5 Technologies that Battle Homesickness

Post date: 18-Nov-2009 15:48:00

While travelling for 6 months, you're bound to get homesick from time to time, but you can bring some of the technological comforts of home with you.

1) Use Skype and your webcam to talk to family

When you're feeling homesick a good relief can be to talk to and see your family and friends. It helps to see that everything is still the same at home and everyone is okay. It's really cheap to have a Skype account. It costs us $3.00 a month to phone a home phone number or cell phone in Canada.

2) Instant message

Use Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger etc. to chat with your friends online. Sure, it's not the same as texting from your cell phone but it doesn't cost anything.

3) Write a blog

I know everyone is always talking about writing a daily blog, but even doing one post a week is a great way to capture your travel experiences. It's a great way to keep track of where you have traveled, what you've seen and to post the pictures you have taken.

A blog can also help you to remember that you're not travelling forever and helps you recap all the great experiences you're having with locals. This can help you appreciate what you are doing and want to keep on travelling and experienceing new things. This also helps people at home see that you are safe in the arms of strangers and are having fun.

4) Listen to podcasts, radio programs and download your Favourite TV shows

If you're travelling for a long period of time it can be difficult to have consistency. However, if you usually listen to a podcast at home there is no reason you can't listen to it while you're away (assuming you have access to an Internet connection). For example, Colin watches the Totally Rad Show and COOP and has continued to follow them while on our trip. He also listens and watches various other podcasts while we're travelling for 6 months.

If I am feeling out of tune with things at home or am missing my local music, then I listen to Sonic over the Internet. If we're at home we usually watch Heroes every Monday night, so we decided to continue to watch in while on the road by downloading it. This can help you feel more at home because if you were at home you would probably be watching it.

5) Record your exercise routine online

Go for a run with your nike + ipod chip and then upload your running to the Nike website so you can meet your goals and participate in challenges. This also applies to any exercise you usually do while you're at home. For example, I used to take a Wednesday night yoga class with my mom and sister in-law, so sometimes I will do an hour of yoga on Wednesday nights.

Travel is about absorbing new things from various cultures by staying with locals and gaining new experiences. However, it's also nice to take a break and do something that you would do if you were at home.