Going 'home' for the first time

[blushing]

I am going back to South Africa for the first time since moving to the UK in December. It will have been 5.5 years since we were last there. DS has never been there. I am excited to go and see old friends, catch up with family and show James some of the sites and activities that I did as a kid, but I am also scared. I hardly ever get homesick. I consider this my home, not South Africa and we at happy here. Almost every other South African I know misses SA. They all want to move back or have plans to move back. DH and I have no intentions of ever moving back. We have considered trying to move back to the US because we loved living there and really felt at home there, but we also love it here. I am scared that being around family and old friends and old familiar sites for a month is going to make me miss living there. It's going to make me realise what it's like to have family around all the time, that sort of thing.

[travelingturtle]

I am not in the same situation because I know I will go back to the US to live some day. I also don't get homesick very frequently (though, I did have a strong bit of homesickness back in January). I won't go back to where I lived before, though. I think I miss the US more when I'm away and things are going on without me than when I'm there and see people just living their lives and I realize that things don't really change. My friends are my friends and the sites are the sites and they'll always be there to some degree. But, when I'm in the states I realize that it's just not my life anymore.

Now, my mom is from the Philippines and has been there 5 times since she left over 30 years ago. When she's gone back she usually does miss it the first week, but by the end of her 3 weeks there she's done with it and is ready to go back to the states.

[potatopie]

I was going to say the same thing as traveling. I'm very attached to my US city and family. I still consider that "home" and would LOVE to go back some day. But even still, after I've been there for a few weeks (spent 6 weeks there last summer and another 3 in November), I am always happy to go back to the life DH and I have built for ourselves. Even if it's just routine and comfort, it feels good to get back to what's yours.