tips for dealing with homesickness?

statina

First time since coming to Oz that Ive experienced homesickness. Finding it brutal at the moment to be honest . Its probley because Im not going home for Christmas (2nd in a row that I'll miss).

Has anyone ever experienced this and have you any good tips of beating/dealing with homesickness?

Doc

I find just keeping as busy and active as possible stops me from getting homesick. The only times I ever feel it is when I'm sitting at home a couple of days in a row not doing anything and my mind wanders to all the nice things I could be doing at home. It never wanders to all the crappy things Id also have to put up with.

dave3004

Arrange a skype date with one of your friends.

They will reinforce the point of how sh!t life is at hoem and that you've actually missed nothing.

woolymammoth

can't say i've ever experienced home sickness tbh.. I've always been one for moving away at the first chance

but you have options.

you can distract yourself, with work, chores, or friends.
you can get in touch with those you miss so much. www.skype.com
you can go for a virtual tour and visit a bog, depending on where you're from! http://goo.gl/maps/MvOXX
you can distract yourself with comfort food, http://www.tasteireland.com.au/
you can search for the cheapest flight home. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
or, you can suck it up princess! :pac:

that reminds me, i should call my dad..

Batgurl

Me and mum do Skype shopping dates. She brings her iPhone to Pennys and Dunnes, holds it up to different things she thinks I'd like and I tell her what to buy me.

As well as getting to talk to mum and getting free goodies, I get to see the shops and stuff at home so it eases the homesickness.

catbear

A daily check of the rainfall radar on the Met.ie should help a bit.

In Exile

Doc's advice, for me, is one of the main things to stop with the homesickness.

Plan something for around Christmas can do wonders too. Last year was my first year too and I didn't find it that bad. This is my second year, and talking to family who have been away for long periods, they always said the 2nd Christmas was the worst.

So, this year I planned on doing a "proper" Christmas dinner the weekend before the 25th...... and even with it being a month away, I've enough on my plate to keep me busy til next Christmas. Honestly have no idea how my mam is able to cope with this work load every year!

Try not to dwell on it too much either. Get into things here that won't remind you of home. Even something as simple as the Cricket. Forget about the game itself, but with a few people it is a great day out and with good weather will take your mind off home very easily

In Exile

Doc's advice, for me, is one of the main things to stop with the homesickness.

Plan something for around Christmas can do wonders too. Last year was my first year too and I didn't find it that bad. This is my second year, and talking to family who have been away for long periods, they always said the 2nd Christmas was the worst.

So, this year I planned on doing a "proper" Christmas dinner the weekend before the 25th...... and even with it being a month away, I've enough on my plate to keep me busy til next Christmas. Honestly have no idea how my mam is able to cope with this work load every year!

Try not to dwell on it too much either. Get into things here that won't remind you of home. Even something as simple as the Cricket. Forget about the game itself, but with a few people it is a great day out and with good weather will take your mind off home very easily

Plug

I found the first week while being jet lag i was a bit home sick but it weared off. Any time i talk to my dad he reminds me 'not to come back to this sh!t hole, not even for my funeral'. Nuf' said....

The Aussie

For me it was ditching all the negative people you meet while traveling and living abroad that cured the home sickness, the people who's only friends are foreigners, who constantly denigrate the place and people where they are staying and comparing everything to back home, you will be happier living anywhere without these people in your life

s14a johno

for me was 8 months in hostels the best Thing i ever did,
but I did travel alone, and knew nobody,

but just try stay in irish bars i found that help alot
skype once a month and wast app and voxer was loads help

but as said try get know few people, i just ended up in hostel for ages
but was same people there for 6 months so was family so felt like home
just dont get caught up in the hostel ting,



iam home now do, but best experanice in my life,
but as said dont come back, i did only as visa was up and screwd over by my boss
but headn to canada now where i know few people who meeet in hostels in perth

pclancy

dave3004 wrote: »

Arrange a skype date with one of your friends.

They will reinforce the point of how sh!t life is at hoem and that you've actually missed nothing.

