Bergita
2nd July 2008, 06:00 PM
Hi all
I felt so guilty seeing someone had posted a one week post, I thought I'd better get to my six month post.
So far, so good, I have no regrets. That's not to say it's been smooth sailing on the emotional front, but I realize that it's part of the process. I feel that we have achieved quite a lot in terms of settling down. We've renewed our lease for another year, so at least we have a year's worth of stability ahead. Our 5 y.o daughter has settled down in school and has started ballet lessons again. I found a job after about 2 months of looking and it's a pretty good one. My husband already had a job when we arrived here, and he seems to be getting on ok.
We've made good friends with one of our neighbours, what an amazing family they are. It is a couple with 3 children, 2 of them boys around my daughter's age. I take my daughter to them in the mornings and they get her to school for me. The mother takes me out driving in the evenings if she gets a chance and the father plays tennis with my husband. It's good to have good neighbours.
One or two things have taken me by surprise. My daughter took far longer to settle down than I expected, and in some ways this move has been the hardest for her. She missed all her friends from Cape Town, missed her cats, missed the shopping centres we used to go to, you name it! I think she grew up quite a bit during this whole experience, and that was quite sad for me. She still says to me occasionally that she wishes we could do this thing or that thing like we always used to in Cape Town.
Another thing that surprised me was that I kind of resent the fact that I felt I had to leave the country of my birth. I grew up there and have all my memories there and it is harder than I thought to leave it behind.
On the other side of things, I can't believe how stress-free my life is now. It's amazing what a difference not living in fear can make. My husband and I don't argue over stupid things like we used to, we play more with our daughter, we laugh more and we enjoy the simple pleasures of life more. I used to be a singer way back when, and I found it hard to sing towards the end in South Africa, and now I'm back to bursting into song whenever the mood takes me, and I'm even considering joining a musical theatre group.
We have a park and a playground outside our back gate, and went there a lot in summer. There are almost always other families there, and people chat to each other and get to know each other. My daughter learned to ride without training wheels in the park and my neighbours ran out to record it for me. (I actually haven't seen it yet and don't really want to see it with me running next to her all red in the face...)
Up till now my biggest achievement was giving up smoking, now it's having moved to a different country and so far not lost my mind!
The price of food was and still is a shock! $1.99 for ONE green capsicum (greenpepper) and $2.99 for ONE red capsicum!!! And I won't even start on the cheese situation. The price and quality of clothes was a pleasant surprise and I love the sales!
People here are lovely in general, outspoken, cheerful, and the teenagers are so much less sullen than I'm used to! On the whole they smile and greet and will make small talk. Children here are allowed to get away with a lot more than I'm used to as well, and that's not such a bad thing in my opinion. They get to speak up in adult company and they just get to be kids.
Anyway I could go on all day, but it's nearly time for me to catch the bus home (shorter working hours - wheeee!) Overall, I'm happy and so is my family. We feel we made the right decision, and we just deal with the emotions we have when we have them.
I felt so guilty seeing someone had posted a one week post, I thought I'd better get to my six month post.
So far, so good, I have no regrets. That's not to say it's been smooth sailing on the emotional front, but I realize that it's part of the process. I feel that we have achieved quite a lot in terms of settling down. We've renewed our lease for another year, so at least we have a year's worth of stability ahead. Our 5 y.o daughter has settled down in school and has started ballet lessons again. I found a job after about 2 months of looking and it's a pretty good one. My husband already had a job when we arrived here, and he seems to be getting on ok.
We've made good friends with one of our neighbours, what an amazing family they are. It is a couple with 3 children, 2 of them boys around my daughter's age. I take my daughter to them in the mornings and they get her to school for me. The mother takes me out driving in the evenings if she gets a chance and the father plays tennis with my husband. It's good to have good neighbours.
One or two things have taken me by surprise. My daughter took far longer to settle down than I expected, and in some ways this move has been the hardest for her. She missed all her friends from Cape Town, missed her cats, missed the shopping centres we used to go to, you name it! I think she grew up quite a bit during this whole experience, and that was quite sad for me. She still says to me occasionally that she wishes we could do this thing or that thing like we always used to in Cape Town.
Another thing that surprised me was that I kind of resent the fact that I felt I had to leave the country of my birth. I grew up there and have all my memories there and it is harder than I thought to leave it behind.
On the other side of things, I can't believe how stress-free my life is now. It's amazing what a difference not living in fear can make. My husband and I don't argue over stupid things like we used to, we play more with our daughter, we laugh more and we enjoy the simple pleasures of life more. I used to be a singer way back when, and I found it hard to sing towards the end in South Africa, and now I'm back to bursting into song whenever the mood takes me, and I'm even considering joining a musical theatre group.
We have a park and a playground outside our back gate, and went there a lot in summer. There are almost always other families there, and people chat to each other and get to know each other. My daughter learned to ride without training wheels in the park and my neighbours ran out to record it for me. (I actually haven't seen it yet and don't really want to see it with me running next to her all red in the face...)
Up till now my biggest achievement was giving up smoking, now it's having moved to a different country and so far not lost my mind!
The price of food was and still is a shock! $1.99 for ONE green capsicum (greenpepper) and $2.99 for ONE red capsicum!!! And I won't even start on the cheese situation. The price and quality of clothes was a pleasant surprise and I love the sales!
People here are lovely in general, outspoken, cheerful, and the teenagers are so much less sullen than I'm used to! On the whole they smile and greet and will make small talk. Children here are allowed to get away with a lot more than I'm used to as well, and that's not such a bad thing in my opinion. They get to speak up in adult company and they just get to be kids.
Anyway I could go on all day, but it's nearly time for me to catch the bus home (shorter working hours - wheeee!) Overall, I'm happy and so is my family. We feel we made the right decision, and we just deal with the emotions we have when we have them.