I totally understand how you feel, and I do enjoy reading your blog, it makes me think of my exchange again :) thanks for sharing again :)

Dude, I know what you're going through! I was a Rotary exchange student in New Zealand 20 years ago and trust me, you will never forget your great experience. All kinds of little things will constantly remind you of your exchange year, for the rest of your life. :-)

It will take some time to readjust to your "old life" and the people around you will also need some time to get to know the new sides of you. My advice, if I may: Find a new environment at home and surround yourself with new people, in addition to your old friends. It could be a sports club or whatever you're into.
That way you can stay in your "Rotary-rhythm" - have new experiences and adjust to new people on a regular basis.

Good luck, enjoy & welcome back! ;)

same i was in america 2 years ago and always wished to go back their for my high school time. finished high school last year, now in Australia - wish i never have to go home

I dont understand. I haven't come home yet. I still have 4 months to go. But I get the felino it passes really fast. But I feel empty here, bc I haven't accomplished anything. I only learned the host country language. (Im Brazilian and im in France). I dont have frende friends, I never go out with people from school. My friends are exchange and most brazilians. We dont go out much bc school takes all our time (till 5pm) and now its go, so we dont see each other has been longe time. Around 2 months since christmas. Its weird. I miss home. But I'll miss the way Things are here. I still prefer Brazil, but I'll miss this beautiful city, the facility of taking metro, tramway, bus, public bike... Easy to get anywhere in the big city, and I'll miss getting lost (when we walking to sightseeing and dont know where we are going). Althought it didnt happen much, im so food with maps, only in the beginning. And I'll miss the host families (mostly the cute kids). And its weird that you live in a house, and after and other and you have you bedroom, and after another. Its like you build up your life like this bc that's how its supposed to be, and then you come back. I know they will still do the same things back home, but we also do the same things. It always gets to the routine. I just hope I'll be ok. Here is not wonderful and actually there is not such place, maybe awesome but never perfect. I hope it will be fine. It's hard to be strong sometimes. Sometimes it's seems not a big deal all this, and after its like omg what a changing. It's a lot to carry, psychologic, after all. But I've read similar stories, like they have their lives now and what's going on with them and you had yours. And you can feel alone during this time. Maybe they are still not aware that you are actually back. They can not understand what it is like. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes not so much. But every exchange is different, each one feels, things, and has gone through a different exchange even if you have been to the same place and everything. You are another person, you are you and it's never the same! And even without the exchange it's hard for people to understand us and hard for us to understand them.
Think about your family, your parents, your cousins, your pet, the things u like the most. Your bed! Your bedroom! Partying in your favorite places, eating your missed foods...And how awesome it was to go and finished it, accomplish it. And now everything is back to 'normal'. Take a deep breath, little hard to process but not biggy. Maybe you will take some time to feel like home again, or will feel it right away. Don't think about the past, memories are nice but sad, don't stay looking at photos from your exchange right away when you come home. Take your time though, to yourself and to socialize with others. Think about the future, how cool it will be, you can do it again. Exchange? You made it. And it was just a part of your life, many others can happen. It never ends.

I've been feeling the exact same way. I'm from the US and went to France for 10 months 2014-2015. Even though my home in the US quickly became my home again, it's like something's missing. I want to share my experiences with people and explain to them how great an experience like this was but most people seemed to be wrapped up in their own lives. It's easier to be back after almost 8months but its still frustrating that my year abroad went by so quickly.

I got you. I came 'home' last June and it didn't get much better.
It's not just missing your exchange country, it's being back, where everything is still the same. I have never been able to talk about how bad I was doing with being back, I kept quiet but you shouldn't be like me. Try to find anyone to talk about all those feelings you mentioned. I am seeing a psychiatrist now, since I never talked about the things that I was thinking about all the time.
I am always up to talk as well, but you should really try to see the good things in your home country, in your old friends, your old routine, even if it's just not that easy.
Sabrina

Thank you for your heart-felt post, Cristian.
Coming from a different perspective, I'm a host Mom. My High School student from Sweden leaves in 3 weeks. I'm anticipating feeling a huge loss, and expect to endure an empty feeling for a while. I'm a single parent, no kids, just a lovable dog. When I tell good friends, "I'm going to really REALLY miss my exchange student," they give me a blank stare, and I feel a little alone. Most host families have their spouses to bounce their thoughts, joys, and challenges around. I didn't have that.
Cristian, I would think that you had changed and grown tremendously during the year you were away, while your friends back home stayed pretty much the same, so you are on a different level. That may be the strangeness you feel. I trust it gets better.
Thanks again for writing such a sincere post.

