Life's Luxuries

WARNING: This will be a long blog post, but I feel it is an important one.

Since arriving in New Zealand, I've had to adjust to the time difference from here and home 3 times already. When I arrived, I knew I could add 5 hours to the current time to get an idea of the general time of day it was back home, not necessarily what day it was. After day light savings two weeks ago, it became 6 hours that I had to add. Now, since it's fall in New Zealand, we "fell" back an hour this morning and now there is a 7 hour time difference. That's a lot to adjust to, and I feel that now that I have been in this beautiful country for 6 whole weeks, I've adjusted to more than just time.

My life here is so simple. I have no car, no smart phone, no commute to school, no hot tub to relax in after a hard day, no job, no decorations in my room, no horses, no dog, and no family. Everything here is so different from my life in Wisconsin, and I find it odd to think about. I am not meaning to sound spoiled, but I have grown to miss those things more than anyone could ever imagine. I had a feeling that the simplicity that I would experience in my life in New Zealand would have an impact on me, but I was unsure what type of impact it would have. I feel like many people are hoping to hear that I have learned how unimportant these things are in life (some, not all), but I'm writing this blog today to express how much these things have come to mean to me. And how thankful I am to have such luxuries in my life.

Instead of a car, I take the bus, but that's a pretty rare occasion. Anyone who knows me really well, knows that I am extremely frugal so I walk here a lot and take the bus when my destination is over 2 kilometers away, which doesn't exactly happen often. The places I go to get groceries, hang out, or go shopping are all within walking distance. I miss the convenience of having a vehicle--I do not see it as a necessity in life, but I sure am grateful I can afford to have one back home. Not having a job has been a weird adjustment. I feel like I have too much time on my hands, and I even have looked into getting a job under the table here, but I haven't had any luck. I love working, and I love working more than I love school so it is frustrating for me to not have a job.

The other things that make me who I am are my horses, my dog, and my family. Being away from my horses and dog has been beyond hard. Leaving them has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. In my time away I have realized how much I have taken them for granted, and I will not do that once I am home again. Animals do not understand why you're away--they just know you are away, and that kills me. They are a large luxury in my life. It is just as difficult being away from my family, but I am able to talk to them every day so I do not necessarily feel like I am away from them emotionally, just physically. I have such a wonderful family and being away from them has made me realize how lucky I am to have such an amazing family. Sometimes my friends here will talk about their families and all I ever think is how lucky I am to have such a loving, caring, supportive, and encouraging family.

As far as the other things go, I miss my commute to school. I literally live 5 minutes from all campus buildings, which is nice at times; however, I miss hearing the news and starting my day off with great music. I do like the fact that I do not have to get up as early though. I miss all the pictures and decorations in my room. My decorations are essentially a shrine of memories from places I have gone and things I have done. My room here is pretty bare and lacks character. I really miss having a hot tub to relax in after each day; I feel like I have not figured out a way to de-stress here. I miss my smart phone only because it is nice to have answers to questions easily. There have been times where I have gone out exploring and gotten lost. If that happened before I would just turn on my GPS and be good to go. Otherwise I also do not miss my phone because I enjoy the fact that I am not easily and readily available to people. Plus, I have come to hate texting so maybe that is a good habit to break.

My life here is simple, but I am learning to love it. It is weird to think about how all these adjustments that I have undergone happened overnight. At first, it was not too difficult to adjust to, but as time carries on things become more noticeable. I am a "creature of habit" as my mom words it. My routine here is very different from anything I have ever had back home, but now I have my routine figured out. I am thankful to say that I had many luxuries in life back in Wisconsin, and I do miss them all. I do not think I could survive without some of them for much longer than 5 months, but for now I do see the positives to living a simple life. I am looking forward to being reunited with my family, my horses, my dog, and a job when I get home in July.