Hello everyone, it’s Hannah and I am back with another blog to talk to you guys about homesickness. Homesickness is something that, until traveling abroad, I had not ever felt. When I moved to Iowa City for college, I was so ready for the next step in my life. I grew up wanting to go to the University of Iowa so everything felt totally natural when I arrived. I was very happy with my new life in Iowa City. I talked to my Mom every day or every other day and many of my other relatives and friends back home several times a week. Naturally, when I was planning to come to Europe, homesickness wasn’t even on my radar.
We are halfway through the semester and homesickness has hit me like a brick wall. After these six weeks, the time differences, pictures from home, and irregular schedule finally caught up to me. I find myself thinking about my family members and how excited they would be to experience the things I am doing. I find myself missing the little things like walking to class with my old roommates or going on my weekly Mexican dates with my best friend.
To combat this, I have been making more time to talk to my friends back home. It is very hard to find a balance between talking with my friends and family back home and living in the present while I am here. I try to talk to my family most days and have started to talk to my friends back home on a daily basis. I have also been reaching out to other students here who I have become close to.
Everyone here is going through the same thing you are, and I think it’s important to remember that you are not alone in feeling this way. Another very important thing is remembering that we are so blessed to be able to come abroad and study. So every once in a while, stop and take a look around and remember how fortunate you are to be here. These past few weeks have been a nonstop roller coaster of excitement and craziness. Although I miss home, I am so grateful to be studying at CIMBA, visiting amazing countries, and meeting all these amazing people.
Hannah