EP 11 — No Ikea, No Problem: Home Inheritance

Transcript

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Hey everyone. It's Maria and welcome back to Almost Local, the podcast about the messy, beautiful, and sometimes hilarious realities of life abroad and what happens when you come back. Today's episode is called No Ikea. No problem. Question mark. Very much intended because this week I've been renest. And I've realized something. Moving back to New Zealand means setting up house again, but this time there is no ikea. You know how the first zero to three months after any move, I like to call them the IKEA stage, that phase when you are all excited, making lists, wanting everything to look functional and beautiful. Determine that this house will be the organized, cozy version of you back in Europe. IKEA was my baseline. New apartment, ikea, new life, Ikea, and oh, how we try to enjoy it that Sunday ritual. You walk in full of hope and three hours later you walk out tired, slightly grumpy, and somehow carrying a cheese cutter you didn't need. Then next Sunday, you are back again because apparently that's what belonging looks like. Self-assembly and Swedish meatballs. So imagine me now back in New Zealand. Excited to start over only to realize there is no ikea. They've been talking about opening one for years, and yes, I've been following their Instagram, hoping they'd open before December. Spoiler alert. No they didn't. At first, I felt a little lost. No flat packs, no baggy meatballs. What to do? Well, apparently you improvise. Trade me. Facebook marketplace local shops does smell faintly of glue and adventure. It's slower, more creative, and honestly more human. And here's the twist in the story. We did have boxes. Just not ours. See there is a family we know from Argentina back in 2020 when they first moved to New Zealand, we were among their first friends here. Fast forward to now, we were moving to New Zealand just as they mo were moving back to Argentina. They too had arrived with very little, and when they left, they decided to pass things forward, boxes full of kitchen essentials, blankets, plates, ah, and even their Christmas tree. So when we got here, it felt like Christmas morning for real box after box full of surprises and memories that weren't technically ours, but somehow fell part of our story too. I'm genuinely grateful for that act of kindness. It made our first two months busy and full of joy. We didn't even have time to miss ikea, so maybe that's the heart of this story. Home isn't always something you build from scratch. Sometimes it's something you inherit, something others pass on to you. One box, one plate, one story at a time. Our home now is this beautiful patchwork odd chairs, borrowed mugs, memories from different continents. Nothing matches. Everything connects, and maybe that's what being almost local really means. Learning to make yourself at home with what's already here. Thanks for listening, and if you are somewhere in your own IKEA stage, hang in. There. It passes. Now I'm off to my morning coffee. Let's keep it going. One story and one coffee at a time. And remember, you can always check our website, almost local.com, and follow our Instagram almost local for more stories and updates. Thank you for being there again.