14 October 2013

Homesickness vs. logic

'Homesickness' might not be quite the right term. I was born and grew up in the United States, but I find myself terribly, unshakably missing the UK. I lived most of my adult life there, fell in love there, was educated there, bought a house there, had a baby there.

And now I find myself missing the most illogical things about it.

Expatová's list of most-missed things from the UK (discounting the obvious categories of friends, beaches, and free museums):
1. The weather
2. The food
3. The houses

This has been perplexing for poor L. as he is trying to help me talk though things. Conversations tend to go like this:
L.: What's wrong?
Expatová: I miss English weather.
L.: English weather? It rained all the time.
E.: I know! [sob]

Or, when it comes to comparing the living room in our English house (which was not a bad size for UK standards) with our living room in our Czech abode, the Czech house clearly wins in size, amount of light, ceiling height, lovely wood floors...pretty much in every way.

English living room
Czech living room
And yet, I find myself pining for darker, smaller, damper rooms. The lack of logic in this situation is maddening.

We brought our collection of charity shop maps and pictures with us from the UK, but I haven't yet found the courage to put them on the walls yet. Perhaps it's because I'm afraid of having too many reminders of our old life. Equally possible is that my subconscious knows that our charity shop finds will crumble in the bright Czech sunlight. 

I seem to remember these feelings from when I left the US, so I'm hopeful that Czech weather and lifestyles will win me over in the end.

1 comment:

  1. In some way I know what you mean- when I was leaving my previous flat I was very sad because of all the memories I left there. Many, many good and very important to me, special memories. Noone understood me and I almost started to feel like I'm leaving all the happiness behind me. After some time it turned out it's just a matter of making new good memories in the new place :-) I was moving only a few streets away not other country, but I get your point...Give it some time Em, you will create new memories and put down roots :-) I really believe in that. Love you! x

    PS. Missing English food is even more crazy than missing English weather! :-)

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