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Homesickness and Hospitality

April 6, 2015 3 Comments

My first semester abroad experience showed me homesickness and hospitality in a new way.

As a child, I never suffered from homesickness the way other kids did during week-long camps. I loved my parents and my family, but I adored the freedom that came with being a camper at summer camp. When other kids were sick with tears and missing their parents, I was delighted. Adventure! Friends! Campfires!

Homesickness? Pshh. I was more interested in the exciting things happening around me than what I was missing at home.

I knew home. Home was mundane, monotonous, and normal.

I first experienced homesickness in college, but it came quite a bit later than others. And it wasn’t home that I missed necessarily. I missed the hills of Pennsylvania blanketed in Autumn leaves. But I shook that feeling off quickly.

My first true and terrible bout of homesickness happened when I lived in the Dominican Republic for three months. The novelty hung on for a while, but after a while of not understanding the language or the culture, I was tired of being treated like a 3-year-old child. I wanted to go home.

I missed the boring things. And I missed the more complex things.

When I meet internationals in my home country, I feel like I relate to them. I know what it’s like to not understand a culture. I understand what it’s like to only be able to do one errand because 3-4 errands in this unfamiliar country is just exhausting. It’s hard.

So now, when I’m in my home culture, I like to make friends with people from all over the world. Not only do I love learning about other people’s homes, but I also want to provide some measure of comfort for those who don’t innately understand my beloved home culture with all its oddities.

With all friendships, it’s the simple things. Acknowledgement. Greeting. Friendliness. Willingness to listen. Being ready to help. Offering to do so. Grace for the weird cultural miscommunications.

What About You?

When have you been homesick? Did anyone make it easier for you?

Short Story: Loving Nora

March 30, 2015 Leave a Comment

Sitting at a table for two at Eat ’N Park, Nora checked her fingernails. She could still see the flash of hurt shining in Quinn’s eyes even though Quinn probably sat in her cubicle busily calling clients and organizing data. It’s not like I meant to hurt her. It was a joke.

After all, everyone knew Quinn and Hunter would never sleep together. I’d sleep with him.

“Miss, here’s your Grilled Chicken Salad. Can I get you anything else?”

Shaking her head, Nora waved the blue-mascaraed waitress away. How about a tall blonde male with kind blue eyes and a hankering for some Southern loving? Yeah, I thought that was a high order, too.

Pulling lightly on her earlobe, Nora bowed her head and whispered to her salad. “I just want to be loved and to love. Is that so hard?”

Stabbing the salad with her fork, she took a bite tasting the vinegar. Ever since Quinn started, she gets all the attention. Roxanne praises her by piles of work. Okay, I’m not jealous of that.

And Hunter, the love of her life, dates Quinn. A taste more bitter than vinegar crept into Nora’s mouth.

“Is everything all right, Miss?”

Nora nodded glancing up at Blue Mascara to realize that she had been practically growling at her salad. The waitress placed a takeout box on the table with the check.

“Actually, may I have a to-go box as well? The takeout is for a friend.”

I just called Quinn a friend.

[5 Great Salad ideas and image found here!]

Teleportation Travel

March 26, 2015 3 Comments

I think we’re all intrigued by this idea. Right?

Teleportation has been igniting imaginations for years. It almost always happens in Science Fiction stories and in all the different Fantasy novels. Somehow creatures are beamed across distance.

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Does this image bring up any memories of Willy Wonka’s factory? It does for me! Quick. Someone teleport me some dark chocolate.

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But let’s get back to the important stuff. Teleportation. Every couple of years or so, Time Magazine has a new article about teleportation, such as this one about Chinese discoveries or this one from The Netherlands. One similarity is that both authors talk about Star Trek.

As someone who enjoys travel and my own bed, teleportation would be ideal. I could travel the world, but I could still sleep in my own bed. And instead of missing important milestones in friend and family life, I could just beam back instead of having to wait to creep on pictures online or be skyped into the event.

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And yet, I wouldn’t get to meet all those interesting people on the journey to my destination, and as much as people can be annoying, I really like the quirkiness of getting to know someone new. Teleportation would give us less need for each other. On my really crabby days, that’s probably a life-giving option for the people I might accidentally incinerate with my bad mood.

But on the whole, I think I only want emergency teleportation. You know, for that moment where you are so homesick you never want to come out of bed. Yeah, that day.

Or a Teleportation button. That would be a good thing.

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What About You?

If you aren’t such a fan of traveling, would you travel more if you could teleport to the location? And if you do like traveling, would you use teleportation all the time or would you be old fashioned in your travel transport?