When anyone in a café, bookshop, second hand kitchen store (places I have been frequenting this week) asks me where I am from and I tell them New Zealand, they all seem to say “Oh that’s so far away”. Yes it is. New Zealand is far from everywhere, and moving away means knowing that you won’t be popping home for weekends. When I lived in Italy and was just doing nannying jobs I was very aware of the cost and distance separating me from my friends and family. But that was a few years ago and I had no sense of permanence. Everything was temporary and I knew that it wasn’t long before I would be moving on again.

Now I feel differently. I know that we are here for a good few years. And although that is an exciting thought, it also makes me feel far from everyone. Two of the most amazing people I know just got engaged, I want to have a drink with them at the Love Shack. It is one of my most special friend’s birthday today, I want to have a long dinner around her table with bottles of her favourite chardonnay. Then in a few weeks there is the marriage of one of my kindest and calmest friends to her long time boyfriend, I hate that I am not going to be there to celebrate with them.

But this is what it is to live in a world where there is opportunity, to experince living in a new city. We have skype, emails, facebook, instagram, snapchat, to keep in touch. I even posted some letters, cards and post cards this week.

Soon I will have work, be busy, have friends I have collected around me. And for now, we have a beautiful apartment that is feeling more and more like a home.