Three Year Anniversary
This past Saturday was our three year anniversary of arriving in New Zealand. I went back and read my Two Year Anniversary Post to see how I feel about the move another year in. I’ve got to say that much of what I wrote last year still holds true, but there are a few changes in my mindset that are interesting to observe.
What Still Holds True
My community continues growing, and that feels good. I’ve got a small group of people I can call on for anything and a lot of acquaintances that make going out fun and easy. I’ve found that I can be more discerning in who I want to spend time with now that I feel more settled and don’t feel compelled to spend time with anyone who expresses a tiny amount of interest. (Can you tell I’m a terrible introvert?)
The relaxed lifestyle hasn’t changed a bit. In fact, things may be even more relaxed with the exception of trying to get dinner reservations or doing any type of home improvement project. Getting a good dinner reservation or a “tradie” is something of a blood sport now that people have been in New Zealand for 18 months and have disposable income that would usually go towards travelling.
New Zealand is still really far away from everything and everyone, and that makes coordinating things with the US difficult and having a variety of good in stock impossible. See my previous post on Hitting the Smallness Wall.
What’s Changed
Pandemic Response - While I’m very, very happy with New Zealand’s elimination strategy and I wouldn’t change any of that approach, I’m feeling frustrated by the disjointed vaccine rollout. While things are ramping up quickly and people are getting their vaccines, it’s not as quick and easy as many people - me included - would like. (As I write this, slightly over 10% of the population has received their first vaccine.) It looks like I may not be eligible for a vaccine until sometime in October. However, there are a lot of people who are walking up to vaccine centers and waiting around for extra jabs. I’m tempted to try this, but I’ve also been Kiwi-fied and feel bad about skipping the line. I will not be a tall poppy!
On the flip side, I was appalled with this article from The Atlantic that talks about the purgatory New Zealand faces because we took a zero tolerance approach to covid. I’m sorry, but I’ll take this “purgatory” for the foreseeable future over what the US has been through the past year and a half. There are so many assumptions behind this article that I think I would buy if I was still in my American mindset, but reading it now, it honestly disgusts me that they use terms like “ambush-style lockdowns” and “massive quarantine operations” to describe what’s happened. These are inaccurate scare tactics that do not describe what has happened or represent how 99.9% of the people here feel about our approach.
Feeling less settled - I’m in this weird space where I feel like I’ve simultaneously been here forever and just moved. It is strange because I’m still regularly surprised by little quirks and cultural nuances that I hadn’t been aware of before, but I feel like I should know them all by now. I think at two years I was so grateful to be in a more stable space that the little things didn’t even register. Now they do and I have less patience with myself for not figuring it all out already.
The end goal has changed - Originally when we started our adventure our goal was to get permanent residence for the family. Now that we’ve seen what a global pandemic can do, our new end goal is citizenship. A passport makes a difference, and we want to make sure we can’t be shut out of this country that we now call home.
