On Being an Ex-Pat

The blogging has been very slow lately. There are many likely contributory factors behind this. It’s been the end of the academic year, for one. The grading crush is always enough to stifle most other projects.

But another explanation has to do with being an expatriate. Most of the posts here at JIINZ have fallen under one of two categories: travelogues or reflections on unique aspects of NZ and how it differs from the US. Obviously, writing travelogues requires actually traveling. Less obviously, reflecting on unique aspects of NZ requires becoming aware of things that are unique about NZ. But as I become more and more normalized with respect to living here, fewer and fewer things seem unique.

So, after being here almost a year and a half, I suspect that the blogging has slowed down in good part because less stuff seems remarkable. A little of this might have to do with quantity: maybe I’ve just “used up” a lot of the novelty. But I suspect that a larger portion has to do with me: I’m just less observant of the uniqueness, now that I’ve been here this long. Almost everything just seems, for lack of a more descriptive word, normal.

That being said, I’m hoping to be a little more observant. Here’s one reflection on being an ex-pat that I wouldn’t have expected. Last Monday was Labour Day here. It’s a personally instructive holiday, because it’s so similar to a US holiday in what it’s meant to commemorate (unlike, say, ANZAC Day—click here, or watch Gallipoli). It even falls on a Monday right at one end of the academic year.

Now here’s the (mildly?) interesting part. I barely recognized the day. I didn’t know it was a holiday until the last possible minute. It didn’t prompt any behavioral change on my part. It came and went pretty much like any other Monday, except some businesses were closed.

But, just like Labour Day’s similarity to the US in its symbolic meaning, people here treat it just like we do in the US: in addition to taking a day to not work, they plan three-day vacations, barbeque, and so on.

So why didn’t I take note of it? It can’t be that its symbolic value is different (because its not). It can’t be that the surrounding culture treats it differently (because it doesn’t). The only explanation that I can think of is that it’s simply not in my tradition repertoire. Maybe if it had fallen on the first Monday in September. Or maybe if it were the beginning, rather than end, of the school year, or the end of summer, or the beginning of fall. If one of those things had happened, maybe I would have noticed it. But I didn't.

So the surprising (to me, anyway) thing is that one of the casualties of being an ex-pat turns out to be holidays. ANZAC Day feels like neither Memorial Day nor the 4^th of July (its two closest counterparts). And Labour Day felt like a minor speedbump. Even last year, I would have been more aware of the goings on, just because everything was so new.

To return to where this post started, maybe being an ex-pat at this stage is less about noticing what’s different about NZ as opposed to the US, and more about noticing what’s different in me in the recent, as opposed to initial, stages of living abroad.

But hopefully I'll get JIINZ off the schneid and start posting more frequently. I hereby resolve to notice more things, if that's something that is susceptible to resolution.