This past week in Hamburg, Germany has been equal parts Nutella and sauerkraut. My first night here, in Germany’s second largest city, I received painful news from home that gave me pause. When you are traveling, moving at 100 miles per hour, it is easy to forget about missing home and the people you love. But when you stop, and allow yourself to look around, that is when you are susceptible to the pangs of homesickness.
Hamburg Harbor in the sun
Most exchange students experience homesickness in some form, be it at the beginning, middle, or end of their time studying abroad. It isn’t easy being so far away from everything you know, distant from your own particular brand of familiar. I think the only way to combat the suffocating arms of homesickness is to stay busy with activity. Whether it’s strolling through the infamous Reeperbahn, driving 175 km per hour down a German Autobahn, or even seeing old churches (St. Nikolai Kirche is a good one), staying busy tempers the sting of missing home.
Elbe River + Rocks
I suppose it also helps that Hamburg is my ancestral home and all. I can walk along the harbor (the 3rd busiest in Europe) and imagine my relative, the Wichmann pirate, terrorizing these waters in the 15th century. I can rest my feet in the Elbe River and be comforted knowing my grandmother, my Oma, did the exact same thing as a little girl. Here, amongst the people of Hamburg (Hamburgers?) I am perhaps able to feel a semblance of home.