Living in a foreign country can be a life-changing experience, but as an international, it is pretty inevitable that you will find yourself wishing you were home where the faces, sounds and smell are all more familiar at some point. Although many newcomers may feel that it is pretty easy to feel at home in the north, there are simply some things your new hometown cannot offer.
Diego Ortiz Garcia from Mexico craves the food and the sunny days his country offers so generously. “I miss going for some tacos after a party or having some chilaquiles (traditional Mexican dish) for breakfast. I’m still not fully convinced of krokets or eierbal.”
“But what hit harder while living in the Netherlands was the absence of mountains,” Garcia says. “In Mexico, I used to go every weekend to the mountains, sometimes over 5,000 meters above sea level in snow and ice expeditions, sometimes to canyons in the middle of the tropical forest.” However, the Netherlands does offer plenty of opportunities for one of his favourite activities: biking.
Jacob Thorburn from England misses his friends, his family, and his dog, Honey. “Facetime just isn’t the same,” he says. As for food, a “full English breakfast” remains elusive in Groningen. “It’s still the greatest hangover cure.”
When she first arrived in the north, Valeska Schietinger from Germany was shocked by the fact that Sundays seem to be simply a normal day of the week in the Dutch calendar. “When I moved to Groningen, some of my neighbours were drilling holes in the wall on a Sunday, which is an absolute no-go in Germany,” Valeska remembers that Sundays in Germany are different. “It’s literally the day of rest, closed shops, Sunday roasts and trips with the family. The concept of people being busy with work and not having one whole day off was a shocker,” she says.
Check out our video to hear from more internationals talking about the people, places, things – and especially food – that they miss from home. What are the aspects of life in your home country that you wish you could find more easily in the Netherlands?
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