Hey there!
I can totally understand your situation, as most of us exchange students probably can! I went back to read my own blog and had to stop after the first entry from when I'd arrived in Oklahoma. Some nights I just lay in bed crying about all the little things, all the people, and all the memories I miss.
It helps me a lot to know that other people are going through the same torture- like feelings as I am.
Problem is, my host family barely even texts me anymore, now, that I've been back home for a year. I love and miss them so badly but I don't think they understand what I'm feeling. All I'm saving my money for right now is to buy a ticket to Oklahoma and visit them again, just see them again and sleep in my American bed again. But you know what? It won't be the same. They moved to another house and my class graduated this year. I don't know what awaits me when I come back and I'm scared of the thought of it never being the same feeling again.
Feel free to add me on Facebook if you wanna talk about your year, I know how it feels to have no one caring or listening!
Good luck and know that we understand! :)
Jenny Lips

Hey :)
I just saw your post, and this describes exactly how i feel. I have been in the States in 2013/14, and as soon as I was back home I knew I had to go back. It is so weird that your "home" isn't feeling like your home anymore. I just left part of my heart in los Angeles. And the only time i felt like myself and at peace with me was when I was back in Los Angeles to visit my family in 2015. And my friends didn't really understand me, .. at the beginning they were asking me how my year abroad was, what I experienced. But how in the world can you explain all of the things you experienced in 9 months with just a few words? I wasn't even able to tell them what I did, because I had to realize it on my own first, and when I was finally able to talk about it, nobody was interested. Or they were annoyed that I was just talking about the States. And a lot of people got really pissed that I still adressed Los Angeles as home, or my Hostfam as my parents. It was also my plan to go to college in the states, but it's so crazy expensive. So i started going to college in Germany (I am from germany) and part of my studies is to study for 1 semester abroad, and have 1 semester an internship abroad. And i was crazy lucky to get a scholarship to go to a California State University for 1-2 Semester. I will be leaving in August for my time at the CSU College in Chico. I can't wait to be finally back in the States again. I also feel much more comfortable with english than with german, which is also why I am studying in english (even though we are in germany)..

Padii

Hi,
I am from Belgium and left for 6 months in California and 5 months in Georgia for the school year 2014 - 2015. My host family, with whom I stayed for the whole year, was the best I could ask for, everything really went perfectly with them. I also met my girlfriend in Georgia and we are still together! :)
Well, I've been going through the same as you all, as many exchange students, but I want to focus on what Jenny Lips said:
I was lucky enough to go back this April and go to prom with my girlfriend and see my host family and even a few senior friends that are now in college, I even spent a day at my old school and see a lot of friends of mine and teachers. Even after less than a year, everything had already changed. While I was stuck in the past, with all my memories, people move on with their lives and change. My little siblings are growing way too fast. My old school building was destroyed and replaced by a newer one, right in front of it, and so many other things.
So yes, things will NEVER be the same, but going back was just great, and I was feeling home again, sometimes even forgot that I ever left. Then yes, I had to go through goodbyes again but it is all worth it, I will never regret any moment of this amazing experience or going back.

I'm from Italy , Sicily . I'll be leaving in 3 days . Right now I'm in my room feeling like I don't know how and crying by myself . I didn't expect that this could have happened to me. Like all of this feelings all once , my exchange year , people to say goodbye and especially crying twice as people sayed to me : when you leave homeland and when you leave what ,after all you , will call you second home. I feel you so much right now!

Hey chris, beautifull to read, i have similar experiences since ive got home. after 5months in Asia. No one will be able to understand what you have felt and seen of the world, as pictures simply do not count for that...

All the best for your future trips, id gladly have a chat with you about that.

greets!,Randy

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Every word you wrote i make it mine ... i feel the same after been in Chile for 6 months
I have three weeks in my country , city, house (México) and still I feel a little empty inside. Really is a very difficult process and I hope to improve soon but also 'm afraid of that .. I guess I can only do the best I can with my life and continue to grow . Thanks for your words

Yo, I didn't do an exchange when i was in highschool but i still know how it feels to be back home. I'm getting older (even though i'm only 19) so my trips need to be different. I don't have host parents or siblings but foreign friends. Going back to what i was saying, every time i get back home i feel no one really cared about my experience. They don't understand anything but i had to deal with it. They didn't live the experience that's why. I was not at home when something funny happened and that's why i don't get the joke, and they weren't where i was so the don't get the picture of what i'm telling. We need to give us time to process everything we lived and as you said on another post (I just found this blog and i'm trying to read all of it), our experience may help someone someday so... just be happy about your experience.
I'm so glad that i found this blog.

Exactly what I'm feeling right now. Seperaion Anxiety in Colorado! :(

I’m feeling better now!! I miss the mountains though!!! Waiting for my new journey to Australia ���� cheers!