the cultural traveler Archives • Page 3 of 4 • Wanderlust Advocate

The waiting game – tricks to pass the time during your layover

Posted in the cultural traveler, the study abroad student, the thirsty traveler, the thrifty traveler, the worry free traveler, travel blog

I wish I kept track of just how many hours I’ve spent waiting for planes, trains, and automobiles. If I put all the time together, hmm, I would probably say that I’ve spent at minimum a month of my life waiting. This means that I’ve learned a lot of tricks and made up lots of games to pass my time.

It is easy to read, play on your phone, watch a movie, or listen to music. But let’s be real, even all of these things get old after long waits.

Here are some things to do while in transit.

1. The P.A.T.I.E.N.C.E game

This is one of my favorites if I’m in a crowded airport waiting for a plane, or stuck between subway stops, or on public transit. What is the hardest thing to fathom during these super annoying waits? If you thought “patience”, I am right there with you.

I call this the PATIENCE game – a game that relies on people watching, creativity, laughing at yourself, not taking life too seriously, and patience. Look around you, wherever you are. Find one person that fits each of the following descriptions and give them a back story. If you have someone with you, make it a long conversation, make yourself laugh, and joke around. If you are alone, write each of the backstories down. I have a journal full of these stories and they are actually great memories for me!

Patient

Attractive

Tall

Intelligent

Easygoing

Nice

Charming

Excitable

2. DuoLingo

Learn a language, maybe the language of the country you are about to visit! You will sound funny talking to yourself, but I guarantee that everyone around you has seen weirder.

3. The Brand Game

Look around you. Look at what people are wearing and try to guess the brand. For every brand you guess right, put 25 cents aside toward a drink at your destination.

4. The city hunt

If you are waiting for train or airport travel, walk around to all the other gates and look at the destinations. Pick your top 10 favorite destinations and do research on each.

5. Podcasts

Listen to some podcasts! It is surprising how much faster this will make the time go – more than listening to music. I suggest Travel, Wine, Mysteries, Politics, and Adventure podcasts! You can download loads of podcasts in advance and an hour will fly (no pun intended) by!

What do you usually do when you are passing time in transit?

Traveling through your homesickness

Posted in the cultural traveler, the study abroad student, the thrifty traveler

We all like to show off the good aspects of traveling, I’m guilty of this as well. It is so fun to showcase the world’s beautiful places on all our social media outlets. What our friends at home don’t see is that, every single traveler goes through homesickness at some point. Homesickness is real and happens to all of us in some form or another.

Homesickness is missing family; missing friends; missing food; missing comforts; missing your bed; missing speaking your native language; seeing pictures of your friends doing something you love at home and wishing you were there with them instead of on your adventure; missing holidays and birthdays; skyping your friends and feeling a low grade ache for life at home. The list goes on…

Traveling is so incredible, but so hard at the same time. Here are some tips on how to travel through your home sickness:

**** The biggest tip I can give you – Let yourself miss home, but don’t let yourself miss home for too long that you lose control of your experience! I’ve seen this happen to many people and they always regret it!****

BEFORE YOU LEAVE ON OUR TRIP

There are some things you can do in preparation for your long journey.

Bring some easy season packets from home that can fit into the holes of your suitcase. For example, when I am away, I crave Mexican food, ranch dressing, and cheetos. Anytime I travel, I always bring a couple of Mexican seasonings and ranch dressing packets with me for the times I am craving home. When I go to rural areas for long periods of time, I bring two small bags of cheetos for emergencies.
- Story time: I spent two summers with an indigenous tribe on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. I brought my emergency cheetos, which absolutely saved me from a total meltdown. After getting severely stung 6 times from a jelly fish, going to a local shaman for some healing, and having my arm swell to the size of my stomach – I opened my bag of cheetos and it honestly was the most calming, comforting thing I could have done for myself!
Buy a journal before you leave! Even if you are not much of a journal-er, when you are missing home, a journal is a great way to write down everything you are missing. For me, I always find it challenging to say that I’m missing things out loud. I feel like, so many people wish they were doing what I am doing, like it would be ungrateful or just crazy if I say it out loud. A journal is a great avenue if you feel this way.
Bring a small memento from home to carry. I have my “home” necklace. Whenever I was missing home, I would wear my necklace to have it close to my heart that day – it is cheesy, but surprisingly helps!

WHILE YOU ARE ABROAD

When you feel yourself starting to miss home, you have the above steps already prepared for you to try. If you find yourself needing a little bit more help to make it through, here are some tips.

Get off social media. Your aches in your heart are probably coming from some connection to home. Take some time and just leave your phone/computer for a while and explore. Whenever I start to miss home I go for a long walk, find a local bar, text one of my new friends, meditate, go for a run, or whatever takes my mind off things.
Let yourself miss home. It is OKAY to be homesick. It is normal and okay and if you never felt it, then you are a rare and lucky individual! Take a little time and let yourself miss home. If you don’t let yourself do this, you may actually miss it more. In some of my darkest home sick days, I would skype my people until I was too tired to stay awake. If it starts digging into your after a day or so, definitely step away and go do something totally out of the ordinary – something new and fun.
- Story time: I spent several weeks in Nepal, some of it alone. I had already been gone for about 3.5 months at this point and I was starting to get more and more homesick on top of being lonely. I spent a night letting myself get homesick and I started seeing it eek into my next day – sleeping in, feeling too sad to leave the comforts of my hotel. So, I FORCED, and I mean really forced, myself to go for a hike. I met these incredible Israeli friends on my hike and hung out with them the rest of the day. It helped me so much and got me through this true home sickness.
Write down a list of all the places you have seen on your travels. Maybe write down your favorite memories. This will bring you back to your travels and remind you of the fun/cool things you are doing.
Don’t be alone for too long. Even though you will probably just want to be alone during this, don’t let yourself be alone for too long. Otherwise, it will take over!
Remind yourself that when you go back, you will see that everything will be the same. The things that you miss will still be there when you get back. Make sure that you don’t spend too much time missing the things that will be the same when you get back. If you do this, you will miss out on where you are and all the cool things you are doing.

What do you do when you are homesick?