The idea of living abroad is often associated with living in exotic locations, adventure and constant excitement. However, when packing up your belongings and leaving, it’s easy to forget that you’ll still have to do the mundane tasks that modern life so kindly provides – wherever you’re living in the world! While cleaning the toilet, toiling away at the office or washing the dishes, your mind will undoubtedly wander to thoughts of home. It’s hard not to yearn for the things you’ve left behind in deserting the UK. You’ll (probably) begin to miss the items you’ve grown accustomed to in order to make life more bearable…despite the new and exciting things you’re experiencing while living abroad!
Family
This one is too obvious not to mention (unless you’ve left the country to escape them!) It’s true that they can drive you up the wall most of the time. You have to admit though that there’s nothing quite like a cuppa and a gossip with your parents about the neighbours, or laughing as your dad hashes up another IKEA special with his “DIY skills”. While Skype and FaceTime are wonderful inventions (if you don’t mind a close-up of your sibling’s ugly mug…) until technology allows my Mum to zap me her homemade lasagne, I, for one, will not be satisfied!
Food
As a typical Brit, you spend hours scouring the supermarkets. Sometimes you even resort to buying online to make sure you’re stocked up on good old Yorkshire Tea and Gingernuts so that when the mood strikes, you’re ready. It’s not a surprise when you start to miss traditional English delicacies while on your year abroad. Even though you eat fish and chips once in a blue moon at home you find yourself dreaming about a succulent battered cod just because it’s exactly what you can’t have. You dream of the perfect roast dinner smothered in gravy and a cup of tea with PROPER tasting milk (foreign milk is never right; I swear).
Television
Even if you’re not an avid Soap Opera watcher and just enjoy the occasional bout of The Great British Bake Off, it’s hard not to miss an evening of traditional English telly. After a while, even the BBC News at Ten becomes a fond memory as you feel behind on pretty much every event that’s taken place in the UK since you went. Probably nothing interesting has happened but it’d still be nice to know, right?
Despite all these problems though, there are ways around missing your home comforts and you slowly find yourself adapting to foreign life. (My Mum sends me the tea and biscuits I like in the post!)
You’ll soon find yourself discovering new traditions and favourite things that you know you’ll struggle to live without when (or if!) you move back home!
Sources:
http://justanotheroddmedicalstudent.tumblr.com/post/50270954962/i-wish-i…