Season 2 ~ EP 1 — New Year Resolutions When Living Abroad

Transcript

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Welcome back to the new season of Almost Local, the podcast. I'm Maria, your host, and today I'm podcasting from a rainy, Summer Day in Auckland, New Zealand. If you're new here, a warm welcome and if you've been following thank you for joining. Almost Local is a community. for those of us navigating life abroad the idea for us is to connect wherever you are in this, planet earth. You left, your home country and are starting over in a new place, this podcast, is for you If you've been abroad for five years, 10 years, even 20 years, this community is here to help you feel more, grounded, more connected to almost locals. So welcome again. I'm really happy to be here in 2026. Almost local began as a personal project back in 2025. While I was living in the Netherlands, I was in the Hague a city where half of the population are people who are experts from other countries, and so this project began as a need to connect with other people who I felt we had a lot in common. So we share a lot of stories in the podcast, interviews with other almost locals. Also, I've been sharing my own personal journey since. Living Netherlands and relocating to New Zealand where I'm actually based at the moment. For those who have, discovered almost local recently, I am originally from Argentina. I was born in Buenos Aires, and I've been living abroad for the past 10 years. I'm really happy to connect with you all, in this new season of almost local. We are also growing a beautiful community here in New Zealand and I will be sharing a bit more about the project, with almost local here in Auckland, New Zealand. So if you are moving to New Zealand or if you are an almost local here we would love to tell you more about what it's coming for, most local here in Auckland, New Zealand, but right now this episode is about year resolutions. As this new year has already started of course, and we are in the middle of January, I wanted to talk about what, new Year's resolutions mean, for an almost local, The resolutions and goals we set for ourselves for a new year, how different they are from someone who is just a local. We have a lot of challenges and different life, circumstances we are, going through different journeys while living abroad and resolutions are really different. That's what I've been reflecting recently when I started to think of what is, coming for me this year. Of course, no pressure because normally we set a lot of, things we want to do during the year and that doesn't mean we are gonna achieve all of them, but that's not really the plan. The idea is to go through the year having an understanding, little compass of where we want to go and what we would love see that we've achieved during this whole new year ahead. If you live abroad, you know that resolutions sound a bit different. Today I want to talk about this. neither are wrong, We are just going through different journeys. The idea is to share some examples and reflect on how, resolutions are for locals and almost locals, welcome and remember to follow us on Instagram at Almost Local. We have a new page in LinkedIn as well. Come along and share your thoughts on social media let's move on to some examples about real resolutions and how different they are from a local. To an almost local, right? So the first one, it's about productivity. Locals often say, I want to be more productive. Almost locals. Might say I want to stop feeling exhausted by translating my life. Every day. If you live in a country where your, home language is different, can, feel really exhausting to, navigate all your conversations. it's really invisible work, But this work is real. Navigating life. In a country where your home language is different, can be exhausting even telling or understanding jokes. Locals might say, I want to travel more, and almost locals would go. I want just one place to feel familiar. novelty is beautiful. While living in Europe, we've explored the whole Europe from the top north to the south. But the truth you get to a point where maybe you've had too much of it. So it really feels different for an almost local to keep wanting to travel more. Sometimes we just want a pause going to new places. Locals would go like, I want to meet more people. I want to meet new people. Almost locals would go, I want deeper connections. Even if it's just one person. That's okay as long as I can really get a friend where I feel like connections are deeper because when you start from zero, depth matters more than numbers. It's not about how many friends you have, right? It's more about. Can you really connect on a personal level and have those friends that you can trust and share your life with Locals might say, I want to grow, simply want to grow, and almost locals often think I want to feel like myself again. living abroad, changes you, and sometimes you need time to recognize who you are. Number five, about clarity. Locals often want clarity plans, direction. Certainty, almost locals, want something else. It's about permission to live in the in-between. Between countries, between identities, between who you were and who you are becoming. Almost locals resolutions for a new year are different, They're not about becoming better, they are about becoming kinder to ourselves. If this year, your only goal is to feel more at home, wherever you are, trust me, that's enough for me, this year is about reconnecting to New Zealand as a country. life in New Zealand and reconnecting to New Zealand. In which ways, life here is, a different pace, right? It's, slower. So reconnecting to this slower lifestyle. To be more out in nature and enjoy what this country's beautiful, and offers to us. Maybe not today because it's raining, but it's about reconnecting with the country, the slower rhythm, nature, and the simple rhythms of everyday life that it's so particular of New Zealand. also, have a resolution to keep my friendships back in the Netherlands alive and, to keep them, with little gestures, just phone call, every one of them, just a card for a birthday, there is no right or wrong on how to start a year, like I said, just different journeys. These journeys as almost locals, they're very different from those who are just from here, you are not behind, you are just living a different kind of life. If you haven't written any resolutions, that's also okay if you still want to do it and it. Almost, 20th of January. That's okay. You still have time ahead. But I'd love to hear from you. I would love to know a bit more about how you feel like year resolutions and things you are working on this year, how do you think they feel different I would love to hear your thoughts. If you'd like to continue this reflections, this is exactly what we do here at the Almost Local Podcast. Also in our blog, almost local.com and on social media, like I said, on Instagram and our new page on LinkedIn. For those in New Zealand or moving to this beautiful country, we are developing workshops for the life in between. So that's. Something that it's going to start now in February. I will talk more about this in the next episode, and I will be sharing, are these workshops starting? Exactly? The first one is in, February, like I said. Our venue is in San Hillers, Oakland I would love to. Meet all of you, locals here in Auckland, for a fun interactive workshop to talk more about the, challenges, the ups and downs of life in a new country. Also we will have our coffee circles. This is something we are starting in March. And it's going to happen every month here in Auckland. We will meet in person and reflect on all these challenges we have as almost local. I hope you enjoyed this new episode of this new season of Almost Local. If you like the podcast, I would love your feedback. So please, leave a review share or like everything helps to grow this community. Thank you for being there. Now I am going off to my second coffee of the day. Thank you again and, until the next episode