Living abroad usually means you don't get to see your friends and relatives back in your home country very often. Their visits to you seem to be rare or non-existent, maybe a few single friends or immediate family members visit you, but generally that's all (though you probably get plenty of letters asking when you're coming home next).
So, if you want to see family and friends it is up you to use your valuable leave flights and limited vacation time to do so.
How long do have for your vacation? How many friends do you have? Running out of time? Any time left for a holiday? What is the likelihood you will arrive back at your overseas home needing a holiday?
Home visits can turn from an expected and anticipated holiday into a never ending round of visits, or over-long stays with relatives in houses that are far too small to accommodate the normal occupants and you for weeks on end. Once you get home you'll probably also have loads of people calling up to say, "Come and visit us, we're not far from where you are." But it hardly seems to many people's minds that you've just flown half way round the world and the last thing you want to do is spend another four hours travelling across country to go visiting for an afternoon.
Cramped accommodation, having to make weak excuses for not visiting people, or losing friends because you say "No" rather grumpily whilst suffering from jet lag can be avoided. Start planning home visits well in advance. Take the initiative and organize the time to ensure that you have a holiday and keep your friends.
Tips to Reduce the Pain and Increase the Pleasure.
- Before you tell everybody that you are coming back for a holiday make specific arrangements to see all the important people in your life; either in a group or separately as appropriate. Once these arrangements are made other people will have to fit around you.
- Jointly rent holiday accommodation with immediate relatives making sure it is large enough to comfortably house you, your family and all the grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins you want to see at the same time. Meeting up on neutral territory also makes such get-togethers easier; you're almost certain to have picked up some strange foreign habits while you've been away.
- Plan time alone for yourself and your immediate family. An endless round of visiting can cause untold stress between spouses and children. Make plans to visit places special for you, your spouse and especially your children. Being able to remember where you come from and give your children some knowledge of their home country is important.
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