 Welcome back to my YouTube channel. Today we're going to talk about how moving overseas has changed me. I'm going to talk about 10 ways of which living in New Zealand changed me. If you don't know, we are a family of six that have moved to New Zealand from the US and have been here for six years. And today we are going to talk about kind of a little bit of a reminiscent topic on how it has changed me living in New Zealand. Here we go. So as many of you know, New Zealand has been on summer holiday. And so when you are relaxing and having more time to think, I was reflecting a lot and thinking about how I've changed since I've moved abroad. Now I've been here for a total of six years. It has been a little bit broken up. I was two years here, two years back in the States. And now I've been in New Zealand for four years. And I've been thinking about like, how have I changed? I think it'll be really interesting. I'm hoping to visit the US this year and what it'll feel like to me going back. Will I experience some of that reverse culture shock? Yeah. So that should be interesting and we'll make really good videos for you guys. So I've been thinking about that and I came up with quite a list of ways that I think I've changed. So I'm only going to go through 10 of them with you today because we don't need to try to be super long. But here we go. The first thing that I would say about how I've changed since I've lived in New Zealand is the change in materialism and consumerism. Now I think I've mentioned this maybe once on another video, but I thought I'd highlight this again here. There isn't this materialistic society here. And it really, I've really changed. Like I rarely bought things. I rarely go shopping. And it's just very different than in the US. People aren't marketing to you. It's not always in your face. They don't do holidays where it's crazy and you know so many new things that you have to have and they really kind of sell you the marketing in the US. Very good. But here it's just normal to have the same clothes, to fix your clothes, to fix your shoes. And yeah, it's really changes. Now I wouldn't say I was overly materialistic in the US. Like I didn't have tons of shoes or but I but I lived in a state that had four seasons and so like every season you get new clothes and you know it's so cheap there that sometimes it feels wrong to not buy it. And so yeah you kind of get pulled into it and I just there that pull isn't here. And I have gone you know because we haven't been able to leave or go back to the state. So we've really bought nothing. Like when I think about the amount of money I spent on just clothes or things or makeup or you know it just doesn't even compare. Like it's and I wasn't even a big spender but it's significantly less. Like even with the kids asked for for Christmas everything is very reasonable. Small gifts not extravagant gifts or 10 gifts right? Like you get one gift and that's normal. And like what gifts people give each other here is different. Like you know giving somebody some chocolate is appropriate or you know a tea towel or something like that where you know in the US I think you know people tend to be pretty big gift givers which is good and maybe that's your love language and I'm not saying anything about that. But I would say definitely I've changed in what I buy and how much I buy. Now I did a video on how my spending habits have changed. I'll link it up here and you can watch that or talk a little bit more about that. Seeing women in the leadership and powerful roles in New Zealand has changed me. Now the US has come pretty far but they haven't gone far enough and I can tell that when the way that they look at women here like New Zealand what if you don't know New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote and it's just you know when you have prime ministers that have been women currently a woman a woman that not only could be prime minister but can also have a child while she's been elected got elected when she was pregnant. Seeing women running companies in high power like there's just like there's no feeling of a difference they don't see that they don't think that that's important like they don't I don't feel it. You don't feel like oh you're a woman in this industry doesn't make sense. Now I've heard some things that that isn't always the case but for me the way that I feel in general is just noticeable and I think maybe just seeing it in action and seeing people actually able to get certain roles here has definitely affected me and made me feel like oh you know you do you know you kind of think like of course a woman can do anything and do a role but like when you're seeing people actually put that into practice it is actually different like if there was a female president in the US it would change things it gives you a different perspective and that has definitely changed me it has changed you know how I feel kind of about what I can do and what I can accomplish what my daughters can do and it's just a totally different feel I just kind of like the way that they look at roles in general here it's you know the men do kind of all the same things as women do like especially in the housework or anything it's not it's not as you know divided and not that it is everywhere in the US and there's certain plenty of amazing women entrepreneurs and business owners and that sort of thing but but when you're seeing I'm just seeing it more here I'm feeling it more here feeling more like women are just they just can do everything like I see women like fixing things and mowing lawns and doing all of these things like you know and there's plenty of people that do that but it's like pretty consistent like everybody does like there's no hesitation because you're a female that you wouldn't do that job and that's noticeable to me maybe that's just the state I grew up in or the environment that I grew up in but it's just this has impacted me and has changed you know me watching this seeing a woman leader of a country seeing you know just the history of how women were treated just different and has definitely affected me. Number three just along the same lines of how I feel different as a female here I would say I definitely feel supported as a mother here and so that has kind of changed me a little bit like when you grow up in a culture that's all you know and that's all that's accepted but here like I feel like they really value your time they value you in the role of motherhood and it's reflected in the country and the government practices for example the maternity leave of a year the fact that when my kids are