No matter how resilient a personlity you may have, homesickness will definately kick in at some stage during your erasmus trip. It is essential to be conscious that this will happen to you and to be prepared for it when it does. The following tips helped me out during times of stress, loneliness and homesickness:
- The internet. Make absolutley sure wherever you end up living that you have access to the interent. After a difficult day at a college with a foreign language, sometimes you just need to kick back and watch some TV programmes from home just to relax, unwind and feel you are in a somewhat familair zones for an hour or two. www.greatstufftv.com is a great website for regular tv series updates and got me through a few tough days. Also www.skype.com provided me with great valu calls to home (free to another skyope user) so I could keep in regular contact with freinds and family and not feel so isolated. Youtube also provided me with some calming mediative clips that helped calm my mind so that I could sleep on the nights before verbal presentations in college the next day. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-8tBE3pK7g was a particularly helpful clip in dealing with the rare panic attack)
- Socialising. Simply meeting up with new friends outside of the college environment creates a sense of familiarity and belonging with your host city and helps you adjust better to your new home.
- The Cinema. English films are available everywhere and provide a treat more similiar to home than any other as you get to interact in your native language.
- Living with friends/English speakers/other Erasmus students. Its good to come home from college and have some people to talk to about your day, especially if it was a tough one. People in a similiar situation to you will understand your reaction and can offer helpful tips, advice or just provide a listening ear.
- Hobbies. Do you play the guitar, enjoy kayaking or practice martial arts? Any hobby that provides an opportunity for distrcation, socialising or just venting your frustrations can only be a good thing so remember to keep active and keep busy.
- Visitors. Encourage your freinds or family to come visit, they've no excuse if you've got a spare bed or sleeping bag - who can resist a holdiay with free accommmodation? Meeting face to face can be great for catching up and sharing stories but be warned: you'll feel extra lonely after they've left for home.
- Meditation. Ok I don't buy this into this stuff much, but if you get one of those cd's and play it any night you can't sleep because you're stressed, you'll be surprised of the result. The track usually rrequires you're full attention and thus disrtacts your mind and helps you sleep after a half hour or so. Well worth having a try.
- Journal. Writing a journal can help you express your feelings of loneliness and gives the same release as if you've shared these issues with someone else. Just seeing the thought written doen can empty them from your mind as you're conscious they're recorded on paper now. This frees your mind and again helps you to sleep soundly after a stressful day.
- Items from Home. Having a few select items from home can give your new living quarters a sense of familiarity and can illeviate the sense of being so far from home. Items such as photos or posters are very portable and take up little room in your travel baggage. Alternatively you can look for shops in your new city that provide groceries form home. I found an Irish shop in Paris that sold Barry's Tea, a great discovery after weeks of weak English tea!
I applied all of the above methods at some stage or another during my stay in Paris and could not have survived without them. Remember that Erasmus is different from your normal college year, your friends at home cannot understand your new educational system, your family can't understand the difference between you renting abroad to renting at home and no one fully grasps the constant everyday problems you face due to language problems and cultural differences. Only your new Erasmus counterparts understand your situation and so it extremely important to be social and make friends with them; they;ll need you as much as you'll need them throughout the year. When all is said and done, its gonna be a fantastic year and a life changing experience. Have a great year!! :)
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