Your Home is Where You Are

We have all heard the cliche phrase...'Make yourself at home, right?'
Well, when you really have no home, this phrase takes on a very literal meaning.

We tend to treat the unfamiliar with great trepidation. As a guest in someone's house, you will not exactly saunter into the kitchen and start looking for the sugar and tea bags to make yourself a cup of tea. There is a social convention which just dictates that as a guest, you have to behave in a certain way. Wait for the sugar and tea bags to be brought to the table, then make your own tea.

I think I got to a stage where it really did not matter for me.
For my last 2 to 3 weeks in Europe, for many reasons, my place of residence went from semi-permanent to...where my head hit the pillow.
Not that I'm complaining, these were the best weeks of my whole stay!

I stayed with one host family for a week, and then stayed with another host family for another week, after which a couple of friends and I decided to visit several different cities before heading home. So I literally had a new bed every 2 or 3 days in a new hostel in a new city.

There really is not that grace period that allows you to be shy and reserved in a new 'residence', hoping that your hosts will walk you through everything before you get comfortable enough to start doing everything for yourself.

Sometimes there would be no one but me home, and I had to fix up my own meal. Sometimes everyone was busy doing their work. Then when it came to the hostels, really, it is no one's home while at the same time being everyone's home!
I just had to fit in and get comfortable because there was no other option.
When I get to a host family and they say...'Make yourself at home, I would take it literally!!'

Find me...opening the fridge and scavenging for a snack just as I would at home.
Find me...propped on a sofa at a hostel living room, warm and cosy under my blankie, laptop on my lap watching a movie oblivious of all the strangers around me.
Find me...trying to fix myself a meal, opening every single cupboard and drawer looking for the knives and spoons, cups and plates and the likes.
Find me...going through the movies and books collections looking for a good read or a good movie to watch.
I learnt to make everywhere as comfortable as home.

Fast forward to me being back home, the other day we had a guest over, a friend from school. He was hungry, so we went into the kitchen to see if there were any left overs from lunch.
Instinctively, I pulled out a plate for him, took off the covers from the dishes that held the food, gave him a serving spoon, showed him where the microwave is and then started to head in another direction.

I would not have thought anything of it, except he said to me...'Wow, no such thing as being a visitor in this house, huh?'