Do you move around a lot or have you lived in only a few places?

I lived in Moscow and St.Petersburg for a year. Almost a year in Viareggio Tuscany. London a couple of times. Then I’ve moved around studying in different cities in my country. I’m 33.

I love and miss Russia, and I miss “ciao-ey” Italy.

i’ve lived in 16 different places in under 30 years.

I really like the fact that I’ve gotten to know many different kinds of people, not just one group living in one place. What’s really difficult is that it’s hard to form long-term friendships, because, for many, once you move you either a) fail to exist, or b) no longer have common experiences about which to be friends.

The longest i’ve ever lived somewhere is 5 years, the shortest is <1 year. I was in a different high school every year for all three years of high school.

@oratio Wow! You and I have lived in all of the same countries (except Sweden, according to your profile).

@eponymoushipster That is a lot of places! I went to three different grade schools during 3rd grade, and the longest I’ve lived in one place is also 5 years. Could you mention some of the places you’ve lived, if you don’t mind?

Come to think of it, I should explain my own situation. I lived in Novosibirsk, Russia for 6 years; then moved to Boston for 1 year; Chicago area from 2nd grade to the end of 8th (but I moved suburbs quite a few times in that time); Manhattan, KS for 4 years (hell in the Mid-West); Lawrence, KS for 5 years in college; and now I live in Cambridge, England. I’m moving again at the end of June, probably to NYC but I’m not sure yet. And I would like to go back and live in Russia again for a year (to get in touch with my roots and all).

Anyway, the reason I ask is that I get quite frustrated with having to pick up and start all over again sometimes. But I love to meet different kinds of people and make new friends. I’m not shy, so that helps. And getting rid of all your junk can be quite refreshing. There are other reasons I like and dislike moving. I’m sure I’ll think of some soon. @oratio I get that you miss the places, but do you have any likes and dislikes about the actual moving that you’d like to share?

Shit, I also lived in Italy for 3 months. Can’t believe I forgot that. I even have a tattoo of the Florentine flower. Duh!

I have lived in:

Adelaide
Alkmaar
Athens
Berlin
Bydgoszcz
Copenhagen
Cos
Coventry
Dresden
Dortmund
Edinburgh
London
Prague
Shrewsbury

hmm…many As,Bs,Cs and Ds.
I still have to try Florence, Grenoble, Hanoi, Indianapolis, Jakarta, Kingston, Manilla, New York, Oslo, Quezon, Reykjavik, Tokyo, Ulan-Bator, Valetta, Washington, Xylokastro, Ypsalla and Zangaraturtukka.

I lived in Colorado for 24 years and then moved to NYC about a year ago. It is different not knowing very many people, but it is very refreshing living in a more diverse community.

@bezdomnaya I love being on the move, and meet new people and cultures. I don’t mind starting over, and would love to move when I feel like it and can.

But I am not sure that’s a good idea with having a family. I have a son, and he can’t just go with me. Maybe I’ll never move again. I hope I will, but just traveling now and then works too.

Wow. Novosibirsk! That’s far. Would love to travel through Russia all the way to Baikal, Sakhalin…

Not so many fascinating places for me. I was born in Indianapolis, IN, but we moved to Fort Wayne when I was four so I don’t really remember it. We lived in Fort Wayne for about 8 years, then moved to a small town half an hour away, out in the “country.” Getting used to a small town might have been harder if I’d been older. I went to college in southern Indiana, which is quite different from the area where I grew up.

After college, I moved to Connecticut. I like it out here much better. We live about five minutes from Long Island Sound, can take the train to NYC or take an easy drive to Boston. Since moving to CT, I’ve lived in two different towns. The first had a navy base and so a lot of military families. Now we live in a town where a lot of people commute to NYC, there’s more money, and more snobbishness. I like it because there’s so much to do here in town, the schools are great, there’s almost no crime, and, well, it’s pretty. I don’t like how people are all very similar and wish my kids were exposed to more diversity. We try to compensate by taking them to other places and letting them get to know people from different walks of life.

