Saturday, August 3, 2013

It's not easy

I've heard from a lot of people that coming back from abroad is not easy. Now I know how right they are. You can't just snap your fingers and go back to happily living in America. Instead, you think about the experiences you had abroad every day and wish you were there right now. It's worst when certain things "trigger" my homesickness. For example, bike riding will make me miss going to Bornholm because all we did was bike there and I made some amazing friends and explored that beautiful island.

Talking to my friends about this homesickness has helped. I talked to Emily May and she said she missed Germany a lot when she got back. For her, walking on cobble stone streets, triggered her homesickness because there were cobble stone streets all over Berlin. Miaja told me that she thinks about Denmark a lot too but that she was ready to come back so she doesn't miss it as much as I do. I wasn't ready to come back to America. I didn't want to leave.

I like sleeping because I can "go to Denmark" in my dreams. I can see everyone and everything I miss in my dreams.


I was walking around Denison on Thursday and it felt so weird to be there because I hadn't been there since December. I walked into the English building and saw a DIS poster on one of the walls. I gasped out loud. It was like Denmark had found me. It was really comforting to see the DIS logo printed out and look at the promotional photos that I recognized. I could look at them and say where they were taken. I hope they keep that flyer up forever.   

I'm trying to deal with this feeling of sadness by reaching out to my friends and family. I messaged my host family on Facebook asking how they're doing. I'm sure talking with them will make me feel better. We should set up a Facetime session. Those are fun.