I feel the same like you, but in a different level, I was born in the south of Spain, Huelva, but I only spent a month there, but all my mother family are from there.
Later my parents due to my fathes work when for a year to Gandia, later to Castellón de la Plana till I was eleven, then comeback to Gandia where I live till I started the University that I lived in both cities. Five years ago we moved together L’Eliana (west Valencia town) and for less a year I’m living with Nessi in Foios (North Valencia town).
Then, when the people say me: Where are you from? Wich is the good answer?
Foios? mmm… I’m not sure that I’m going to spent musch time in there
L’Eliana? maybe, but I have no friends there, only my uncle and aunt
Gandia? well, Is the place where my wife family lives and a bunch of my friends
Castellon? Well, no
Huelva? Is the place where I born but anaything else

By: Anne (Aba)

Anne (Aba) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:13:14 +0000

Thank you, Ivan. Being here in Valencia with you and Katie and Oscar is the greatest experience. It allows me to far better understand the love that you have for Spain and Valencia in particular. I won’t pretend that in my heart I won’t always want you nearer, but I think I better understand you and some of the choices that you have made. There are some things that we will always fundamentaly disagree on —- we are different people, different generations, different life experiences and we have made different, choices. However, we are family and as the family spreads, we will have to adjust. I look forward to the next two weeks and all the new experiences that it will bring.