I second this, every time I skype someone from home they remind me of all the reasons that its crap and how awesome life down here is.

catbear

For what it's worth back in the last irish recession/depression I went to the US, I was only 19 at the time and there was zero work at home, 20% unemployment at the time. I got homesick. I came home and I trundled on and watched the same nepotistic parochial politics continue. I've emigrated again and I'm glad to say that this time if the technology available today was around back then I would have stayed away from Ireland. Make what you can of the now, put money away for the tomorrow, revisit the past if you must but look after number 1.

Cooperspale

As stated above, keep busy and avoid sitting around by yourself. Skype your family or friends, text, whatsapp etc to see how they're doing. The Internet is your friend, you can watch the news and a plethora of shows on RTE player, TV3 also has one though I only watch Vincent Browne on it. Get the tune in radio app, you can listen to national and most regional radio stations at home. And when you hear half of the depressing stuff in news there you'll be kinda glad that you're out of the loop. Radio here is pretty poor for the Christmas tunes so if you need a fix, tune in online from December.
Catch up with some Irish pals here, have a Guinness, soda bread or some Tayto etc. if you can get your hands on it. And find some mates to do a traditional Christmas with to get you over the festive season. Coming from cold Christmas territory it will always be hugely different having a balmy 25th December.

Pisco Sour

pclancy wrote: »

I second this, every time I skype someone from home they remind me of all the reasons that its crap and how awesome life down here is.

I went home in July/August for the first time in almost 2 years and it was anything but crap. Ireland is what you make of it. Lot of negative c*nts around there who end up with what they deserve. The positive people are getting on grand and are happy out. You'd swear it was Somalia the way some people are going on.

I get very homesick out here at Christmas time. This will be my 3rd Christmas without my family, but 2 of my cousins will be here for xmas this year and we've booked a trip to the outback for a few days just before Christmas, thus missing the non-existant build up to Christmas here. If you can't recreate it, then just pretend it isn't actually Christmas, and there's nowhere less Christmassy than the Outback.

statina

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice.

Had abit of a ****ty wk, car broke down on one of the busiest roads in Sydney-cost me a fortune to get it towed and was fairly embarrassing! The next day, our landlord told us that we're getting evicted as he wants to move back in. Not exactly relishing the thoughts of house hunting in the height of summer.

Anyway it's a new week and I'm grand again! Had a mammoth skype session at the weekend with the folks and friends at home which helped a lot. Also tried my hand at surfing-was completely crap at it but it was great craic! Definitely keeping busy is the way to go!

red_bairn

statina wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice.

Had abit of a ****ty wk, car broke down on one of the busiest roads in Sydney-cost me a fortune to get it towed and was fairly embarrassing! The next day, our landlord told us that we're getting evicted as he wants to move back in. Not exactly relishing the thoughts of house hunting in the height of summer.

Anyway it's a new week and I'm grand again! Had a mammoth skype session at the weekend with the folks and friends at home which helped a lot. Also tried my hand at surfing-was completely crap at it but it was great craic! Definitely keeping busy is the way to go!

Unlucky. My brother was knocked down in NZ and he cursed the driver because his beer bottles were broken.

Before he left for Melbourne, his girlfriends car was broken into which included his passport and other items. Luckily he got his passport back.

Have you tried fishing in one of the bays...? I can't remember the name of the place I went to with some mates. It was near a prison. :l

Do you enjoy swimming pools? Aquatic centre is a nice place.

the_syco

red_bairn wrote: »

Have you tried fishing in one of the bays...? I can't remember the name of the place I went to with some mates. It was near a prison. :l

Prison on land, or the sea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Denison)? But ensure you go with mates. Fishing on your lonesome whilst homesick is not a good idea.

decies

Get into following the American Football

red_bairn

the_syco wrote: »

Prison on land, or the sea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Denison)? But ensure you go with mates. Fishing on your lonesome whilst homesick is not a good idea.

Nope. It's the Long Bay Correctional Centre. We went fishing at Little Bay.

Androidlovers

I think one should always learn to be User Friendly with all kinds of Weather but inviting yourself to a long walk so that you get addicted to any kind of Unwanted weather !