After a long and busy week, things seem to fall apart over the weekend. Although you can enjoy your weekends with your flatmates and Netflix, it can get repetitive and depressing. As an international student during the current restrictions, it can be challenging to stay positive when away from home. Still, you cannot let it affect your energy. And so here are a few tips to help you reduce the agony of nostalgia while at the same time helping you connect and rediscover yourself:

1. The first thing that we need to do is to accept and let go of the emotions. It is okay to breakdown and cry occasionally. This will help you express yourself and reduce the burden you might feel of trying to be healthy.
2. Stay in touch with your family. Technology has brought the world closer, and hence use it as much as you can. This way, you can stay updated with all the craziness you miss while having the opportunity to express yourself when hitting the low.
3. Spend some time and effort on your hobbies. Free time over the weekend is the best way to catch up on your hobbies. This way, you will improve your skills while enjoying your time. Additionally, this will help you regulate your own emotions without fighting them. Personally, I catch up on my hobby of practicing Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance) over the weekend. It helps me stay in touch with my art while helping me overcome my homesickness.
4.  Do not forget that food is a vital part of the culture. Spend some time cooking something that reminds you of home. It will keep you busy, and you will be able to savor the flavors of home.
5. Cleaning can be meditative (not only for Monica); it can really help you collect your thought as you clean your room/ kitchen and keep you busy.
6. Go for a long walk in nature. It will help you gather your thoughts, and if you enjoy photography, it will definitely leave you with some good shots. 
7. If you are a book person, catchup on a few favorites and immerse yourself in a different world altogether. 

And beyond all this, call up an old friend to rant about the way life has been over the week. Staying in touch with your friends is the best way to surface crazy memories while creating new ones over the phone.

Although life is very restricted currently, it is still college, and you are bound to have experience beyond binge-watching. You have left a lot behind before reaching here, but there is so much more ahead; and once you go there, no one will be as happy as your family- so why not get there with all that you have got.

As you go through all this, you might end up going through all those pictures and crying someday, but channelize your sorrow through writing up something- maybe poetry or a blog?

It will surely help!