I just discovered a very very old playlist of music on my harddrive. Especially when you evolve abroad at a breathtaking speed, you find these useful as a static reference point to look back. ‘Accentuated’ by this old music, I look at pictures from home.
And I can’t help myself, but to start writing this post.

To evolve, to change, learning things, leaving things behind… In these regards, there is a lot happening with yourself in the last time.

While listening to well-known music I am looking at the well-known, but strangely strange looking images of my home, I notice my jaw dropped. Just how much actually happened!
Maybe some of you have waited for a post like this. At least Susi had asked for it pretty much an exact half of a year before. 😉 And think it is about time, being abroad for almost 10 months now…

Oh, details?? You want some details?

Let’s go then:

• Normally I am slow to decide on bigger matters and liked to stay in one spot, without moving on too much. Though today, I just decided that Queenstown is far too expensive to live in and that Dunedin offers more work alongside lesser living costs. Spending a night in Invercargill and my first experience as a couchsurfer (details on THAT later) will make me arrive in Dunedin a few days later… Or the decision to leave my host family. I would never have thought that you will be this much happier because of a decision like that.

• As soon as you realise that you practically eat your own money, you don’t have to stuff yourself anymore and 2 meals a day are plenty. Come to think of all the times being invited at friends’ or with the own family and you get served the most outrageous meals, I start to understand why you always say ‘Thank you’.

• For a few weeks now, I am drinking 1,5 litres of tea on a daily basis from my lovely ‘T-pot’ (the T stands for either, ‘thermos’ or ‘tea’). Coffee I get exclusively in cafés, for no household I visited yet had a fully automated coffee machine. (Might I be a little fussy, after all? 😀 )

• As soon as you learn that doing laundry usually is going to cost you, you can get a looooot more careful in what you start wearing.

• When normally I would only stop for an outrageous sunset at golden hour, my inhibition level has dropped dramatically to pull over for pictures.

• Most of you might know me as a classic extrovert, an open person who always tends to not mincing matters rather than the opposite. It has shown, that I inhabit those ways best in a familiar environment. In the foreign, I learned that I very much need time for myself to process new things and to get used to new situations. As the social structure here resembles as little of what I know from familiar circles, I will sooner or later be in need for a break.

• I often found myself in a secluded position, rather than in constant contact with new people.

• Many travellers tell about english language dreams or similar elements as an effect of the change in language. I think in English and German equally, but was startled to find myself thinking out a conversation with my parents in English, strangely enough…

• When I was given constructive criticism, often it was about my sturdily positive attitude towards life. Fortunately, that one has not changed until now. 🙂

• In Queenstown I had to help to clean a building site from rubbish through the agency. Doing that, for the first time in my life I had opportunity to maneuver a right-hand drive, diesel-powered, manual transmission, pickup truck, pulling a trailer, backwards. I am a little proud of myself, as it worked out without struggling…

• One of the greatest things that changed dramatically, is the relationship with my parents. You might think that there’s not much potential for that this far apart, but you are wrong. No other time I could have been more sure about how much I owe these two people than walking the other side of the earth all by myself. Every nuance of my personality has been predetermined at home and much has been shaped already. I am not a finished human being yet, but even separated from home, where many cuts and shapes are done without their supervision, I learn that their preshaping has been all wundrous and wise. No other person in this world I love more than my parents.

• One idea for my return I already have: I will ‘pretend New Zealand’ as much as I can. Be it making meals I learned here, be it talking to travel acquaintances, be it listening to music you connect with the time here, be it asking the cashier who they are or be it grabbing the camera, ideally alongside some friends, and going on a roadtrip… For best results over the weekend and staying at internationally rich places. 😉

• Different to the eating habits at home, here the only thing that matters in that department is the money. And when saving is the goal, you might just go with spaghetti plus pesto and apples plus the cheapest cookies on the shelf for a snack. Or else 1,5 litres of tea plus the cookies that were on sale…

• What more came to my attention, is that I used to think a lot about what to take with me into the shower when on trips or recreational getaways. In the countless nights at hostels I have found the answer to the minimum requirements: You need an exact two items (sorted by relevance, descending): A towel and shower gel.

• My consumption behaviour also changed, as you are on your own now. You start looking predominantly at the value for money of something, rather than choosing by brand. Because of the typical discounts in New Zealand your approach tends to get diverted rather smoothly. 🙂

• As I look through the old pictures, I have to admit that, compared to the present day, I had to move much more cheek flesh when smiling back then. But the somewhat slimmer Oli is much more to my liking than the chubby-bellied Oli from 2014. So outdated! 😀

• What I also noticed was that you can see my smartphone in many pictures. These days you can hardly spot it. You heard right, me, who knew every new model a year back and who recommended all the best apps, now owns a Huawei Y221. No Whatsapp, no Facebook messenger, no games. Well, I use Facebook via mobile browser, as you are FAR too cut off from the other travellers otherwise, and the Gmail app (no automatic synchronisation) for mails from employers and, more importantly, my family. Still, the only things that can make my device ring are the alarm, calls or SMS’. The rest only gets a request when I(!) want it. Initially, it was my goal to go through New Zealand without half my thoughts in my pocket. And I think I want to continue like this at home. A little ‘reset’ of the mobile usage, so to speak. 🙂

• At a pretty early stage of my past, I learned that my taste in music makes my stand out rather lonely. I would have the opportunity to accept many new styles, whilst here. And indeed, I can find interest in a not too little count of songs from the different genres.

• Still, my deepest admiration is towards the sounds of classical music. And here in New Zealand my passion for singing has been awoken for good. If I find a stable job in Dunedin, I might invest more into that…

Well, the Oli as you know him changes rapidly. Some of him remains, some of him will be left on the side of his road… 🙂