Bonjour,
Being homesick might be the lowest part of your exchange. You feel as if there is no hope and all you want to do is go home. It is super hard to pull yourself from the family, friends and lifestyle that you have always known when you are in a completely new enviorment with no one you know.
For me I wasn’t homesick until a month after moving to France. At this time, there was homecoming and football games and my tennis season! All I wanted to do was go home and participate in all of these school events with my amazing friends. My family was always together and seem like they were having more fun then me most of the time. On top of all of this, my brain started to hurt from trying to speak french. I would have died at this poiunt to hear english and only english, for a long time. The frenh headache was alwasy there I woke up with a headache and went to be with a headache. There was no escaping it. At this point in my exchnage was so bad I would cry just hearing english or looking at someone from America. I wasn’t able to go a minute without thinking about my friends and family back home. But, if I wouldn’t have figuared out how to get over this I would have never been able to say that the best semester of my life was the one I spent in France. Homesickness was a low part in my roller coaster of exchange, but, there was a huge uphill and I dindnt go back down until I had to say good bye. But that’s another story!
So, with that being said, here are some things that really helped me to get over my homesickness!
- Resit Constant Contact
- Even though it may be hard to go a day with out talking too your friends and family, the less contact you have the better.It will help you to focus more on your life in your host country rather than the life you lived at home. Even if you start small by not calling or skyping then work to trying and texting every other day.
- Only talk about the Good
- This also goes with less contact but, when you do talk to your family and friends only tell them about the good and nothing more. When you talk about the hard times and saying you are homesick the harder it is to get your mind off of the sad. The hard times that you may be facing such as the language barrier culture shock making friends or whatever it may be is bringing you down and the more you talk about them the more you think about them. This not only will help you with homesickness but in your life in general always focas on the positive and not the negative because you will just overall be happier.
- No Social Media
- In our generation today ,social media is everything. I can’t say I am not guilty of being extreamly active on social media but for the day when you are homesick don’t go through your Twitter, Instagram or any other media like that because seeing pictures of your friends or even just classmates is always hard because it makes you wish you were laughing in this picture with them, or at the event they are at. Not knowing what your missing is an easy way to not miss it. If you aren’t aware it is happening it can’t get you down. I get this is hard and you want to be up to date with everything that your best friend is going through and dont want to miss a second of the latest things happening in your friend group but, it is the price you pay for going abroad. And dont think of it as missing anything because you are gaining more than you are missing from this experience. Think about all the things your friends are missing out on. The friends you are making, the cultural experiences, the beautifu placed you are visiting, and the second life you are building. You would have been missing more if you were at home right now.
- Focus on your life in your new home
- Just like the last tip connected, this one relates as well. This helped me a lot when trying to get over homesickness. It may be hard to always be involved but if you host family is sitting in the living room playing a game, play! Or watching tv, watch too! Even if you don’t like the game or show or dont understand it, what else do you have to do? If you don’t play you would be sitting in your room, bored, thinking of home. This will help you get your mind off of home and on your second home. The less you think about home the more enjoyable you host country will be.
- Enjoy Every Moment
- This is almost the same as number two and many may find it cliche, but, im going to talk about it anyways. Weather you think its boring, or you would rather be doing something else, enjoy every moment, big or small! I want you to know that the reverse homesickness is worst than the homesickness you feel right now. Everyday I miss watching weird tv shows with my host family at night and dancing in the mirror in the morning while getting ready for school with my host sister. I miss just talking about random thing with my friends and messing up their language while they laugh at me and guide me in the right direction. I miss taking the bus to school and doing horrible sports in gym class, even if it wasnt fun. Most of all I miss speaking french and being around my second family and group of friends. You may not understand now but the goodbye is harder than any bit of homesick you have now! So live in the moment because you will not regret it!
I hope that this helps! Feel free to comment any other suggestions you may have to add or questions I can help answer!
à bientôt
xoxo Gina