Jenna: One of the little things I look forward to almost every day lately is getting up in the morning and getting a glass of water from the kitchen sink. This isn't because I'm thirsty when I wake up (though I am) but because when I look up and out the window over the kitchen sink, I can just see the tip top of Mount Taranaki, usually free of clouds in the early morning. It's pretty beautiful, and it's something I can't experience at home in Sherwood Park.
The rest of my morning is usually spent trying to ignore the fact that I'm FREEZING. Seriously. The lack of central heating in New Zealand homes, combined with poor insulation, makes for a chilly morning pretty much every day outside of the months of December thru March. Breakfast is made with cold fingers, and I usually sit huddled up while I eat breakfast in front of the morning news with my flatmates, Lena and Rory. When they're in the country, that is...they've been travelling Europe since August, and we only moved in with them in July.
When we first moved to New Plymouth, I cherished being able to see the sea every day. The WorleyParsons building is right on the waterfront. If you're on Level 3 or above, you can see the mountain from one side of the building, and the sea from the other. It's pretty unreal. I still look forward to seeing the sea every day, but I've noticed lately that I already take it for granted. Only 10 months in, and I already "forget" to acknowledge the sea every day, even though I see it literally every day, twice a day, 5 days a week. I'm trying to rectify that, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is likely the case for other things in my life. I tend to stress over little things, and sometimes that means they detract from my enjoyment of the larger things. I can very easily get into a groove of "finish work, go to the gym, come home and cook dinner, clean up from dinner, do laundry/dishes/to-do list" and then the day is gone and I haven't taken the time whatsoever to appreciate where I am. But having said that, it's also part of what comes with LIVING in another country. Life and its various responsibilities don't stop when we leave home. We still have to work, we still have to clean the house, do laundry, cook dinner, and buy groceries. We can't spend every second travelling every corner of New Zealand, living the backpacker life. I think that's what a lot of people don't understand about our situation here. Every moment is not an adventure, but the year as a whole is an adventure in itself. There are some situations that we take advantage of because our time here is limited, but for the most part, we live a pretty normal life here in New Zealand. A normal Kiwi life.
Mitch touched on a lot of the things that make New Zealand, well...New Zealand. There are the obvious ones, like the way Kiwis speak, the different words and phrases they use (that we now use, too...the human brain is just a giant sponge), and how active they all seem to be. The not-so-obvious ones that we have come to notice are, but not limited to, the following:
1. Kiwis are extremely friendly (perhaps this is obvious, but I wanted to point it out). They give us Canadians a run for our money on this point. They sincerely want you to enjoy your time in their country, so they'll go out of your way to make sure that you do. One of the main reasons Mitch and I have experienced so much here in such a short time is because of our friends and their willingness to include us without hesitation. We'll be forever grateful for that.
2. Ice cream is outstanding here. Seriously. This is an important one. I love ice cream. I will miss being able to buy a $3 ice cream cone the size of my head at almost any corner store ("dairy").
3. Fish and chips...on the beach. This one might be specific to Taranaki (?) but it's a thing. And it's great. Grab FnC from takeaway shop for <$7. Head to beach. Consume. We've only actually done this once, but we'll be doing it again.
4. They go barefoot everywhere. Supermarkets, sidewalks...they just don't like shoes, or something.
5. Lots of other things I can't think of right now.
Another thing I really love about living in New Plymouth is the closeness of the community. Coming from a so-called "bedroom community", I find it extremely cool that I can have a 5-minute commute to work, where I'm in the centre of town and can go for a beer or two after work at any number of cool pubs within walking distance of my building. Since New Plymouth isn't that big, most of my coworkers can meet in the town centre for drinks, and the vast majority won't have a massively longer commute home than the next person. It creates many many more opportunities to get together outside of work, which I've found also creates a better sense of community within the workplace.
AND since work is right on the water, it means that in the summer months, an after-work swim is not only possible, but common. In the "extreme" a lunch-hour swim or even surf is not unusual. Which leads me to another point - I find a lot of people here are genuinely interested in what you like to do OUTSIDE of work. My manager here, when screening new applicants, specifically looks for what interests the person has that are non-work related in order to get an idea of how well-rounded the individual is. It's something I definitely need to work on, but I'm getting there. This probably isn't Kiwi-specific, either, but this is my blog post and I'll do what I want.
I'm sure I missed a ton of things I wanted to say, and perhaps I'll come back and edit this later to include anything I forgot, but in closing...I've learned a lot about myself in the time we've been here. I've learned to be patient, to take life a bit slower, to say "yes", and to not back down from a challenge. I've also learned, though, that life isn't REALLY that much different here. No matter where Mitch and I are, as long as we have good people around us (which we have been lucky enough to have) and open minds, life is fun and exciting. Our life in New Zealand is amazing and unique, and we are so very thankful - but life is what you make it. I'm confident that by surrounding ourselves with good people and continuing to adventure (big or small), we'll have a great life no matter where we are.
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