Home sweet Homesickness

Homesickness is a tricky thing and many people get it in different stages of their year abroad and over different reasons. The most common is when people just arrive, they haven’t kicked jetlag, and they do not know anybody. While this is very common, I never had it.

My experience with homesickness

I never really was homesick as I LOVE traveling. It wasn’t until the second time I came here that it hit me, however, luckily it only hit me for about an hour at night and NOT EVERY NIGHT. Maybe once a month I was “homesick” it was usually right after I would facetime my parents. Many of you don’t know but the week before I was moving to Italy for the second time my dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer and although he had his surgery before I left he was going to start treatment after I left and I had no idea what it would do to him: physically and emotionally. It wasn’t a super super aggressive cancer, but still it was cancer and that gave me an unsettled feeling. (Also, right before the first time I came to Italy my dad had an emergency triple bypass ((talk about bad luck for me)). Fast forward a few weeks and his treatments were going good but then I found out that they would have to cancel their Italian vacation because his treatments weren’t going to be done. At that moment is when I had my worst night, in which luckily, I had Riccardo’s shoulder to cry on. Now that my dad is officially cancer free I haven’t been homesick, there are times I miss them, but now I just call and things are okay!

How to get rid of homesickness

I have talked to so many people that needed advice on how to get over homesickness so I wanted to give you guys some tips on how to kick it:

1. GET ON THE CORRECT TIME SCHEDULE: This means waking up and going to bed at the correct time as well as eating at the correct time. Nothing is going to make you more homesick than not seeing anyone because you are sleeping when they are awake and vice versa. YES, the first few days you are going to be tired but the faster you make the switch to a normal routine the BETTER

2. GO OUT EVERY SINGLE DAY: Even if you have NO plans! Just get out and walk around your new city! Trust me, being out and about will make you feel so much better! Even, if it’s without friends!

3. MAKE FRIENDS: The sooner you make friends the better. YES, spending time by yourself and enjoying time by yourself is a magical thing. But when you first get to a new country it can be very damaging to your mental health! Make sure to join aupair Facebook groups for your cities, join a language school, and even hang around the local coffee shop or hit up a bar!

4. CALL HOME: Just because you left doesn’t mean you shouldn’t call home. If you miss them, call them! It will make you feel better hearing their words of encouragement! I try to call home a couple of times a week if possible!

5. HANGOUT WITH YOUR HOST FAMILY AND TRAVEL: On your weekends make sure to either hangout with your host family when they head out in the city OR take the weekend to explore new places. Come on, you can’t be made when you are walking around Rome and thinking “oh my gosh, I’m living the Lizzie McGuire movie”.

Remember that home will always be there, but the time to live abroad will not. So even if you miss home give yourself some time to adjust to this new life! You will love it, I promise!