Homesickness?

I'd like to say that I'm homesick, but since I don't have a home, that doesn't make a lot of sense. But how would one describe the feeling of wanting to have a home? I am longing for a place I can call home- a place where I feel safe, and comfortable. A place where I fit, and that fits me.

I wonder when a place begins to feel like home? Obviously, I can't expect Tubingen to feel like home just yet- I haven't even been here a week. But I wonder what it is that makes a place feel like home? Is it the physical residence? The region? The people? It's probably some combination of these, although I rather suspect that the latter may in some ways be the most important. I can say that Boone never really felt like home to me, and in a lot of ways, Dallas didn't either, even though I was there for a longer period of time (but still less than a year). I think with Dallas, I was just so busy, and I didn't have a car, so I never really got to explore the area- my life was so small there- I rarely moved outside of a five block radius.

...I find it curious that I almost immediately felt at home when I visited my friend's family farm in SW Virginia. I've only spent parts of maybe 6-7 days there, and yet when I'm there, it feels like home. Why is that? And, really, when I visited my sister in DC, her house also felt very home-like (I certainly made myself at home, and made a huge mess of her guest room :) ), and, again, I was only there a week.

I guess, then, home is about being with or near the people you care about; living in close proximity to them, if not in the same building. I am curious about what kind of life I will build here, even if I'm only here temporarily. I hope that one day I will wake up, and realize that this place feels like home.