Homesickness when living abroad

If you are following my blog you will know that I still haven't started my au pair experience, but I can tell you that I know the feeling of homesickness.

A few years ago, when I was 17, I packed everything up and I went to the USA thousands of kilometres away from home to be an exchange student in an American high school. I left my parents behind in an airport and left for a far a away land for 10 months. I left knowing that for 10 months I would not see anyone from back home, as I could not receive any visits and I was not allowed to visit home, not even for Christmass. So I certainly know what it's like to feel homesick.

And there are two things I want to tell you about it:it is totally normal to feel homesick and it gets better with time. 

If you cry yourself to sleep on the first nights, or if there are times when you can't hold it in anymore and you end up hiding somewhere to cry those tears you have been holding for a while don't worry. That is absolutely normal. Not only are you missing everbody and everything back home, you are also trying to adapt to a whole new environment, you are taking in a huge amount of changes in a very short period of time, and that, of course is a lot to deal with. A new place, a new language, new routines... those are a lot of changes to take in all at once, so sometimes you just give in and cry. 

The best thing you can do is to keep yourself bussy. Plan your days so that you have many things to do, the more things you do, the less time you will have to feel homesick. And the more tired you get the sooner you will fall asleep and you will avoid those long nights where you cry out of feeling nothalgic. 

Another thing you should do is find someone you can talk to. Talking to those back home is great and it will be of great help for you, but talking to someone who is there for you and who is going through the same things as you will be very helpfull aswell. 

And lastly don't get those sad moments condition you. As I said earlier it is normal to feel that way and it gets better with time. Don't plan an early return because you think you won't addapt. Maybe now it will be hard to believe, but soon will come the time when you will have to go back home and then you will have a hard time saying goobye and adapting back to the life back home. So enjoy your stay at the most and give yourself some time to adapt to all the changes.