I am abroad only for four weeks, so a fairly short time. Being away from home in another country (no matter the duration) still has its down sides. The longer you are gone, more likely you are to get homesick.

Here are some tips I’ve found helpful

• Make it feel like home unpack, but your toiletries, clothes and other things where they belong
• Food eat the foods you would eat at home, breakfast, snacks etc.
• Keep up with the habits what ever it might be, having a cup of coffee or tea in the morning, going for a walk everyday, reading a book, watching videos. Habits are an important part of your routine! Don’t let them go.
• Keep in touch with friends and family as often as you would at home, if not more
• Positive thoughts instead of focusing on the things you miss or that are better in your home country, focus on all the good things that you prefer ’here’ compared to home

And wherever you are staying and no matter how long, remember it is completely normal and totally okay to feel homesick. But don’t let it keep you from enjoying yourself. Home will always be there for you to go back to.

If you’re living alone or in a shared flat like me, be prepared to buy some neccessities your self. I have beddings and towels, but other than that I have to buy things myself. For example I have bought

• Hand soap
• Laundry detergent
• Tissues
• Toothpaste
• Shampoo and soap
• Food containers (to mealprep a bit)
• Cotton pads and sticks (didn’t want to bring from Finland)
• Foods and spices
• Toilet paper

I oredered a tallinja (Malta public transport) bus card from online before coming here, and I got it today. But you can also buy those from an office here. The buses tend to be late because the traffic here is a bit chaotic. But other than that the buses are quite easy. There’s a lot of connections from San Gwann to Valletta and to L-Imsida (Beauty Rituals).

Lara had researched for me how to get to work from my apartment, and tallinja has an app where you can plan routes and check timetables and bus stops. One trip with the tallinja card costs only 0,75e and is valid for 2 hours.

Google maps also shows quite good results, and you can check routes and timetables from https://www.publictransport.com.mt/