Of Homesickness and Skype

The first day I arrived in Ireland I found myself to be terribly homesick. I unpacked and set everything up in my tiny room. Then I plugged in my computer to my converter and was planning on doing some writing. That plan was put to an end why my converter started smoking and my computer was barely charged. It was super depressing to see my converter I’d bought ruined in the first half hour of use. It was so depressing in fact that I started crying. As I started crying I realized I was really, really far away from home and couldn't even call my family because it was 3 in the morning in Jersey. I felt horribly alone and started to cry even more.

Right about then I realized that my bout of tears and intense homesickness had been brought on by a converter… an inanimate object. I also realized that I hadn’t slept since the previous night. So a nap was called for. After a nice 2 hour nap I woke up quite refreshed. Angry at my converter. But no longer homesick.

Since then (no offence to my family and friends) I haven’t been sad about leaving home. I attribute this to lots of sleep and the fact that I get to Skype people at night. For those of you who don’t know Skype is a video chat application you can download for free from the internet. So every day or so I’ll call home, it’s usually super late here when I call because I like to call after my dad’s gotten home so I can chat with everyone. And I usually end up staying online till midnight or later here. I don’t mind though. It’s really nice to be able to talk to and see my family and friends while I’m so far away.

When I called home Sunday my mum sort of set her computer in the dining room as they were decorating their dollhouses and we chatted and my brother came talked for a bit and it was sort of like sitting at home just chilling with them. It was a nice 2 hour call that day.

For me being with my family is normal. I grew up in one of those families where I get along with my brothers and parents and enjoy being around them. Which means I was rather nervous when I was preparing for Ireland because this is the farthest I’ve ever been from home, I can’t go home on the weekend if I’m bored. I can’t hug everybody when I see them. It’s hard but being able to video chat helps a lot.

When Skyping my mum I insist on being able to see my puppies when I call. It’s weird how much I miss my dogs… Sometimes I think I miss my dogs more than my family. Scary right? But they’re super cute so it’s okay... I think....

In the past week I’ve come up with the perfect cure to homesickness: sleep and Skype.


Cheers,