Something about the Netherlands reminded me more of home than Rome ever has. Maybe it was that the pace of the city was more similar to the United States, maybe it was that the cadence of Dutch sounds so similar to English to me, and anyways, most people spoke English there.
My roommates and I flew into Eindhoven, and I got a good feeling about the place from the start. The view from the airport was neutral to me - not very beautiful but not a bad sight, and I honestly think that was part of what reminded me of home. Everything in Rome is extra pretty to me, and I never had that experience living in Pittsburgh or in the suburbs of Chicago. The style of the people walking around was also slightly more similar to what I see in the US, although like every European city that I have been in thus far, most people are more fashionable than Americans.
We took a train to Amsterdam, and the weather, too, reminded me of weather in the Chicagoland area with the wind blowing off the river. Because the wind and the chill in the air was a cold that was very familiar to me, it didn’t bother me. Any feeling of cold in Rome is always surprising to me.
All of these little similarities added up to a feeling of homesicknesses. I really loved Amsterdam and all of the things that made it so different from any city I’ve been to before - the bikes (the extensive bike lanes and the bike parking lots! I’ll never get over it!), the canals, and the openness of the people there. But I felt a bit of melancholy as I thought about home, which, to be honest, I haven’t felt a whole lot since coming here. I think that all of the new experiences that studying abroad has brought has distracted me from that feeling a lot, but being reminded of home uncovered it.
Many of my experiences this past weekend took my mind off of my homesickness: exploring Amsterdam, seeing the colorful costumes of Eindhoven’s Carnival, and petting our hostel’s resident border collie. Telling my family and friends about my time in the Netherlands and hearing what they were up to also helped. If anything, my bout of homesickness reminded me that my time here is short, and that staying present in each moment will allow me to have the best experience possible.
Comentários