Thank God for technology and exercise!

It's funny but when we moved to Panama, I kind of figured that I would not get that homesick, because my family was with me.  Boy, was I wrong!

 

Think about it for a minute....new country, new language, new city, new work setting, new work colleagues, new home setting, new cars, new EVERYTHING.  Nothing felt comfortable and nothing felt stable for a very long time. 

 

Thank goodness technology is where it is today.  Now, a phone call on Skype can't bring you that pumpkin spiced Latte you've been jonesing for from Starbucks of course, but it can let you see your friends from back home and even do work calls without any expense. And, you can even text on Skype!

 

Other helpful homesick tips that I've found useful, over the years, in terms of technology:

 

- WhatsApp, which is an app for any SmartPhone.  It's free and you can use it from your cell service, as long as you put in the + sign and the country code before the number.  And you can use it for other's phone numbers world-wide, which is amazing and fun.

 

On the exercise front, I'm a big yoga fan. And, when we moved to Panama six years ago, I could only find two yoga class studios in the city that spoke in English. (Now there are many more, but I don't do studios any more myself.) And the reason for that is these two great resources for yogis who live abroad:

 

www.myyogaonline.com - offers a monthly, daily or class download price and has 1000s of both audio and video classes.  Yay!  I felt like I was back in the studio again.  Very comforting.

 

www.yogadownloads.com - this site is more for advanced practitioners and mostly has audio classes, but is also varied and great.

 

Overall, I recommend you stay in close contact with family members (who are not with you), and keep yourself well-exercised.  This will help you when you're feeling blue and homesick, and it takes your mind elsewhere.