Oh, and I hate moving just because I hate packing and unpacking. It’s such a pain. I’m also hopeless with directions, so it takes me a while to learn my way around and feel comfortable in a new city or town.

I have not lived in many states-but have moved around a lot.
I have lived in Nevada, Missouri, and Hawaii.
My husband is currently AD Army-so I’m sure we will see many more places added to the list.

Besiides the 4 months I relocated to the north of my state a few years, I’ve never lived outside of this city.

I’ve moved a lot, but not very far.
I was born and raised right outside Detroit, only until I was 4. I then moved outside of Philadelphia. We moved three times, within the same town, once down the street and then across down. Then my parents moved to the next town over, when I was 16.
I moved into Philadelphia at 18–19, off and on with friends. I never had a bedroom, just a nice couch.
Then I moved to a crappy apartment complex, with my then boyfriend/now husband, in one of the richest areas in the country, but we only lived there a short period. I moved back home with my parents, then to the town I grew up in. And now I’m back at my parents lol.
I’d love to move somewhere new, maybe a different state for a bit. If my husband goes to school, we’d move out of state. But, we’d prefer our son went to school somewhere we knew really well…so we’re not sure what to do.

I lived in NYC, South Carolina, and the north SF Bay Area for 7 years each, in that order. Then northern CO for 3 years, and I’ve been in Denver for the last 5. It seems like a lot of moving to me, but it’s really pretty stable compared to a lot of you! I’m 29, so you can do the math if you care enough. :)

I like that I’ve lived in such dramatically different places in the US. I have a decent understanding of the cultures in the Northeast, the South, the San Francisco area… but the Midwest attitude is still the most confusing to me. :)

Moving sucked as a kid. The first move wasn’t so bad since I was little, but a move at age 14, right before high school, was really really hard. I was very social and involved in middle school, but the mix of leaving my incredibly important friends, culture shock, loneliness, and puberty really kicked my ass for a long time.

And not having long term friends can be pretty difficult. I found pictures of what would have been my 10th year HS reunion if we hadn’t moved to CA. I actually cried a little, it was rough. I think my parents fucked up a bit in how they treated the move, and I hope I will never, ever do that to my kids.

We moved a lot when I was a kid, mostly between three different states and two countries. With my parents I have lived in California (Oakland, Berkeley, Orinda, Moraga, Rheem, and Walnut Creek), Connecticut (Stamford, and twice in Old Greenwich), Texas (Houston area, three different places), and Venezuela (Caracas).

On my own I have added Miami, Coral Gables, Key West, Micanopy, and Gainesville (all in Florida), Tucson, Corpus Christi (three different places), Salamanca, Spain and a wide spot in the road in Ecuador, near Santo Domingo de Los Colorados.

The first move I didn’t notice because I was a “babe in arms.” However, the next few were a bit disruptive to my social life. We also discovered during move #3 that packers are not always honest or smart. They broke our piggy banks and took the money, but wrapped the broken pieces up and packed them. I always hated to find out what the movers broke (or took).

We moved so often that by the time I was 12 I was in charge of the packers (my mom would go hide and read), and by the time I was 16 I supervised the whole thing once my mom selected the moving company and the date.

The worst thing about moving to me is not having the money to hire packers and movers. As an adult I have moved several times on my own, and I will never do that again. Hence I have been in my current house for 13 years, and plan to be hear at least another 20 or maybe 30. However, I can see from my daughter’s experience that I missed out on the long-lasting friendships. I never had them so I never realized what I might be missing. I also never learned how to conduct Spring cleaning. Instead of doing that we simply told the packers what not to pack and so shed our unwanted possessions that way.

OTOH, I have been exposed to all sorts of living situations, cultures, peoples and places, and have learned to make myself at home very quickly no matter where I am.

Except for six weeks when I tried to live on the west coast and wanted to kill myself because it made me so miserable I’ve lived in the same house my entire life.

I don’t know if this is considered a lot, but I have lived in 6 different towns in the same state. I changed schools 3 times. I enjoyed having the opportunity to meet lots of new people, rather than being one of those people who only knew the same people I’ve known since kindergarten. That would be SO boring to me.