We're closing in on the final hours of 2017 in New Zealand.
While I usually bid farewell to the year with an endearing "Good riddance!" I thought 2017 deserved a little more reflection. It as, after all, the year that brought some of the most dramatic -- and positive -- changes to our lives. We started the year glum and cold in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and ended it (a day early!) happy and hot in Auckland, NZ. That's a big change!
So I rounded up my crew and asked them to contribute thoughts on the things we've learned in 2017. 17 of them, in fact. Here we go:
1 Riding the bus is perfectly fine.
Shane now takes the bus to and from work, a commute that requires 10 minutes of walking and 30 minutes of sitting -- listening to podcasts, staring into space -- on the bus. While in Northern Virginia, the bus had the reputation of being the transportation of last resort, it's different here. It's the main way to get to the business district and, as Shane says for endorsement, "It's perfectly fine."
2 Time off is a good time.
Over the holidays, nearly every corporate workplace in Auckland closes for a full two weeks. Shane has been off since the 22nd and he has another full week of vacation coming up. It's the longest period of time he has been out of work since his grad school days. Are we driving each other nuts? A bit, but it's nice to spend some slow days together. Even better, he has another two weeks of vacay to use up before next July.
3 Christmas doesn't have to be a major headache.
What we learned about celebrating Christmas abroad is that the expectations that come with the American version of the holiday are best left in America. Christmas is a much more laid-back affair here, with most people exchanging a few small gifts -- nothing like the mountains of presents my kids are used to. People don't shop for months or bake cookies for weeks or hang 36 strands of LED twinkling lights on their roof. They go to the beach, eat their pavlova and call it a holiday.
4 Times tables
From the Adorable Girl: "I can times by 1s, 5s, 10s and 11s."
5 Taking away (subtraction)
From the Adorable Boy: "I learned from Miss Corlett."
6 Even expensive things in America are cheap.
We continue to suffer sticker shock from most things we buy in New Zealand. Gas is $7.80 a gallon. Electricity runs about $300 a month for a house half the size of our place in Virginia (that cost about $100 to power). Milk is $6 a gallon. Paperback books are, like, $30. It's expensive. And not always convenient. Most stores close at 5:30 most nights -- and everybody seems fine with that. I guess the lesson here is that cheap, convenient stuff comes at a cost to someone. Sometimes it's better to just wait. And half the time you find out you don't need it anyway.
7 Black sand can get hot hot hot (and big black dogs are heavy)
We made a big goof a few weekends ago and took Moses on a long walk to a hot beach in the middle of the afternoon. The sand was way too hot for his paws, and he kept trying to sit down to keep them from burning. Eventually, Shane picked him up -- all 70 pounds of him -- and carried him to the sea. It was quite a show. Shane kept saying "This is happening" to reassure himself, I guess. They made it. Moses took a swim and cooled off. I babied him (the dog) the rest of the day. All was well again.
8 Food is "yum" not "yummy" here
From the Adorable Girl: "So this is how it began. It was a hot day, and I was lounging around the school and, before I left the classroom, I heard Miss Watts say, 'Does that taste yum?' And then Charlotte or someone like that said, 'It is so yum.' The end."
9 It's easy to make new friends
From the Adorable Boy: "Yes. I was super scared when I started school. I ran out of my classroom a couple times and the next day, I made a 100 friends. It was that easy."
From the Adorable Girl: "So this all began on a cold winter day when I walked into Room 16. I saw Miss Watts sitting in her teacher chair. It's a beautiful teacher chair. It has wooden arms. Anyway....When I first walked in, the kids ran as quick as fairies to the door, saw me walk in and greeted me like the long-lost queen had returned. And then...I made friends." (Editor's note: This girl is nuts.)
10 How to drive on the left side of the road.
It was terrifying for about a week and then it became second nature. (I'm better at it than Shane ;)
11 How much we miss Panera, Chipotle, Cracker Barrel, Wawa...
We spent a lot of delicious time at those places back home and some days, we'd give a kidney to have a Chipotle meal. (Especially Chipotle. The Mexican-ish food here is severely lacking.) We've been able to recreate some of our favorite dishes at home. But, of course, they're just not the same.
12 Kmart is a place people shop.
In fact, it's the best place to shop for toys, housewares, clothing, decor, sporting equipment, shoes and other random stuff. Rain Man's favorite store has the best prices in all of New Zealand -- and the stuff doesn't actually suck (sorry, Tom Cruise).
13 Dog food comes in triangles.
Dog food, like everything else in NZ, is expensive. The brand we used at home costs $150 a bag here. (We love Moses but not that much ;) The most cost-efficient NZ brand is something called Tux, which is, like, dog food pressed into triangle shapes? Moses now gets 5 triangles per meal. (haha just typing that made me laugh). They look totally weird but he doesn't seem to mind.
14 We love being outdoors. Like, LOVE love it.
We knew that before, of course, but it's been totally confirmed by this move. Auckland is an incredible city with natural beauty everywhere you look -- and the weather makes it easy to enjoy year round. Our days here are filled with outdoor adventures -- swimming in a waterfall pool, hiking through the NZ bush, boogie boarding at the beach, tossing the frisbee at the playground. We absolutely love it.
15 The world is watching America.
It's no secret that America is going through an interesting time in its history, and the rest of the world -- including New Zealand -- is watching closely from afar. People here are rooting for us, but they don't like -- nor get -- Trump. In fact, he's a bit of a joke. Policy issues -- healthcare, the gun issue, the tax bill -- don't make sense either if you don't know the political and cultural quirks of American society. (And honestly, they make less sense to us now, too.) Distance has brought us a measure of peace and perspective; we feel "safe" from the political turmoil we felt in DC. But we're also keenly aware that the world is watching America -- and it's largely unimpressed.
16 The metric system makes total sense.
We still don't understand it.
17 Living abroad has been good for our family.
We've always been close-knit but moving abroad has made us even closer. By turning our life upside down and moving halfway across the world, not knowing a soul on the other side, we've learned just what our family is capable of: As long as we work together, as long as we ARE together, we'll be just fine :)
2017, you've been a year. Here's to more great adventures in 2018!
