Homesickness

So, you have come to an exciting foreign country like New Zealand. You have travelled around, seen breathtaking landscapes, taken millions of pictures. You have met amazing people and made everlasting friendships. You have practiced and improved your English to a satisfactory level. You are having a good time, and feel completely comfortable with the culture, food and weather.

Even so, sometimes you catch yourself thinking about your hometown, your house, family and friends you left behind. Too often, you picture what your friends might be doing, or where your family will spend that particular national holiday. Then you start calling your parents on a more frequent basis, and before you know it, you finally realize it: you are homesick.

This is something that every exchange student will have to face sooner or later in their courses. There is no way to prevent homesickness, and you have to know how to deal with it. It is, of course, something totally natural to feel. You have been living your entire life in one place, and suddenly, you move to another where nothing and nobody is familiar.

What you can not do, however, is let the feeling spoil your whole experience. Even though you miss your bed, your pet, parents, friends, favourite pub (and restaurant), it is always a good idea to remind yourself why you decided to take an exchange course in the first place: the opposite feeling. That warm feeling, where everything is new and seems to be possible. 

Time goes by so fast that, before you notice it, you will be back. You can let familiar feelings to when you are back to your home country.

Photo: Lynda W1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27948818@N05/3521185529/

/ CC BY-NC 2.0

Andre is studying at the Embassy Auckland school of English, find out more about the English courses available at Embassy.

Comments

[Nic Scott]

What a fantastic photo Andre!
Homesickness is normal. But if you read the posts you wrote before, you'll remember how glad you are to be here. Nic