Dealing with homesickness

While living abroad as an exchange student is an absolutely amazing experience, it doesn’t come without some tough times. It is hard having to adjust to a new way of living, and homesickness can hit harder than you expect. It is different for each person. During my exchange to Germany, I knew people who struggled most with homesickness at the beginning. For others, homesickness appeared towards the end of their exchange. For me personally, I felt the worst of it at the beginning of the year.
A lot of websites and exchange programs warn about the cycle of living abroad. There is a “honeymoon” stage, a stage of excitement and thrill to be in a new country, before the homesickness settles in. For me, however, I felt it as soon as I got on the plane to go to Germany. It was my first time being away from my family, and it stressed me out. I felt myself regretting making this decision, and I spent the first two months of my exchange year in a despondent and morose mood. I found myself skyping my family every week, and sometimes it was more than once per week, just so I could see their faces or talk to them. I found it hard to speak German. Everyone wanted to speak English with me, so I wasn’t learning the language I had come to learn, which frustrated me greatly. I didn’t really leave the house. It was all so new and I was hesitant to explore any of it. I struggled those first two months, and I really questioned whether this had been a good idea to come to Germany.

And then I got busy. What really helped pull me out of my gloomy mindset was getting into extracurriculars. I began taking piano lessons once a week. I have been playing piano since I was five years old, so I was taking something I was already familiar with and I was just learning it in a new language. This helped me learn vocabulary and I found myself speaking more German. Then, once I had seen how well piano lessons were going, I decided to try something new. My host mom helped me join a local volleyball team. Every Wednesday I would go to the gym with them and they would teach me how to play volleyball. The coolest part about that though was that they only spoke German with me, and if I didn’t understand something, they would use motions to describe it to me. My language skills took off after that and I found that I was then making more friends, and since I was making friends, I was hanging out with them in my free time.
Having a routine to stick to, having some extracurriculars to look forward to doing each week, really pulled me out of my slump. I found myself busy everyday, and I had placed myself into my local community. I stopped thinking about my family so much, and the homesickness went away. While it did come back around the holidays, I never had any trouble with it for the rest of my exchange year. I am already thinking about extracurriculars, sports, or clubs that I can join in Taiwan in my first month abroad there so that I can immediately create a routine for myself. One of my main reasons for doing study abroad is to build lasting relationships with people, and one of the easiest ways to do this is by inserting yourself into the local community. It’s also just fun to try something new!