How to avoid feeling homesick whilst being in Valencia
When you move abroad to live in a place where the language isn’t your native one, the first days can be quite tricky and so the chances of you feeling homesick are really high. However, you must not let that feeling change your attitude, and so here are a few tips on how to feel like at home and enjoy your time abroad!
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Have a routine
When you are in your home country, you probably tend to have a daily routine but then when you move abroad, your routine is not the same, which makes you miss home. So the key thing is to have a routine for the new place you live in. By having an organised life like back home, you will keep yourself more entertained and your time will go much quicker!
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Meet people from your own country
When you move abroad you always want to immerse as much as possible in the new culture, but the culture might be very different to yours. For this reason, if you go onto a Facebook page like ‘English-Speaking people in Valencia’, you will see how loads of people are in similar situations to you, and they will all be opened to meet and have a nice chat. Speaking to someone who is in the same situation as you and comes from your country is always helpful, as it will make you feel like at home!
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Don’t focus too much on social networks
The first thing you will do when you are bored is check your phone, which means you will see pictures of your friends and family back home and you’ll get sad about not being there with them. The main thing you need to do is stay away from these!! You really don’t help yourself by speaking to your family 24/7 on FaceTime, or sending Snapchat’s to your friends every 2 minutes. Forget about your phone and go and walk around, meet people and try new food!
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Make a wish-list with all the things you want to do before you leave
This will definitely keep you busy. Either before your trip or once in Valencia, make a list of all the places you want to visit, all the things you want to eat, and all the presents you want to buy to take back home! In this way, you will always have something to do, and you will have no time to sit around and think about how much you miss home. You can even take pictures and make a book of all the things of your wish-list that you completed!
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Plan trips for every weekend
Usually weekends are the worst, as you won’t have to go to work or to Spanish lessons. Time will go very slowly and you will want to go home. The answer is no. Don’t think like that. Instead, plan a trip to Spanish cities, like Barcelona or Madrid, or even look for cheap holidays to places you have never been before, like the south of France or Italy. Nowadays flights are cheaper, so if you plan it in advance, you will have the summer of your dreams without feeling homesick for even a second!
So as you see its actually very simple. Try and help yourself by planning and doing, rather than just sitting around and doing nothing!