Renee has a great entry on the subject. From what I know, she left the USSR when she was a teenager, and she lived in Israel since then. She is now a graduate student at the University of Berkeley.

When I sat down to digest this interesting physiological phenomenon, I somehow concluded that it's due to a self-identification crisis. I summoned Michelle, my crazy historian friend, and confided in her that I don't have a homeland, I have feelings of nostalgia but there's no place I am nostalgic for, I don't like to go places and I don't like to stay in one place too long, and on top of everything I don't have a native language. Michelle gave my situation some serious thought. Finally she explained that I don't have an identification crisis because I know well enough who I am. As for my coutry/location crisis, said Michelle, "You only have one choice. You must become a nation". I must confess that becoming a one-person sovereign nation appealed to me so much that I was instantly cured of my self-identification crisis. I did not design a flag though.

This small piece helped me a lot. You need your fellow displaced people to feel like home.

Christopher Alexander. The Oregon Experiment.

Book Description:

"Focusing on a plan for an extension to the University of Oregon, this book shows how any community the size of a university or small town might go about designing its own future environment with all members of the community participating personally or by representation. It is a brilliant companion volume to A Pattern Language."

I had this entry in my old blog, and I copy it now for not to forget to get the book. :)