What it's like being abroad
18:57warning: #srspost
When I first left for New Zealand, my brother asked me to get the app "Find My Friends," which shows the location of other iPhone users if they have approved you as a follower. He was insistent. It seemed like every few days he'd text me "get find my friends" to which I'd reply "meh." I barely had internet and my phone was almost out of storage, so I didn't find the app necessary or even appealing. But eventually, due to his prodding and my own curiosity, I downloaded it.
Now I'm hooked. Even though my brother is the only person I've added, I still look at it all the time just to remind myself of my own remoteness. Tommy, it says, Glendale CA, 11,147 km. That's 6,926.42 miles of practically PURE OCEAN that sets me apart from almost everyone I know. If a road stretched from me to my family and I drove at a constant speed of 100 km/hr (the maximum speed limit in New Zealand, equivalent to about 62 mph), it would take me four and a half days of nonstop driving to reach them. I think. That math was hashed together pretty quick. But come on, that's far. I could drive from LA to Miami to New York City and back to LA and have travelled less distance than would take me to get home from here.
I remember the month leading up to my departure I was so excited for a change. Going to New Zealand felt like I was getting a break from real life. I looked at my life and said hey, I'm just gonna go ahead and put this on pause for awhile and do my own thing and not worry about you. Be back in six months.
Then I arrive here and see stuff like this
And this
Also this
I could go on
And I feel completely validated. But every so often I'll go a week or two without seeing this
or this
And all I really notice is how my two-tap sink only has the temperature options of hypothermia or third-degree burn, or how my room smells like old sponge because I don't have a dryer, or the fact that none of the supermarkets sell Double Stuf Oreos and my wifi always sucks. Not to mention it's always cold, my school seems to always smell like sheep poop, and everyone walks around saying things like "havin a yarn" and "takin the ute" and I have no idea what they mean.
and I can see for myself why the Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, or Land of the Long White Cloud, on a daily basis.
So yeah, being away from home is hard. Duh. Even if you think you're putting your "real life" on hold, that fact that you miss it will catch up with you before you can actually pronounce Aotearoa (who are we kidding, that's one thing I'll never learn). But if you can take the time to:
1.) admit that there are things you don't like about being far away,
2.) learn to appreciate what you took for granted at home (trust me, this will hit you like a signpost to the face when you're not paying attention on the sidewalk), and
3.) identify everything you love abroad that you can't see or do at home...
You'll be fine!!!
And I feel completely validated. But every so often I'll go a week or two without seeing this
or this
And all I really notice is how my two-tap sink only has the temperature options of hypothermia or third-degree burn, or how my room smells like old sponge because I don't have a dryer, or the fact that none of the supermarkets sell Double Stuf Oreos and my wifi always sucks. Not to mention it's always cold, my school seems to always smell like sheep poop, and everyone walks around saying things like "havin a yarn" and "takin the ute" and I have no idea what they mean.
 |
| Tryna dry them clothes |
 |
| The sink from hell |
And finally, to put the last nail in the coffin, I think about UCLA and my friends and my family and my dogs and the sweet, sweet Los Angeles summer and I am so done.
 |
| Remembering my last night at UCLA and weeping |
But then... yes there's a but this isn't going to be completely depressing... I'll look out my window and remember that my backyard is a cricket pitch,
And I have my own room in what is basically a log cabin,
My school is essentially Hogwarts,
and I can see for myself why the Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, or Land of the Long White Cloud, on a daily basis.
So yeah, being away from home is hard. Duh. Even if you think you're putting your "real life" on hold, that fact that you miss it will catch up with you before you can actually pronounce Aotearoa (who are we kidding, that's one thing I'll never learn). But if you can take the time to:
1.) admit that there are things you don't like about being far away,
2.) learn to appreciate what you took for granted at home (trust me, this will hit you like a signpost to the face when you're not paying attention on the sidewalk), and
3.) identify everything you love abroad that you can't see or do at home...
You'll be fine!!!
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