I’m a little homesick. I’ll admit it...I miss my mummy. I was sick last week, and nothing will make you wish you were in your childhood bedroom, fire in the fireplace, with your mum to bring you breakfast in bed. I am lucky enough to have an amazing boyfriend who brings me anything I need to make me feel better, but like I said nothing beats mum and a hot toddy. Also, my cousin (who I’m as close to as any sister) just had her first baby. I am an auntie to the most beautiful baby girl in the world and I want so badly to be in Atlanta getting a head start on spoiling her rotten and being cool Aunt Becky. And it’s April...that means the start of beach season in SC and I REALLY love the beach. I know that being a red head and going to the beach is like going against nature but really, after three visits I start to build up a tan. You should see my Rainbow’s tan at the end of the summer.
Anyway, my point is that I miss the good ole US of A. Well a couple of weeks ago J and I passed a store near Leidsplein that sells American products. Being the amazing man that he is J made the thirty minute trek and bought all kinds of yummy home grown goodies. We’re talking Fruity Pebbles, Hidden Valley Ranch packets, and Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. Ahhhmazing.
I love being an expat, and I try never to forget just how lucky I am to be able to have the experience of living in Amsterdam. On the other end of the spectrum, living in another country makes you realize all of the things you take for granted where you’re from. Things like the smell of pluff mud, driving over the Isle of Palms Connector and seeing nothing but ocean in front of you, playing trivia at Mellow Mushroom while trying to see how many different types of beer you can drink, or going to Wal-Mart at midnight for....anything (seriously, Wal-Mart NEEDS to expand to Europe, I never realized how inconvenient it is to have to go to five different stores on errand days.). But more than anything I miss my family. My gossipy wine drinking family. It’s funny how that works. The farther you are away from the rest of the people with your DNA the more you want to be around them.
There’s a myth that living abroad is all meeting cool Europeans and taking trips to various islands. While yes some that is happening it’s certainly not going on all the time. There are a lot of times that moving to a new country makes for some very lonely moments. J and I are lucky to have each other to hang out with, and thank goodness. It can be difficult to make friends, especially if you aren’t fluent in the native tongue (even if they do speak English remarkably well). Technology makes it easy to stay in touch with people but a six hour time difference and fears of exorbitant phone bills put a damper on how much time is spent chatting away with people from home. Even walking down the street and hearing people have a conversation in a language you don’t understand can make you feel like an outsider.
Except then you think wait. How many people get the chance to walk down the street in Amsterdam on a daily basis and enjoy the freedom of being able to live (somewhat) carefree? And then you think how silly it is to be homesick. My beautiful niece will always be beautiful, pluff mud will always smell like home to me, and I’ll always be able to see the ocean when I drive over the IOP Connector. But I will not always live in Amsterdam. So for now I’ll force myself out of my pity party and my pjs and get out and enjoy the beauty of Amsterdam.
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I understand how you feel and believe me, its not wrong to feel this way...and I pray that none of our host countries take being homesick as an offense. Because there are some days when it doesn't matter how nice your trip photos are, the house you bought or your car, your colleagues...some days you just miss just being where you started from......sometimes you just come across a text that shows that others feel like you and a comment in it thanking the writer might help it ease out :)
So here i am...
Thank u
xox
Deb
Posted by: Deb | 04/14/2011 at 03:03 AM