So, are you new to Germany and looking for new friends or activities to cope with the homesickness? No worries; we are here to help you deal with the homesickness! No matter how excitedly you packed your luggage to move abroad and how excited you were while you were ready to take off for your trip to Germany. You need to go through the homesickness until you have friends or some activity to do in your leisure time. You will see many good pictures on social media accounts when you meet someone.
You will hear about amazing adventures and the tastiest food people enjoyed in Germany. You will probably feel that life is just perfect in Germany. You feel that it is all about good news here and that life in Germany is a bed of roses. Remember that the pictures on someone's social media profile and the adventure stories do not tell about their challenges and problems they faced while living in Germany. For most people, the first few months at a new place are usually tough, and they can feel homesick.
Being new to Germany, you will feel multiple times that you should return to your homeland as you cannot adjust to a new place, but we recommend you to keep patience and stay for a few months whilst managing things yourself. Think that it is just a phase which will pass so keep moving forward. When you start dealing with homesickness, you will start loving your new place and will love to stay here for longer.
Related Topic: Make Friends in Germany
What is Homesickness?
The question arises what is Homesickness. You always wanted to move to Germany, and finally, you are there, but you feel something needs to be added in your life, you feel something is missing, you think you are all alone, you realise that you know nothing, and so you do not want to come out of your home or apartment. You feel lonely in a new place. You think you must refrain from interacting with new people, but you should not.
You might feel that you should go back to your family or your homeland. You have fears and doubts in your mind regarding adjusting to a new country. So, you want to stay in your apartment. This is Homesickness.
Reasons for Feeling Homesickness
Well, there are multiple reasons that you feel homesick. While you move abroad, you will feel lonely as the place is totally new to you and you have no one with you. You cannot meet your best friends. You cannot spend time with your loved ones. Your family is miles away from you. The place, surroundings, city, and people, everything is different there. You find it difficult to talk to people because of the language barrier. These are a few reasons why you would feel homesick.
Get Out of Your Home Before that Homesickness Destroys You
If you are unaware, let us share the consequences of homesickness. Homesickness is not a thing to enjoy. With time, it destroys a person psychologically and emotionally. Homesickness is all about depression, anxiety, stress, and fear of being alone. It is something associated with adjustment problems at a new place. According to research done by medical professionals, it is shared that homesickness leads to psychological disorders over time.
Tricks to Deal with Homesickness in Germany
It is not just you who feel homesick. While moving abroad, many foreigners go through the same feelings and emotions as you do. No matter how you see life as a newcomer in Germany, everything will be settled soon. You will feel Germany as your new home one day, so do not panic and do not take stress. Now, let us share a few tips and strategies to help you deal with homesickness in Germany. Do not skip any, and go through each trick in detail.
Complete Your Paperwork
You should first do the paperwork right after you reach Germany. It is the most important and compulsory step to do as an expat in Germany. This will make you busy, and you will start your life in Germany. You must go through the bureaucratic processes and complete the paperwork to take up the accommodation or residence. Unpack your belongings, find a food point to enjoy your favourite food, and contact some Germans who can understand your rusty German.
Try to get organised as soon as possible. Register your address, get a new phone or number, and have an active internet connection. Sign up for health insurance or any other insurance plan if needed. Sort out all the important tasks and fulfil all the requirements as early as possible so you can start your life in Germany well.
Talk With Your Loved Ones
Of course, you will miss your friends, family, close relatives, and people in your social circle while living abroad. Sometimes, you feel refreshed when you talk to your family members or friends on call or see them on Facetime or Skype. You do not need to stay silent at all. Speak to them on voice or video call for a few minutes and feel at home.
Explore Germany
If you are visiting Germany for a business meeting or to spend your holidays, visiting Germany for a few days is quite different from your permanent stay or living in Germany for longer. You can spend a few days in any hotel and do the things as per your objective of visiting Germany. When it is about living in Germany for longer, you must know much about your city and country, especially about your surroundings. Do not stay at your home or apartment to shield yourself from the new culture and community. Try to explore it and adjust as soon as possible.
The best way to explore Germany is to know about the basic places where you would need to visit anytime during your stay in Germany. It can be the nearest hospital, car service area, coffee shop, shopping mall, grocery store, park, hotel, gym, or restaurant. Later, you should try to visit other places and explore the beauty of Germany in your free time. You can plan weekend tours to perform tourist activities in famous tourist places in Germany. Do not think you will be there for years, so you do not need to plan trips.
Plan tours and live every moment of your life. You can tour downtown on a local bus in Germany to go sightseeing and explore your German community. If you have a holiday from your university or office, go for a walk, go hiking, ride a bike, or enjoy a lake.
Do Blogging
Consider writing a travel article or a blog in your free time. You can share your travel adventures and experiences through an article or a blog as a traveller. If your day is free, or you plan a small trip during your weekend, write it down and publish it in a journal or a blog. Write blogs on German culture and important topics about Germans and society that others want to learn about. Write about your experiences and tell everything you discovered during your German stay.
Think Positive and Stay Positive
If you face issues and go through the challenges every passing day, stay positive and think about the good things that happened to you at a new place. It will reduce your homesickness and make you feel more positive about your surroundings. Look at the good things whenever you are wandering around.
