Having never been one to get home sick during my first two years at university, I expected my year abroad to be much the same, but let me tell you something, after over two months of working Monday to Friday 9h30 to 18h30, I cannot wait to go home for the long weekend of All Saints Day (yes incredibly Friday the 1st of November is a public holiday here!) In Exeter I was always used to going home every three months, but now that prospect seems pretty awful. So I am all booked to go home on the Thursday straight after work and return on the last train on the Sunday and I simply cannot wait!
People always tell you how tiring it can be being in a new environment, working for almost your entire week, but imagine doing that in a city that you do not know that well, speaking a language that isn’t your mother tongue, all whilst earning only just about enough money to get by. I can tell you it is a pretty tiring existence. So its pretty obvious why one would want to go home with all the usual reasons being to eat good food, sleep in your own bed, relax, see the family and of course, if you are lucky enough, a lovely doggie like mine, Felix (poor thing has a cat’s name).
When you are working and constantly exhausted, all these reasons become heightened; the desire to eat something other than pasta (I am exaggerating slightly I suppose) is gnawing at my stomach (again an exaggeration but you catch my drift)… The need to stretch out in a double bed in my own nicely decorated room has never been so great… I have never missed my family, my dog and my house this much at university, but I just want so badly to be looked after for a few days and not feel like a grown-up! Even better, I will get to see two of my friends from home which will just be ever so lovely.
So is it that I am not enjoying myself here? I think a negative response is the way to answer that question – I truly am! I am really happy here. I am so lucky to have found a great job, working with great people, a nice flatmate (although we recently had a big fight – I gained a new skill, arguing in French) and to have my boyfriend in the same city. It also helps that I am used to living somewhere where French is spoken daily and so the foreigness of it all is just not so daunting. But, it really can be hard, especially when you could fit numerous Exeters inside this beautiful city!
At university, you get lie-ins, you have a few hours of work a day, you get to go out during the week; things that are all fond, but distant memories of mine! Whilst getting into the rhythm of working, you work a nine hour day, resulting in being exhausted when you attempt to go out at the weekends. So I suppose I just have to make it clear to all of you that are planning on working abroad, that whilst it is definitely worth it and I would pick it over studying any day, you will be counting the days until the next time you get to go home. Home sickness, a concept once foreign to me, has well and truly kicked in!
Image credits: etsystatic.com, blog.aspinaloflondon.com