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Expat Chat: Homesickness

Last activity 17 May 2016 by Gordon Barlow

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showkot40

Do you get homesick from time-to-time? How do you deal with being away from loved ones and a familiar place?

Priscilla

Hi showkot40 and welcome to Expat.com :)

Please note that i have moved your topic to the Expat Café - open discussions forum for more interaction with the members. :)

Thanks,

Priscilla

El_Jost

No, my house (my home) belongs to others now!

beppi

My solution is simple (although sometimes it takes time to implement it):
Make home the place you are in, familiarize yourself with the surroundings and people, make local friends - and don't waste time on nostalgic thoughts about the past or comparing then and now!

Gordon Barlow

I'm with Beppi again - the second time tonight! If your home is where you hang your hat, then you shouldn't ever be homesick. If you hanker after some other place, you really should get back there a.s.a.p.

El_Jost

Actually I agree with both of you.  I am totally content where I am and have no wish to leave.
But in a way it's a matter of definition to me. In earlier days I've heard South Africans who were born in SA talking of 'home' and meaning England.
Words such as 'home country' and 'home town' even 'homesickness' to me imply or refer to the place where people grew up. Similarly in German.

Gordon Barlow

El_Jost wrote:

In earlier days I've heard South Africans who were born in SA talking of 'home' and meaning England.


My grandmother, who was born in Australia of an English man and an Irish woman, always referred to England as "home". She encouraged me to go "home". It does depend on how one thinks. On a similar theme, my father's cousin in England, who was a devout Catholic, confused me once by talking of "our little church". I assumed she meant her local RC Church, but in fact she meant the C of E one - the parish church.

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