Fight homesickness

4 tips to fight homesickness

Hello dear surfer!

Some time ago I realized that since a long time since I started the Voltaire Program, I had not had a lot of blues. No real moment of bad, questioning, no crying or thoughts for a little cheese.

Then, I wondered exactly what I did everyday to just not think about it. Here are my 4 tips to fight the evil country!

As you can see, the German word of the day is homesick:
Heimweh

Fighting homesickness # 1:
Staying close

Plan small Skypes / regular calls with family and friends.
1. Skype a day, every other day, every week, every 2 weeks? In short, what counts is to have regular little moments set in advance that allow you to anticipate, fight the homesickness and spend some difficult times, such as the stage of "evil to be " that everyone is going through.
2. The provision of small appointments allows you to establish a certain routine ... Initially your schedule is built around these small meetings, and then, as and when, these moments will be only a small part of your job. minister's time.
Keep in touch is not only with family or friends, it is also keeping in touch with your environment. That's why you have to create a familiar environment where you will be. Take decor, photos, souvenirs .. For more info, you can go see this article "Well prepare for the Voltaire program" .

Fighting homesickness # 2:
Find yourself

Watch shows, series or just THE French TELE: it's great to find characters, personalities that we know. You will realize that yes, you miss it. And then, little by little, you will realize that you have less and less of it. Some sites block access to their content to foreign countries. I advise you to install and VPN Hola, a plug-in that you can add to Chrome, and that is handy (:

Listening to French music in difficult times also makes you feel less alone.
Why not cook a specialty of your country with your new friends, or for your host family? Cooking allows you to free your mind, to think of something else .. And especially allows you to resume a little contact with your "country of origin" ... Pancakes, cassoulet, Picardy twines, beef bourguignon, salad niçoise, rougail sausage? ... Tu will be able to fold the cackling a little to those who do not know how much French cuisine is tasty. (Yes, this is very subjective) Note: If you are really lazy to cook, find out about the French restaurants / shops in the area. It's good to see products we know 😀

Fighting homesickness # 3:
Ok, you have the right to be sad, but do not overdo it!

It is normal to have the blues when you're in another country, such as after a break, you have to allow time to heal ... I l need you permitted yourself a time to be sad, but you have set a deadline. It's easy to say, I quite agree. But it's essential to move forward. So yes, you have the right to be sad and to have homesickness. But at one point you have to know how to say stop.

Fighting homesickness 4:
Explore

Many will tell you that you have to take care of yourself, do lots of things not to be bored and therefore not to think about everything that can go wrong. It is true in a sense .. But it must be nuanced. We must accept to go wrong and understand that it's wrong .. But we must be able to rebound. Taking care of the mind will allow you to forget that things are not going well, that is not what will solve the underlying problem: your homesickness. Once you have "made the decision" to get out of this bad time, then yes, it will be necessary to act accordingly and move as much as possible so as not to have black thoughts coming back. To occupy your mind, why not write, plan your next trips? Explore your "yourself".
And when things go wrong, do violence, put away your computer with all your episodes of Game of Thrones, and go for a walk. Go take a walk, go for a walk, go running, go biking. Find a place in the city that you love, a quiet place, that you are the only one to know and that you appreciate for a reason X or Y .. It is from this moment that you will appropriate the places and that you will become an actor of your journey.

Here are my little tips! I hope it will help you fight homesickness!