babies you get free you get 20 hours of childcare free because you need a break because they see that and they put that in policy you know they don't require your kids to play all these sports all the time outside I mean there's plenty of sports as they get older but like all these extra activities that you want your kids to be in are always extra school never in school whereas in in New Zealand like a lot of times in primary school you do those activities within the school time period and it's just part of the reflection of the family the valuing the family and I think definitely mothers are um you know valued and like that role and then just like just feeling like they understand they understand that man it's really nice to not take your toddler to the grocery store with you and understanding that and ways of working that out their play centers here where you can drop your kids off so that you can have some time to yourself and like and this is how they talk about it as well and so it's also the rhetoric that they're using you know i'm like oh you just watch my child for me and they're like oh yeah you moms need a break like that's just normal thought you know or like when you're having a baby and when you're pregnant you get all of these resources and tools and then i haven't had a child here so i know that there's like amazing things that happen to you after you have the baby and all the different resources that they provide here and then some financial benefits and you just feel or my point is is that you feel valued that role of a mother feels valued when i've moved my whole family to another country was a big decision it's a hard decision going through this process and living here for the amount of years that i have i think the way that has changed me is that i would do it again i would i would love to even live in a whole another country whether it's something as close as australia or europe i would love to go to europe i mean europe's not close but um you know just live there even in a different language like what you've learned and understood about yourself and the importance of learning how other people live in different cultures and different ways of thinking and how beneficial that is to you and your family you would want to do it again so i think that that changes me because like the idea that i would not go back home like when i first moved here i thought of course i'm going to come back home but like now it's different now it's like you can see the benefit and the enjoyment and the amazing people that you meet here is just amazing when you travel and so and you just don't get that if you don't so now i'm open to moving to other places as well number five moving overseas has brought me closer to who i am now when you grow up and you stay within one culture that culture is influencing you a lot more maybe than you even realize so when you step out of that culture you see a whole another way of living it changes you it shows different pros and cons in yourself you know your own strengths and weaknesses come out because you're you're hitting things differently you're hearing things differently you're understanding a different value system and a way of doing things and it affects you and it becomes you learn a lot about yourself and so in that sense i feel like i become more of me because of moving overseas and that is a really big change and that encompasses a lot of things but as a general concept it changes you living in a different culture and you become more of who you are because so much of the reason why you do something and the way that you do something is culturally influenced so then when you see a different way of doing it oh maybe that suits you better maybe you enjoy those activities better maybe you just wouldn't know if you didn't move overseas so that has definitely changed me and number six so many new skills when you move overseas you are going to learn a lot of new skills some of the biggest skills that i've learned are being really good at cooking and baking like i love to bake in the states i thought i was a good cook but when you move somewhere where everything is like made from scratch you become a lot better and when you can't go out is out to eat very easily or it's not very affordable then you learn to get better at it and you cook a lot more so hence you get better and so for me that's some of the skills that i have developed since i've been here but also other ones communication skills i'm a communication professor if you don't know and learning how to talk and communicate and use words that are appropriate or that will communicate the message the way that you want to in a different culture is a skill being you've always heard it if you're if you're in new zealand you understand americans come across as brass as loud as all about themselves kind of thing is like the general stereotype and it's true to a point so if you have that personality like you need to adjust it when you come to a new country and and situation and culture and that's good for you it helps you learn new communication skills and that's good and so there's just a lot there's a lot of skills that you learn obviously driving on the left side of the road or and it's just really good for your brain right because you're always in that growth mindset nothing comes easy nothing goes into a habit mode for you you have to always be learning new things and that does nothing to help you and is nothing but good for you and so yeah you definitely get new skills when you move overseas number seven let's talk hospitality i am a very hospitable person like i love that like if i could afford to buy properties here i would be running airbnb's like i love hospitality i love having people over that's just who i am not everybody is into that but let me tell you living overseas has taught me a whole new level of hospitality now the american hospitality now i had great communities you know church community or school community that were very hospitable and i'm not saying that americans are but i'm telling you here my experience has been and what i've heard other people say maybe from europe or whatever like it's different people are hospitable in that in a more i guess authentic way like you when you come to someone's house you like stay for hours it's not unusual for you to be invited to just stay overnight or to just use their property no problem use their house you know you're welcome to stay as long as you need like i mean we stayed as a family of six with some friends for i think a total of six weeks the second time we moved here and that's normal and you know acceptable