The feeling of homesickness is real. Even as independent adults and savvy globetrotters, chances are you have had experienced this longing for the familiar at some point in time.
As a long-term expat in Singapore, over the years, I have come up with some interesting ways of keeping homesickness at bay. Now with the uncertainty of the worldwide pandemic situation, many fellow expats out there might be feeling more homesick than ever. Hence, I thought it might be a good time to share some of my personal experiences. And hope that it might be useful for anyone looking for ways to help overcome these natural feelings.
4 Simple Tips For Coping with Homesickness in Singapore
Keeping Traditions Alive
When moving to a new country, one of the most important things to do is to keep traditions alive (or create new ones if you do not already have one). This has been infinitely helpful in helping me keep homesickness at bay – especially during the big holidays back home.
While I am a strong advocate of immersing myself in the culture of whichever country I am in, I also make efforts to keep grounded and connected with my roots. Celebrating big holidays that used to be a huge part of my life back home or events with personal meaning can be one way to help keep that part of my connection alive.
When you’re away from family, it’s inevitable to miss many of these big events since you can’t be there in person, but I like to think we are creative folks. There are many ways we can get around that – be it celebrating it yourself or joining fellow expats in the community who might celebrate the same event and more.
For myself, Thanksgiving was a big holiday back home. Every November, the whole family gets together with friends and family from all over for a huge feast at my aunt’s house in Central New Jersey. Moving to Singapore in October 2009 (just before Thanksgiving), changed how I celebrated the holiday for the next decade.
I stubbornly refused to let the tradition die off. And with a whole lot of effort, I made sure to continue celebrating Thanksgiving with new friends I made here. Cue applause.
Every year, I would spend one if not two entire days “working from home” to prepare the feast. And by feast, I mean everything from Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy ,macaroni and cheese, corn bread, roast vegetables, cranberry sauce and much, much more…every family has their own traditions when it comes to the food.
And on the day itself, 20 – 30 friends would join me at my apartment’s pool / bbq area for some indulgence in the good food, music and of course beer pong. In the time when I was running a restaurant, I even managed to turn Thanksgiving into our biggest event of the year, and did a huge multi-course set meal for all our awesome customers.
And that is the story of how I kept my Thanksgiving traditions alive. How about you? What are some traditions or events that mean a lot to you?
For new expats, do make a point to check out your local embassy or chamber of commerce for major holiday celebrations. More often than not, they tend to gather the communities for special events when it comes to the major holidays from home!
Food
Food from home always has a special place in our hearts. While the food in SG is great, you might find yourself craving certain unique food from home – those you cannot necessarily find in the ubiquitous supermarket chains in Singapore.
A tip from someone who has went through years of similar cravings – try online. While the big supermarket chains may not carry those specific items, you might be able to find them via online grocers. For instance, RedMart sometimes carries Cherry Coke or Velveeta Cheese and Rotel for making some queso at home.
Alternatively, if you can’t find them via online grocers, there are many other international online platforms that are popular here and carry huge ranges of food products – for instance iHerb (for healthier things) or Amazon (pretty cheap or even free international shipping sometimes with Prime membership).
Personally I took my love of bagels to an extreme and from 2016 to 2019 opened the only true New York bagel shop in Singapore, lovingly called Schmear – but that is a much longer story for another time.
With so many ways to make sure you have your pantry stocked up with comfort food from home, there’s another effective tip to keep homesickness away – one bite at a time.
Connect with the Help of Technology
When it comes to coping with homesickness, nothing beats connecting with the family back home. And with technology being so advanced, it is incredibly simple to do so. I highly recommend getting your close friends and family from home in WhatsApp groups. I know in other parts of the world, WhatsApp may not be quite so popular, but if you are moving away and they love you, they'll download WhatsApp for you.
In my case, I find WhatsApp more personal and easier to keeping discussions going with friends versus social media which is not really suitable for meaningful conversation. It’s simple to use, free and allows you to easily share with your friends and family on how you're doing – what else could you ask for?
Having said that, while technology is great in keeping that connection with friends and family back home, don’t let it rule your life in your new environment. Make sure you get out and meet new people in your new home and the best way to do that is proactively finding events and activities you are interested in either through connections with colleagues, or websites such as Internations and Meetup (where there are tons of active general and specific interest groups). Again many local embassies and chambers of commerce also hold regular social and professional events which provide a great opportunity for meeting people – just head over to their respective websites and sign up for their mailing lists.
Make Your House a Home
Last but not least, make your “apartment” a home. When you first move in, even after getting your furniture in it may still not feel like a home. Look for ways to make the apartment feel more “homey” with things like plants, pictures from home, personal items, etc. Also try to refer to your new place as “home” not “the apartment” which can mentally help you feel a bit more comfortable in your new digs.
Pro tip: If you want to avoid damaging the walls, you can get some 3M strips for hanging light things from the wall. Small holes can also be patched up pretty easily before moving out so don’t worry too much about this.
Feeling Less Homesick Now?
I hope some of these simple tips have helped you feel a little better. Let me know if you have tried out any of these tips and feel like it worked out great for you! Feel free to also share with me in the comments below if there are other types of content you feel would be useful for fellow expats like yourself in Singapore.