There’s something about opening a map in a fresh space and carefully unfolding each square in the center of your vision.

It’s the same feeling I get when I unpack my luggage in a temporary home: a flash of potential, the desire to briefly mark new territory as my own.

Later, I will hang up my work uniform and line up the few paperbacks I smuggled into my overweight carry-on. But for now, I admire the blankness of my latest bedroom in Coles Bay, Tasmania. It’s symbolic: though I appear to be settling in and establishing an environment that’s long been lacking in our travels, it’s only temporary. My boyfriend and I may fill this space for six months; after that, there’s a great big world – beckoning from the wall – to explore.

May the following quotes help us settle into our surroundings:

Settling into a new country is like getting used to a new pair of shoes. At first they pinch a little, but you like the way they look, so you carry on. The longer you have them, the more comfortable they become. Until one day without realizing it you reach a glorious plateau. Wearing those shoes is like wearing no shoes at all. The more scuffed they get, the more you love them and the more you can’t imagine life without them. – Tahir Shah

Nothing is more permanent than temporary. – Greek Proverb

I enjoy the preparatory elements of travel – packing my bags and choosing outfits – but my favorite part is getting there.- Dominic Monaghan

Home wasn’t a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go. – Sarah Dessen

My, my. A body does get around. – William Faulkner

Home is any four walls that enclose the right person. – Helen Rowland

After five years I still had the impulse, every ten to twelve months, to find a new home. Spaces became too familiar, too elastic, too accommodating. Boredom and exasperation would set in. And though of course nothing really changed from one roof to another, I liked to harbor the illusion that small variations occurred within, that with each move something was being renewed.” – Chloe Aridjis

Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it – memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey. – Tad Williams