Homesickness and distractions

Hello and welcome to the third week of InterReili in Germany!

As the title suggests, this week brought the first feelings of melancholy and yearning. I was anticipating homesickness earlier, so when it hit on the Wednesday of my third week here, I was caught off guard.
I assume that the weather had something to do with it, since it was starting to look a lot like what it was in Finland when I flew here in the beginning of November.
Fortunately I am so blessed to have an amazing instructor at my internship in the kindergarten, so I could be perfectly candid with her about how I was feeling. Talking it out helped a lot, since she also has experienced homesickness before and could relate.They also had a big regional staff meeting that day, so they closed the kindergarten at 12:30 which meant I got off early. I was then faced with a dilemma. I was feeling sad and just wanted to return to home base and wallow in the overwhelming feeling of loneliness, but I knew that would probably make me feel even worse. I then decided to jump on a bus and go to Cologne Weiden, to do some shopping at the Rhein Center, even though I despise shopping. Christmas season is in full swing here, so it was cool to see the decorations in the shopping center. I visited a few stores, but bought only a new sports top for myself for when I return to Finland and can start going to the gym again. That's also something I miss about home, the opportunity to go to the gym whenever. Gym has previously really helped me with my anxiety and mood, because lifting and crushing new personal records feels amazing, and cardio helps with mindfulness.
On Friday, it was the national reading day, and since our kindergarten values diversity and different cultures, I was asked to participate in it. The book of the day was "Kleiner Weißer Fisch", written and illustrated by Guido Van Genechten. I was asked to translate it on some flash cards for myself in Finnish and to read it to a group of children with another employee. I was so glad I could finally do something I know I'm good at. First my co-reader read a page in German, interacting with the children while puppeteering the toys to the story, and then I read the same in Finnish. We read the whole book out loud and it was so cool to see how immersed the children were in the story and how they were amused by Finnish language.
Friday night I played video games on my laptop, to be more precise Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, until 3 in the morning and to be honest, I really needed that. Usually I'm in bed before ten and asleep before eleven. But on Friday I really felt like playing my all time favorite game. I needed to turn off my brain and just focus on the wondrous scenery and many quests in the fantasy world. I've been a fan of Skyrim for over ten years so the familiar locations and NPC's helped me to manage my homesickness. Even though home is physically a few thousand kilometers away, Skyrim in a way will always feel like home to me. That game has helped me get through some really tough times previously, so I knew it would offer me peace once again.On Sunday, I met up with teacher C in Cologne again. We went to Museum Ludwig and examined all different kinds of art, some that resonated with me, some that didn't. I left inspired, and might even pick up my paintbrushes again when I get back home.

Only one week to go before I return to Finland. I can't wait to see my loved ones back home and to finally sleep in my own bed, but there is still so much I didn't get to see and do here in Germany, and I feel like I'm probably gonna miss a few kiddos and my instructor from the kindergarten.

Only one week to go, and it's feeling rather bittersweet.

Best regards,

InterReili