and you know it's not that you can't do that in the us but i am just seeing a different level of hospitality people are just real generous with their things as well like sure you can use my camper van or my boat or you know it's not the same there's not this people are like they don't care you know things break i've seen people were like thing big things break someone borrows in and it breaks and like oh it's okay you know like they're just not attached to things they're great with sharing and it's just a whole another level of hospitality that i've learned living here in new zealand in number eight i'm more relaxed as a parent now that has to do with a lot of different things specifically like the safety issues in the us makes it really hard for you to take your eyeballs off your kids whereas here they can walk to school uh you know scooter to school whatever but it's also like they're just more like let kids run around and it's just more acceptable and you know this a lot of extreme sports come from new zealand and so it's just normal for kids to do a lot more kind of what we consider crazy things in the us and so you just become more relaxed like my kids bungee jumped when they were pretty young and like you know it's just you just have to become a little bit more relaxed and there's so many things that you don't have to worry about because you don't have um liability issues or suing concerns because that doesn't exist here and so yeah you're just become way more relaxed as a parent because you can just you know let your kids go you can trust a lot more things than you can in the us and so that really affects you it like just definitely changes a lot of things and like the way that you look at things and how your parent changes in number nine trying things you never expected you to try so oh obviously when you move into a different country you're gonna try new things whether it's food activities dangerous things that you would never think that you would try you will and it's great you know so like i did a lot of backpacking in the us but the tramping here could be different and quite big mountains um or like jet boating there's a lot of extreme sports that you can try ziplining um you know there's just a lot of different things that you'll try that just wharf jumping jumping off rocks like that's a big thing here i had never done that before and so you're just going to try a lot of new things and that's great and you're just going to do so many things you didn't expect that you could do and it kind of pushes your limits which then again makes you a better person and grows and expands your um abilities and and knowledge and then like what your kids can do changes as well so that's a big one you definitely expand the things that you never expected that you could do and number 10 last but definitely not least these are the words i'm going to use to describe this one a new type of freedom so americans talk so much about freedom and their rights to their freedoms but are they really free right so some of the freedoms that i feel that i that have changed me is time you know like i have so much more time uh because you don't have to work like a dog and you get a lot of holiday time you get tons of sick days that are required by law here and you just have time and so having time gives you freedom gives you freedom to do things and to explore and to things you never imagined you would do because you have time and so that is very very valuable and i will not end that whether i am back in the states or if i'm living somewhere else like that's valuable to me now also freedom of safety knowing that you can send your kids things that worried about guns not worried about you know all these different things you know um and other countries worry about other things as well but it's just a relatively safe country and it's just so nice and there's freedom in that there's freedom of there's a relaxation level that's in that and so that really makes a difference and so just i think also just not being having to accomplish accomplish accomplish things so much like you know in the us you just driven you just go and you produce produce produce and it's just you know the freedom to not have to do that all the time the freedom to not have to take your kid into every sport or to think that they're gonna be amazing so i gotta pay an enormous amount of money and i gotta do all these things in a row and when my kid is ready to go to university i have to jump through these all these hoops and it's basically like a part-time job for one of the parents and like i don't have to do all of that it's just so nice it just takes all of that away there's not so much red tape like filling out paperwork or getting things and you know if you don't take the right steps and you get stressed out it doesn't happen here there no worries it's okay we can take care of it tomorrow and there's an immense freedom that you get with that are you thinking about a move to new zealand or just visiting new zealand anytime soon what i wanted to bring you to your attention is some of the things that i offer like i offer consulting services if you want to click on the description below all the details are in there you just go to my website kiwiamericans.com and i offer consulting services and i meet with a lot of people and just talk through all their questions and just get a lot of answers and it's very specific and customized to your situation i also offer cv and interview help if you're thinking about trying to find a job here because it is a little bit different and so i can certainly help you with that as well you can book an appointment on that as well i also have a fun american recipe book where i take american recipes and put it using new zealand ingredients so if you do come here and you want to make some of that home cooking you might want to check that out it's only eight dollars and yeah and there's going to be some fun new services coming up so if you want to click on a kiwiamericans.com and and give me your email i can let you know all the stuff that's going up because i'm thinking about doing some webinars or some cultural training and putting some stuff out there that i think would be really helpful to you guys based on the questions that i'm getting with the consulting so i just want to make you aware in case you didn't know that i do those services and i love doing it and i love being helpful i also have some immigration consultants that could help you if you just have some questions about that and just so many resources so just reach out you give me an email anytime or book an appointment