Home.

I've officially been away from home for 10 weeks now.

In between figuring out how to use the laundry machines, travelling around the UK and learning how to squeeze in my 5 a day, 10 weeks have passed. I remember learning the difference between a space and a place a couple of years ago. Space is an area, it becomes a place when you attach it with meanings. To me 10 weeks ago,  Lancaster was just a space. It's transformed so much over the weeks that now it's gone from a place to home. 


I wish I could've bottled up what the first week here felt like. It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. As exchange students, our orientation week started a week before all the other students had arrived back from break. Campus was deserted, my flat of 8 only had one other person living here. I was completely isolated and had no idea how to deal with any of it.

Adjusting to living in a big house, sharing a kitchen with 7 other people has proved difficult at times but I think we've gotten into a pretty good rhythm now. As everyone else in the flat moved back in and classes started, I began to feel more at peace. My room started getting cluttered with all the unnecessary things I've bought online (AmazonPrime is a godsend. Australia, you should get on that ASAP). I put up photos of everything and everyone that made it feel like home.

Before we left for exchange, we were told that homesickness was a real and normal thing. Up until exchange I had never felt homesick because I always had someone from home with me. Here, I knew no one and had no idea where I was. I've never lived anywhere as cold or as wet as Lancaster. I missed the sun. That's what makes good days here more special I think. Back home, seeing the sun was something we took for granted. An hour of clear blue skies here really makes my day. Homesickness is a strange thing. My conscious mind knows it'll pass and that I shouldn't spend my days in my room on FaceTime with my friends back home until ridiculous hours of the night. (The current record is 6 am with class later that morning). Subconsciously though everything is wrong. A saying we've come up with is, 'everything is just slightly different from back home. and that's what bothers me.' Not having Sakata crackers, Tim Tams or coffee from my regular place back home had more of an impact on me than expected.

They tell you you'll get homesick and that it'll get better. What I've found is that the homesickness doesn't really leave you, you just get better at handling it. The strangest thing is being away from Lancaster for a weekend and actually wanting to go back by the end of the second day.

So as difficult as being away from sunny Sydney has been, Lancaster is home now. And I can't imagine being on exchange to another city at all.