Sam B
30th July 2007, 09:47 PM
The story so far - we arrived at the end of January (me, J and 2 children) with PR and a job to go to for me. We moved into a rental in Cambridge and our house in Cornwall was rented out until we decided whether to make it permanent. I was quickly aware of how important having my own home was, and relaised that I would never know whether I could settle here whilst living in rented accommodation. So after just 2 months, I had to ask my tenants in the UK to move out (I still feel guilty now) so that we could sell our house and buy one here. It sold within 3 days to the first people to view it, but the whole process was very slow to complete, and incredibly stressful from such a long way away. I won't bore you with the details.
I was hit hard with culture shock in the first 2-3 months, it was a weird experience. I particularly had a tendency to over-generalise and stereotype. So, for example, if i made a mistake on the right hand rule when turning, and the other car beeped and I could see the driver yelling angrily and making rude signs at me, then I instantly felt like ALL Kiwis hated me and were also horrid, rude aggressive drivers. Likewise if someone was a bit off with me in a shop, I would assume that ALL Kiwis hated me because of my English accent. I began to fear all the differences I kept seeing, and felt relieved whenever I found something that was the same as it was in the UK. (Except the weather - I liked that!!). However, all this wears off with time, I eventually realised that there are lovely people, funny people, dry people and downright rude and horrid people - just like in every other country in the world. The differences stopped scaring me, and now I mostly enjoy them, apart from the rubbish TV.
I'm loving my job, I love working in Tokoroa, which was a very scary place to work at first, but is now proving to be rewarding. I don't struggle so much with Maori pronunciation now, it's not such a big deal now, although I do try to get it right, and I'm slowly learning some Te Reo Maori (the language). It's a reflex reaction to always take my shoes off whenever I get to a Kohanga or home now, I don't even think about it. I'm allowed to do my job my way, but I do seem to work very differently to many other speech and language therapists in the department, and I do feel frustrated by some of the systems which seem outdated and inequitable to me. There is nowhere for my career to go either, no specialisms, no senior roles. I could be here forever, if I wanted an easy life.
My kids are happy and settled, they love their school and they're doing really well. The school is fantastic and amazing - you would pay a fortune for it in the UK.
J is happy and bumbling along, not found a job yet....
The thing I miss most about England is France. When I think of our annual holiday to the Dordogne, I well up every time. I miss the beautiful old buildings that enhance the surroundings (none of that here, that's for sure). I also miss Cornwall, and friends. But I'm making some good friends here. But mostly, I don't think about it. It's like my brain doesn't really let me, it says "don't go there, you're not ready yet".
NZ is a beautiful place, but I can't tell you 100% whether it was the right thing. Emigrating is the most stressful, exciting, scary, miserable and happy thing you can ever do, and I don't think I have recovered enough yet to really consider it all objectively yet. But we won't go back, the kids are much too happy, and I wouldn't move them again.
I was hit hard with culture shock in the first 2-3 months, it was a weird experience. I particularly had a tendency to over-generalise and stereotype. So, for example, if i made a mistake on the right hand rule when turning, and the other car beeped and I could see the driver yelling angrily and making rude signs at me, then I instantly felt like ALL Kiwis hated me and were also horrid, rude aggressive drivers. Likewise if someone was a bit off with me in a shop, I would assume that ALL Kiwis hated me because of my English accent. I began to fear all the differences I kept seeing, and felt relieved whenever I found something that was the same as it was in the UK. (Except the weather - I liked that!!). However, all this wears off with time, I eventually realised that there are lovely people, funny people, dry people and downright rude and horrid people - just like in every other country in the world. The differences stopped scaring me, and now I mostly enjoy them, apart from the rubbish TV.
I'm loving my job, I love working in Tokoroa, which was a very scary place to work at first, but is now proving to be rewarding. I don't struggle so much with Maori pronunciation now, it's not such a big deal now, although I do try to get it right, and I'm slowly learning some Te Reo Maori (the language). It's a reflex reaction to always take my shoes off whenever I get to a Kohanga or home now, I don't even think about it. I'm allowed to do my job my way, but I do seem to work very differently to many other speech and language therapists in the department, and I do feel frustrated by some of the systems which seem outdated and inequitable to me. There is nowhere for my career to go either, no specialisms, no senior roles. I could be here forever, if I wanted an easy life.
My kids are happy and settled, they love their school and they're doing really well. The school is fantastic and amazing - you would pay a fortune for it in the UK.
J is happy and bumbling along, not found a job yet....
The thing I miss most about England is France. When I think of our annual holiday to the Dordogne, I well up every time. I miss the beautiful old buildings that enhance the surroundings (none of that here, that's for sure). I also miss Cornwall, and friends. But I'm making some good friends here. But mostly, I don't think about it. It's like my brain doesn't really let me, it says "don't go there, you're not ready yet".
NZ is a beautiful place, but I can't tell you 100% whether it was the right thing. Emigrating is the most stressful, exciting, scary, miserable and happy thing you can ever do, and I don't think I have recovered enough yet to really consider it all objectively yet. But we won't go back, the kids are much too happy, and I wouldn't move them again.