Transaction

jmMGoodbye #2: So I promised my readership more goodbyes after Facebook. This one is a bit more substantive and has taken a bit more thought to compose. Glad you've made the journey into the wilderness to read it, so here goes... Sorry Europe. It’s been fun, and thanks for all the fish, but it is time for this crazy Canadian to move on. After giving France the old “college try” (and being repeatedly kicked in the balls for my effort), then bouncing back to Austria only to be told that leaving the country had wiped out my residency, I find myself without a strong motivation or pathway to stay. It’s a damn shame. Europe has given so much to me over the past 6 years. Fun, friends, memories and a few romances leading up to my lovely wife. A salary that resulted in a PhD and a publication in Science (some things money can’t buy). A postdoc with a much better salary and 2 months per year to roam. Amazing care and support during a fight with cancer that cost me a pittance. I was more than ready to settle down to become a taxpayer and citizen, but pesky little gotchas kept popping up. Austria was comfortable, but I should renounce Canada to cease being an Auslander and gain a vote. Austria also didn’t seem like the ideal place to restart a life and a family when neither my wife or I speak proper Deutsch (my fault being a blockhead with languages). French citizenship would have been in reach after a few more years, and on paper seemed a reasonable place to establish myself. I had good faith until about the 8 month mark, but even had I wanted to stay I should have found a new employer willing to sponsor a foreigner, as there is apparently no interest in giving residency to a well educated homeowner after 2 years. I’ll just be polite, and wish the Gilets Jaunes *bon courage* in resolving some of the Kafkaesque silliness to be found in France today. I considered Ireland, but starting my wife and I from scratch in a new land simply because we spoke the language seemed a non-starter. I at least have some friends in the UK, but they seem to be stuck in the same general predicament as I: liking the idea of Europe but unable to deal with the drawbacks. In the end, Europe is not a country and nowhere in particular fits me. So as the old saying goes, go West, young man, and back to Canada I go. Hello #2: Until September or so I’ll be staying in Turkey (quibblers, quibble not: I’ll be in Ankara on the decidedly Asian side). Obviously there are downsides to living in this country: the language, the political and various human rights issues, even mundane things like the air quality. But Turkey has a certain quality that is difficult to simply name. It’s not quite ‘dynamic’; the Turks are still happy to spend 3 hours rotting over breakfast, smoking and bullshitting. It isn’t the most organized country, nor the most hard-working, but there is a definite feeling that the people there see their lives advancing. Maybe things don't improve day-to-day, but tomorrow promises something better than yesterday. I could not live forever in Turkey, but I have a connection now that I can’t turn my back on. I expect to have a warm winter hideaway there some day, so I will not always be far from Europe. Come visit (some of you have an opportunity come August), and help Turkey stumble forward from the odd dream it presently finds itself in. In the end, I will always remember my time in Europe fondly. By seeing what the “old world” is I’ve come to better understand the “new”, my place in it and who I am as a result, and it isn’t as a “European”. I’ve had a glimpse at what it means to be “European”, what the challenges are, the “museum” and its direction towards the future. I’m happy that I was able to show Canada to some Europeans before I go. Having been away from her these past years, I find myself missing the principles and contradictions that it is founded on. Peace, Order and Good Government, just don’t mind the bears, moose and Quebecois passing through your backyard, eh? My home and hearth will always be open to Europeans, so do look me up when you’re in Ontario or parts thereof and feeling a bit chilly. Cheers Europe, and goodbye. (If you want to reply here, poke me privately and I’ll give you a few millicents of Bitcoin to get you started).