Friday, 31 July 2009

What to say?

I've obviously been having a hard time coming up with stuff to post here. Everything for me is new right now, and yet it's all kind of mundane as well. Life is life. Job, school, housework, TV, knitting. Although it's a new location, it's still just my boring old life. And yet I'm experiencing so much that I'm sure someone else out there must be interested in, so here I am.

Let's start with the job stuff. I managed to find, relatively easily actually, a computer programming job here in little old Napier. Obviously I consider myself extremely lucky, given the economic environment right now. And I tell myself that jobwise I couldn't have done any better, even in Boston.

My husband, the recent culinary school graduate, also found a job fairly easily, at a winery restaurant with one of the best reputations in Hawkes Bay. He worked full-time steadily till the busy tourist season ended, and has been a mostly stay-at-home-dad since I got my full-time job. That transition took everyone a bit of getting used to, but we've all settled in great.

After a rough start, school for Bic is finally wonderful. That topic should be it's own post though, so we'll move on. Nys is doing okay at her preschool. Funnily, the youngest at 3-years-old, she's having the hardest time getting used to not being in Boston anymore. She still regularly asks when we're going back. She misses our dog we had to leave behind. She misses her grandmother. Even though she's now spent over a sixth of her life here, she doesn't yet feel like this is home.

I know how she feels. I'm happy here, but I'm not sure I fit in. My workmates are nice, and the parents of my kids' school friends are nice, but I haven't made any friends yet. Which is pretty much fine, we've got our wonderful family. But some friends would be fun. Luckily, my best friend from Boston is the best friend in the world, and she just came over for a visit. It was a reminder of how awesome it is to have friends, and served to make me miss Boston even more than I already was.

I do miss it, and I at this point, 8 months into our move, I feel like at some point we will move back. In a few years at the earliest, so who knows how I'll feel then, but that's how I'm feeling now. Which I'm fine with.

3 comments:

Aidan said...

get a perm Douglas, move back to boston

Masada said...

We were lucky and made many new friends in Wellington. The key for us was to be quick to offer help like babysitting or the odd chore (gardening, etc). We also discovered that asking for help was amazingly effective. "Could you help me pick out a good washer?" or similar. Or borrowing tramping gear (or anything else you like as a hobby). Folks were quick to help and then it was easy for us to "return the favor". That allowed for more chances to connect to folks.

The other thing we learned was to universally answer the question "How do you like NZ?" with emphatic "we LOVE it!". Even if the party topic is something negative we always responded with the things we loved about NZ. People were obviously pleased to hear how Americans thought their country was better.

Of course, NZ isn't perfect. But it helped break the ice with people and that was the point.

Unknown said...

as said best friend, i am very sorry that you are not feeling "fit in," but VERY HAPPY you talk about coming back. we all love and miss you here...let me know when i can start counting the days!!!
xoxoxooxoxox