5 Reasons To Feel Homesick

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE TO TRAVEL. There's something thrilling and exciting about finding myself lost in a foreign country, trying to make my way around, learning about the language, people, food and culture. Still, (and I think most travelers out there will agree with me) once in awhile I feel a pang of homesickness creep in, taking hold just when I least expect it. I could be walking into a national museum, taking a ferry across to some small, remote island or searching for a local restaurant to eat dinner when BANG! I long for something simple and familiar. Something to remind me of home.

Other times, the life of a constant traveler can get frustrating and the creature comforts of being home is like a beacon calling me back to "normal" life.

Here are the top reasons I start feeling homesick while traveling.

1. Hot showers. It's pouring down with rain outside (hey, it IS monsoon season in Thailand) and I just want to take a hot shower. Okay, it doesn't even have to be HOT, a lukewarm shower will do. Just not another cold shower!
   
   
2. Soul food. There's only so much pad thai or döner kebab or dhal fry or insert any country's national dish here that I can eat before I just want something home cooked. More specifically, something cooked from my mother's house. I think this is really a testament to my mom's cooking that I can travel to all these places with delicious food that I love and still want to eat something my mom can whip up for me in 20 minutes. Or maybe not because I'd kill for an In'N'Out burger right about now as well.
   
   
3. Friends and family. I love meeting new people when I travel. I like the back and forth between two strangers meeting and the camaraderie one feels with a fellow traveler but on certain days it can feel forced. Am I just spending a day exploring ruins with Jorge, the gun-loving, recreational drug user from Colombia, who I have nothing in common with just for the sake of having company? I don't know but sometimes, I just want to go out for a beer with one of my best friends and have a gab-fest about silly things like Joaquin Phoenix's bizarre career change or debate about who, in fact, was Papa John.
   
   
4. Unwrinkled, clean-smelling clothes. I'll be the first to admit that I'm no clean Jean. Household chores are just that: chores I try to avoid at all costs, but for some reason I have always loved to do laundry. I love the clean smell of clothes fresh from a wash. I haven't experienced that smell in AGES since I started traveling. Being crammed into my backpack, no matter how nicely folded, for days on end, getting thrown and bashed around on trains, planes and buses, not to mention hanging off my sweaty back for hours, has left my clothes smelling...well, less than clean, let's just say. With my moldy, wrinkled clothing, I look more like a hobo these days than a traveler. I just want to look and smell decent, is that so much to ask for?
   
   
5. Space. My home consists of a backpack. I'm essentially a turtle, treading through life with my home attached to my back. Oh to have a room of my own again! No more living out of a smelly, dirty, tossed-around bag. Things would be there because I wanted them to be there! How utterly blissful that sounds...
   

Traveling is great, no doubt. And "home" is ultimately where the heart is. Even though sometimes I do long for the old familiar things, I wouldn't give up this life of travel for anything in the world, even if it means taking cold showers, smelly like mold and sweat, settling for Skype dates with loved ones and giving up the notion of personal space. To me, travel is worth those sacrifices.

**When do you feel homesick during your travels? What do you to do cure it?**

© Connie Hum 2010