For someone who considers wherever she is currently living as 'home', I sure get homesick a lot. For what home, exactly though? I often wondered that but I think I'm finally getting a handle on it.
I've just discovered the song 'Paint the Town Green' by The Script.
I certainly love Ireland a lot. A lot, a lot. So I'm partial to The Script, especially because of the faint, but very recognizable Irish inflection in their pronunciation and how they insert place names in some of their songs.
But this song got me because it is, as I have re-christened it, 'The Anthem for the Homesick'. Every few months or so, I start to miss my friends or family terribly and then waste long hours online and listening to music at high volumes to try to distract myself from a situation I can do nothing about it. Ranting my feelings through writing often helps too.
I moved to Italy as a young teenager and experienced a 'culture clash' there that was unlike anything I'd felt during my stays in Ukraine and Reunion previously. I'm visiting friends in Norway just now and am having fun observing and snapping shots of all sorts of little things that are different and amusing. Salad that is sold in little pots replete with dirt 'so you can be sure it is fresh'. 'Caution: reindeer ahead' signs along the road right outside town. Cans, milk cartons, and disposable plastic containers in the dish rack because trash must be clean before it is disposed of in one of six different specific waste collectors.
Each country has these little things that are so funny to foreigners.
I love how clean this country is. Everyone moves in orderly lines. The houses and their lawns are sturdy, tidy, practical, and homey. There is virtually no litter and absolutely no graffiti. Cars drive civilly and always stop for pedestrians. A girl can roam alone where she wills at two AM or two PM and never hear so much as a honk or a yell.
All of that is refreshing and wonderful, but what I love most about being here is the company of my friends with whom I can talk freely. Not only do we have the same first language, the same type of humor, the same speaking speeds, the same lingo, and the same interests, but we also have the same culture. Visiting at their home, I do not have food and drink aggressively pushed on me the second I walk in the door. I crashed at a friend's after a party and in the morning I saw the sink was full of dishes so I did them while my friend prepared breakfast and he was all cool, like 'I don't even know why you're doing those, but fine, wtv'. His sister with whom he shares the apartment drifted in from her bedroom a little while later still half asleep and did not snap into 'public face/perfect hostess' when she saw a guest. Instead, she ignored me, made her coffee and then sat at the table with us and proceeded to chatter as if we'd known each other for ages without bothering with any actual introduction.
And I was SO comfortable with that. That level of casual, low-pressure, nonchalance is EXACTLY what I feel best with. And I haven't even specified that not having to answer any BORING questions about the whos, the wheres, and the whys of my life was half of the delight of the whole experience.
Oh for more of those discussions where we exchange opinions on things that are of actual interest and relevance to all parties!
So all that to say, I appear to be 'peoplesick' and not 'homesick'. Sigh. Thank You, God, for the internet. It does alleviate the pain a lot.
Since I am in Norway and don't want to end this post on a downer, I give you...
I've just discovered the song 'Paint the Town Green' by The Script.
I certainly love Ireland a lot. A lot, a lot. So I'm partial to The Script, especially because of the faint, but very recognizable Irish inflection in their pronunciation and how they insert place names in some of their songs.
But this song got me because it is, as I have re-christened it, 'The Anthem for the Homesick'. Every few months or so, I start to miss my friends or family terribly and then waste long hours online and listening to music at high volumes to try to distract myself from a situation I can do nothing about it. Ranting my feelings through writing often helps too.
I moved to Italy as a young teenager and experienced a 'culture clash' there that was unlike anything I'd felt during my stays in Ukraine and Reunion previously. I'm visiting friends in Norway just now and am having fun observing and snapping shots of all sorts of little things that are different and amusing. Salad that is sold in little pots replete with dirt 'so you can be sure it is fresh'. 'Caution: reindeer ahead' signs along the road right outside town. Cans, milk cartons, and disposable plastic containers in the dish rack because trash must be clean before it is disposed of in one of six different specific waste collectors.
Each country has these little things that are so funny to foreigners.
I love how clean this country is. Everyone moves in orderly lines. The houses and their lawns are sturdy, tidy, practical, and homey. There is virtually no litter and absolutely no graffiti. Cars drive civilly and always stop for pedestrians. A girl can roam alone where she wills at two AM or two PM and never hear so much as a honk or a yell.
All of that is refreshing and wonderful, but what I love most about being here is the company of my friends with whom I can talk freely. Not only do we have the same first language, the same type of humor, the same speaking speeds, the same lingo, and the same interests, but we also have the same culture. Visiting at their home, I do not have food and drink aggressively pushed on me the second I walk in the door. I crashed at a friend's after a party and in the morning I saw the sink was full of dishes so I did them while my friend prepared breakfast and he was all cool, like 'I don't even know why you're doing those, but fine, wtv'. His sister with whom he shares the apartment drifted in from her bedroom a little while later still half asleep and did not snap into 'public face/perfect hostess' when she saw a guest. Instead, she ignored me, made her coffee and then sat at the table with us and proceeded to chatter as if we'd known each other for ages without bothering with any actual introduction.
And I was SO comfortable with that. That level of casual, low-pressure, nonchalance is EXACTLY what I feel best with. And I haven't even specified that not having to answer any BORING questions about the whos, the wheres, and the whys of my life was half of the delight of the whole experience.
Oh for more of those discussions where we exchange opinions on things that are of actual interest and relevance to all parties!
So all that to say, I appear to be 'peoplesick' and not 'homesick'. Sigh. Thank You, God, for the internet. It does alleviate the pain a lot.
Since I am in Norway and don't want to end this post on a downer, I give you...
