Sort out the basics of what will happen after your return in good time beforehand. Basics include staples such as how to make a living and putting a roof over your head.
Concentrate on life in the country where you are living, but keep those close to you up to speed on what is happening.
It is naturally worthwhile taking holidays “back home” in order to keep up human relations and preserve the children’s language skills.
Say your farewells to the country where you have been living at leisure, not in haste.
Prepare yourself for changes in the home country, in other people you thought you knew, and not least in yourself.
Don’t be offended if the people close to you back home find it difficult to respond to all your experiences.
Show an interest in what they have been doing - it is not as if their lives have completely stood still while you were away.
Find people in similar situations to your own with whom to chew over the experiences and sensations of returning home.
Accept that the process of acclimatisation to the familiar - yet strangely unfamiliar - space you now inhabit can take some time.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.4.2008
