Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Toto, I'm not in Kansas anymore (or should I say California)


I've been feeling like this for quite some time ... and planning to write about it. Funny how I never seem to get around to this topic. It's probably because as soon as I write about it, it will be out there. It will be public. It will mean that it has finally sunk in ... I'm not on Holiday anymore.

This has to be a common feeling shared by expats around the world, right? You've left your home country to try living somewhere that you fell in love ... probably during a Holiday. But at some point, you're no longer just "visiting". At some point you realize, this is my new life that I've chosen to live right now. You have to start thinking about the things you don't have to think about while on Holiday ... things like when is my car payment due, did my paycheck get automatically deposited into my bank account, how do taxes work in this country, and more importantly, do I owe any taxes in this country? It's about a different mind-set, about a different attitude.

When you're on Holiday, you're an observer really. You're generally pretty happy and carefree. And why wouldn't you be? This is your Holiday, your time to escape your day-to-day life and get from a Holiday whatever you choose. But then you go back to your "normal" life. Well, this is now my normal life. And even though I have to think about those things you don't have to think about on Holiday, I know I can literally step outside my house and be on Holiday for even 5 minutes a day with this view I'm so incredibly fortunate to be enjoying on a daily basis. That's the beauty of living in Queenstown, New Zealand.


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