One of our students recently visited Melbourne in Australia for a short time. Talking to them reminded me of my childhood where I lived there for about six to twelve months. At the time I was only about seven years old, so my memories are not so clear. Even so, I still remember many things about that time. Time also felt slower when I was younger, and it feels like I had lived there for much longer than I did.
My family moved there because of my father’s work at the time. It was only temporary, so we had someone look after our house back home. In Melbourne we stayed in a big house in a nice suburban neighborhood. It was the first time abroad for me and my siblings. You may think “New Zealand and Australia are not very different, right?”, but when you are a seven-year-old kid, even small things can feel very different. The brands of snacks, the variety of shops, or even what was on T.V were different and that felt very exciting to us. I remember there were cartoons on T.V we did not have in NZ, and we felt Australia had many cool things we would never be able to get back home. Of course, I also had to go to school there. I was lucky as my classmates were lovely and thought it was super cool I was from a different country. It made my school life there a great experience.
One of the best parts of living there was all the sightseeing we were able to do. I remember visiting many different zoos and even a safari in the area. Australia has a lot of unique animals, and we enjoyed getting to see all of them for the first time. There were many other famous tourist spots around the city but my memory of them is a little hazy. Maybe the best part of being in Melbourne was that we could easily visit other places within the country. The most memorable for me was our trip to the Gold Coast. I was amazed by the beautiful palm trees and the beaches. I had never been to such a place. We were able to visit several big amusement parks there too. NZ only has one very bland amusement part, so for me this was very exciting.
We were there in the year 2000. This was when Sydney hosted the Olympics. Being in the atmosphere of it during the time was quite special. I remember the mascots being various Australian animals, and I became curious about learning more about the real ones. I was particularly interested in platypuses. I thought they looked so cute, and when I finally got to see a real one, I was very excited. Sadly, we were not in Sydney, so we did not actually see any of the events ourselves, but the excitement in the media and around us was very high. I did have to apologize to my classmates as I was certainly not cheering for Australia at that time.
While many of my memories of that time are a little hazy, I do have one last one. After I returned to NZ, I went back to my primary school. I remember all my friends saying my accent had changed and it was strange. I did not sound like an Australian, nor did I sound like a normal New Zealander to them. Even these days I sometimes meet other expats in Japan who have a hard time figuring out my accent. This is maybe the most long-term affect this experience had on me….