Enjoy the giant parking spaces, amazing public transport, efficient systems, comprehensive welfare system, fearless and safe environment, high standard of living, low food prices, greenery, conveniences, ocean, wilderness, beauty, and cleanliness in Germany. You will have affordable education if you want to continue your studies. You will find many good and profitable business opportunities if you are a business person. You will find a great work life balance if you are an employee in a German organisation. So, forget the negatives, avoid looking at the substandard things, and think all about the pros of living in Germany.
Learn Language
Only some people know German when they move to Germany. Learning a new language to settle in Germany would be best, as only some Germans are good at English. You will be unable to read any road signs on the German roads. You cannot adventure there. You cannot go to the bakery. You cannot even say German words while buying something from a shop. You will realise in a few days that you need to learn German. Some German people know English, but learning a new language is highly recommended and not a big deal.
You can start learning basic German to make things easy, adjust quickly, and improve your living. While learning German, you can easily start making connections with Germans. Once you learn the local language, you will find it quite easy to communicate with the residents in their language. Another important thing to share is that Germans love foreigners trying to learn and speak their language. So, if you are the one, you will impress Germans, and they will soon be your friends.
Develop Future Plans
Do not sit idle at your apartment and try to make some plans. Set objectives and move forward to have a beautiful and successful future. While planning for your future, you will look for relevant opportunities in your new country; Germany. It is a developed country, you will find it easy to adjust in and plan things, so that you might call it home soon. Make plans for your tours to explore Germany and enjoy the natural beauty here. Plan for the events and concerts so you might interact with new people at your new living place.
Find Your Hobby
You will feel homesick if you continue the same routine daily. Everyone has a hobby that one loves to do at any time, and so do you. Think of the hobbies that you loved in your previous country. Try to do similar activities now in Germany. If your previous hobbies are not possible in your new place like Germany, you need to find out your new hobbies as soon as possible.
You can go jogging if you love to. If you want to do some gardening, you can. You can learn new skills by joining a cooking class, music sessions, or language classes. If you love playing video games or watching a movie that entertains you, you may go to places like Teen Center in Germany. Join a club to have a great time with the international and national community. Take out time for yourself and your favourite hobbies. In short, try to do something different and new to combat the boredom at a new place. It is another method to relax and make friends.
Avoid Using Social Media
Social media is very trendy these days. Everyone is using it for different purposes. Some are using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Skype to join groups, while others are using it to stay connected. It is an amazing way to stay connected with your loved ones after moving abroad. But excessive use of anything is always bad. If you use social media all the time, you will stay at home or the office, ultimately making you feel homesick. You will see that your family members or friends are engaged in fun activities, and spending more time together. It will make you feel sad and lonely.
Please limit your time on social media and go out to meet different people or do some other activities. You should stay connected with your friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances, but spare some time for activities you should do in Germany. If you have nothing to do, go for a walk, and explore your surroundings. You will feel a lot better.
Make New Friends
Making new friends is always exciting if you are social and extroverted. This trick is good as you will find new and interesting people in your surroundings and make them part of your circle too. It is highly recommended that you make new German friends, but making friends from your home country is also a good choice. A mix of local and international friends will give you more comfort, and you will feel comfortable and good while staying in Germany. If you have multiple friends from different countries, you will have more benefits as;
- You can celebrate different occasions.
- You can learn new languages.
- You can speak your native language.
- You can try cooking new food.
- You can talk about the different challenges you all are facing.
- You will not feel lonely at special family events even if your family is apart.
- You know about different cultures and celebrate events according to the different communities.
Get Active, Get Involved
Being an expat, you have a lot of things to do. If you indulge yourself in the different activities and start learning the new culture, you will be busy, and you can never feel homesick. If your spouse is with you, you can spend a better time while living abroad. But if you are alone and moved to Germany without your family, you must be busy with the other scheduled activities. Get yourself active in the things that you love to do and that you love the most. Set and make a daily routine for your walk, gym, hangout, shopping, skyping the family or friends, work, or anything else. This is the greatest way to combat homesickness.
Meet New People
Even if you have friends, you need to meet people around you. People who live in your surroundings or are in your office, try to interact with them. Introduce yourself to make a connection. It is important to have people who become your acquaintances and Make Them Friends later on. Without friends, you would feel unhappy. You need many people so you can spend your free time with them even if your best friends are not around.
Friends are something else, so improving your living experience with people living in your surroundings is always good. Join different events and functions in your area and make connections with new people. Be open minded, stay extroverted, know more about German culture and attend festivals of different countries so you may meet more international people to improve your living experience. There are a lot of Facebook groups where you can meet new people in your area.
Wrapping Up
It is obvious to miss your family, friends, and loved ones when you are abroad. But do not let your feelings and emotions ruin your living experience in a new place. It is challenging to stay at home all the time. You must go out, use Google, find activities you love, ask your friends or acquaintances for recommendations, meet new people, make friends, explore your surroundings, and have a wonderful experience abroad. Enjoy your time, make the most out of it, and cheers! All the best to adjust to a new culture, like Germany!
