There is a guy down the road that owns the golf course here and we had our Christmas works party there.  To hear his kiwi accent, you would never know he was from that area...don’t know if Croatian or Yugoslavian...but we only knew this much because his relative or friend was there and they sat speaking their home language fluently together, and then occasionally he would tend the bar and speak with a kiwi so well it was hard to distiguish which was his birth language.  

I don’t think people realise what it is like to actually move to another country and live let alone to a country with another language though.  I mean I am English speaking and I moved to an Enlgish speaking country but the culture is different and the people are different in the way that they do things and the scenery is different.  Homes are made of wood most of the time...I’m used to seeing brick and mortar and slate rooves and rows and rows of streets all parallell to eachother and certain smells etc.  I could go on and on.  The seasons are even different.  On my birthday all my life and christmas...it would be freezing and we would all be wrapped in woollies...now every year it is the height of Summer and I still cannot get used to the way everything is so topsy turvy.  instead of sitting down to traditional christmas dinner and plum pudding...you go to barbeques and play in the pool.  At first it was novel, but after the first year or two it was overload.  

I became very depressed because I had in a sense "Home Sickness."  I mean when I found out that I had residancy, for two hours I was on a high...but then I came down with a bang when I realised that it would not be as simple as driving a few miles to see friends anymore.  never go for a coffee at brucciani’s again...LOL!  Dunno...man I even miss certain drinks and foods that they just don’t even do here...good old fashioned pudding chips mushy peas and gravy...

I mean I know I am in the pacific and the weather is better, and the air is cleaner and the scenery is greener, but I do occasionally wish I had a tardis.  LOL!  I think somtimes I must have a masochistic streak missing frost snow and winter at Christmas time.  ;)

Everything changes...and although at first it can be perceived as the grass being greener...sometimes when you get to the next meadow, it isn’t necessarily always that the grass is any greener.  I don’t think I can explain it really, but I do know that it will be harder for the girls than it ever was for me.  Although they are in an orphanage and stuff and it seems like it is better for them to be elsewhere, at first because they are so used to their surroundings now..things will be strange.  Familiar smells, sounds and routine....everything...my heart goes out to them actually.  I hope they find some nice people to care for them with heaps of patience.