What's yours?

[scheherazade_79]

When you're a thousand miles away from home - when the landscape is different, the people are different, what are the thoughts, memories, sounds, smells and sights that are likely to make you homesick?

Mine are as follows:

1. Welsh male voice choirs
2. My mother's voice
3. The sound of my dog barking
4. Listening to Under Milk Wood, because the characters all sound like people I know
5. Fresh bread
6. Sundays - knowing that I'm missing out on a really nice roast dinner

I don't like the word 'homesick'. We have a special word for it in Wales - hiraeth, which means a kind of yearning for your home.

What's your hiraeth?

 

[cloudy]

1. a sudden craving for cornbread
2. a certain cadence to speech that I only hear one place (and it's not here )

I had more, but you know? The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized that I don't have that hiraeth. I suppose I've lived so many places over the years that I'm sort of rootless.

The one thing that really gets to me is the sound of waves - big ones. The pacific is rough, and I've not seen waves like that since I was little.

 

[oggbashan]

1. The sight and sound of the North Sea
2. Miners' choirs (some of them are Welsh)
3. Industrial Brass Bands (not Military)
4. Stately Homes
5. The change of scenery in a very small distance i.e. ten miles or less.
6. Old Friends (new ones always welcome)

Og

Edited for PS: And for my country of birth, Wales, the sound of Welsh voices and the various rock climbs around Snowdonia - Y Wyddfa; Tryfan...

I'm never going to be able to do those rock climbs again.

 

[impressive]

I have never considered my physical place of residence as my "home." My home is spiritual. When I lose sight of the things I most value about myself, when I let circumstances turn me into a pessimist, when I get bogged down in neediness, when I can't see my own beauty though the ugly -- that's when I am "homesick."

 

[kendo1]

1.The green of Scotland.
2.The hills.
3.My bed. It's always good to return to your own bed.
4.The taste of the water.

Ken

 

[Guest]

While I'm very attached to my house, a certain rootlessness has always haunted my life, a reluctance to get too attached to any one place because sooner or later I'll have to leave it or it will be changed. But there are certain things that bring about a longing for that sometimes undefinable thing "home".

1) the site of a domestic cat. Any cat, when I'm away from my own, makes me long for them
2) The smell of orange blossoms (real ones. Few artificial frangrances match the real thing)
3) The smell of old books, that dusty, dry smell. The houses of old people sometimes smell similar
4) Certain musical sounds, like an old piano or a soprano recorder. Not songs so much as just the sounds.
5) The sound of wind through fir trees
6) The feel of smooth, well worn cotton cloth
7) A combination -- warm sun through a window in the afternoon, the sound of a gas lawn mower, the smell of fresh cut grass, and the breeze lifting a sheer curtain

 

[McKenna]

1. Usually it's the lack of wide, open spaces that makes me homesick.

2. Seeing a "real" cowboy.

3. Smelling fresh-turned earth.

4. Smelling sagebrush or pine.

5. The crackle of a fire.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Chocolate chip cookies

Breakfast cereal

A couple holding hands

A shower with lots of hot water pressure and BIG towels

My bed. All cotton and downy goodness, plus the soft, warm kitty cat. I spend so much time in hotel rooms, some of which are awesomely wonderful...but when I get in bed, I sooooo miss my bed and kitty.

 

[minsue]

What's your hiraeth?

Ask me again in a couple of months.

 

[Belegon]

1) Carne Asada
2) In N Out Burger
3) Sunset over the waves
4) Hearing multiple languages in a single day

These are things I long for when I'm away....and while my friends are my true reason for living, I love my hometown and can't imagine leaving here permamently...

The last one was more subtle...but when I was in college and the triple I's playing ball, I really missed hearing languages other than english...

 

[matriarch]

- The smell of the sea in the air when I wake up every single day.

- The sight of rolling green hills, beaches and woodland.

- Being able to go out for a walk without having to worry about heat stroke

- Being able to sit out in the garden

- English beer

- English sausages

- English baked beans (believe me, they ARE different)

- Driving on the left-hand side of the road

- My own little car

- English voices and accents

But all of these pale into insignificance if she's not by my side.
Where she is, is my true home. The above are merely memories of where I spent the last 56 years of my life.

 

[Aurora Black]

Absolutely nothing.

 

[Guest]

In the spring, when it's crawfish season and when it's Fat Tuesday.

 

[Aurora Black]

Absolutely nothing.

Maybe I was a bit too hasty before. These are my triggers:

The sound of my mother's voice on the phone.

The sound of my little niece playing in the background during said phone calls.

Trees.

Cravings for my mom's cooking.

Cravings for peanut butter.

The little "I Love You" notes that my mom always encloses in her care packages to me.

BBC period pieces, travel shows, and nature documentaries.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

If I happen to be in Las Vegas, where I have attended several multi-day meetings/seminars in recent years:

Real people doing real things.
Real stores - Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, etc.
Real anything.

(I realize that all those things exist in Vegas, but if your are trapped in the strip district without a car and not time or need to leave the area anyway, you never see them.