Traveling is awesome! Can I go home now?
Breakdance sign at Pushkar Festival amusement park | Photo by Lauren Girardin
I didn’t expect to be homesick. Not at all. How could I be homesick when I am distracted by new experiences, tastes, and people every day? Yet, every day I think about how much I’d like to be back in San Francisco and be done with traveling. I’d even settle for a quick two week break at home – just to swap my well-worn clothes for new, take a hot shower with adequate water pressure, and see my friends and family. And don’t get me started about super burritos or Eric Kent wine.
I’ve never been homesick before, not while in college at NYU, not after moving out to San Francisco with Todd ten years ago. Now, here in India – a country I love – homesickness has become an obsession. I constantly think about what I miss, who I miss, and what I’ll do when I get home. The Pushkar Camel Festival is one of the most exotic, unrestrained, and straight-out fun places I’ve been in my life – how can I want to be anywhere else?
With Faye and Eddie at the Sunset Point | Photo taken by BJ, a young kid
I reveal all this and more to Faye while we both swing from hammocks strung up in a rooftop restaurant in Pushkar. Todd and I met Faye and her boyfriend, Eddie, a few days ago while waiting for the bus to take us all to Pushkar. Since then, we’ve gotten together for dinner and conversation each night, and spent hours sprawling at the Sunset Point, drinking chai and gazing out at the camel multitudes.
Faye is not just an empathetic listener – having traveled long-term herself, she has personal stories and the cred to go with them to reassure me that homesickness is a hump I’ll get over. When I ask her what other fun mind-fucks I should be prepared for, she tells me about the awkward first time hanging out with friends who haven’t extensively traveled themselves, and also the immediate desire to pack up again as soon as you get home.
Perhaps it’s an illusion created by the hypnotic swing of the hammock or the lulling exhaustion of the mid-day desert heat, but after talking to Faye, I have a feeling I will make it through the rest of my trip around the world.
I filled out a form for a class-action settlement on foreign-transaction credit card fees where I was required to estimate my number of days abroad from 1996-2006. I looked through my old passport and determined that I’d spent a year and half total out of the US in that decade. My feeling of being impressed with that total quickly subsided into a sense of sadness that I was on the back end of that time in my life now. So enjoy this for all it’s worth, struggle and dirtiness and all…but I didn’t need to tell you that.
I so remember that feeling. I think I had some dreams about going home for a night and then being ready to keep on traveling after having slept in my own bed for one night.
took longer than I’d like to leave a comment, but don’t worry about us back home. we’ll be here when you get back and we’re admiring your travels for now. sarah and I were watching TV last night and saw a special on Southern India. I felt envy for your trip after
all the talk and pictures of vegetarian food. You’re THERE!!! so cool. have fun. thanks for sharing your amazing trip with the rest of us. i’m just back in the office this week and trying to remember how to work.
I know I don’t have to tell you this Laruen but we miss ya too, but at least we can stay close in other ways, we’ve got the web and your photos, stories and maybe best of all skype to chat. I look forward to talking to you on the webcam, maybe you’ll be able to see us sooner than you think. :)
Keep travelin’ and tellin’ us what you’ve seen and what we’ve never seen before. I’ve never left the country (duh) and only left the east coast to visit you so I can’t even imagine how different and amazing it must be to see other cultures. Different countries who’s latest gossip isn’t about technology, presidents, actors caught doing stupid things, but rather food, places and other things.
When you get connection again I’ve got the webcam up, tested, and ready. Enjoy the sites while you’re out there, meet new people and see new sights, and call us on skype…no really the webcam was 60 bucks so it better get some use!!! >:(+)!!!
Just kidding. Love ya
-Mike and the Ta-rajin’s!
Good luck.
Maybe another country will get the homesick thing away. We miss you.
P.
Hang in there Lauren! While I can’t begin to imagine what that kind of homesickness feels like, I DO know that you are doing something that most people only dream about, and someday when you are home and back to your regular life, you will surely relish your days on the road.
And how cool it will be to be in another country for the inauguration!!! What perspectives and stories you will have to share. What are you guys doing to celebrate?
We miss you guys, but keep on having fun out there for those of us who can only do it vicariously!!!!
K & S
We were talking about how much we missed you both at happy hour on Friday. I know everyone else is telling you you’ll make it through this hump, so I will too, if only begrudgingly. It is an amazing adventure you both are on.
A brief homesick while abroad story. I went to China six years ago with my older sister and parents. It was the seventh day in China and we were getting ready to fly to Hong Kong to visit a friend of mine from college and his family. My sister and I were both missing white America (or at least the food) so I called my friend Alex and asked if they had peanut butter in Hong Kong. He laughed. He thought it was a ridiculous questions – I wasn’t sure if it was because of course they had it or of course they didn’t have it. He showed up the next day at the airport to pick us up with a jar of peanut butter in hand. Here’s my jar of peanut butter. xoxo