Traveling can be challenging for a great number of reasons, from exploring new countries to dealing with homesickness and being far from friends and family. One thing I’ve found that really helps to combat homesickness is to stay in touch regularly with those I miss most. Thankfully, gone are the days of ridiculously expensive international calling rates; if you plan ahead, you can save a lot of money and effort in international calling. There are a lot of international calling services available, so find the ones that suit your lifestyle and budget best:
Using Your Smartphone to call for Free:
What? Free international calls? It sounds like a dream. It’s possible to make free calls from Android phones by downloading special apps for your smartphone that allow you to call for free. All you need is either a working WIFI signal or enough mobile data credit. If you’re overseas it can be a good idea to buy a local sim, preload it with enough credit for some data, and then make the calls for free!
Get Familiar With the Time Zones
It can be challenging if you are operating on a completely opposite time zone to your friends and family. You’ll probably need to set aside some time to plan the best time to have a chat with your loved ones that works with both of your schedules. This will depend largely on where you are based and how big the time zone is, but you might have to get very creative to make sure this works!
Send Emails:
The best thing about emails, aside from being free, is that you can send them at any time and they’re sent instantly. Because of the hassles with timezones and busy lives, emails are a great option because you can read and reply to them when you have a chance. You can also add in photos, which makes for a great way for those you care about to see how your trip is going.
Use Social Media:
Social media gets a pretty bad rap these days! People seem to be sick of the cons of social media, but all the same many people find themselves addicted. Social media is a great way to keep in touch with friends or family as you can easily post status updates for everyone to see. You can also make photo albums on Facebook, for example, that your family members can access and look through. While social media is not as personal as an email or a phone call, it can be a great option for keeping a large number of people in the loop at once.
There are so many options for keeping in touch now that are free or pretty close to it, so you have no excuse not to give mum a call while you’re traveling to let her know what you’re up to!
