Hello from the Future (Literally)
Hello, anyone there? Right — you’re probably asleep.
Welcome to Almost Local, where I find myself recording thoughts at 7:00 AM while the rest of the world is still living in yesterday.
I’m Maria — your host, reporting live from the future. It’s been four months since I moved to New Zealand, and I’m still living in that delightful mix of excitement, confusion, and mild chaos that defines the early stages of expat life.
Every day feels like navigating between Stage 1 (Excitement), Stage 2 (Confusion), and Stage 3 (Adjustment) — all before breakfast.
If you’re curious about how these phases unfold, check out The 6 Stages of Moving (and the In-Between).
Feel free to keep reading the story here, or you can check out the entire episode on our podcast! You can also listen to it directly on Spotify or Apple—whichever you prefer! Enjoy!
The Challenge: Staying Connected Across Time Zones
If you’ve ever tried to stay in touch after moving abroad, you know — it’s not easy.
Being officially one day ahead of everyone has its quirks.
Try texting a friend in Amsterdam on a Tuesday morning and you’ll get:
“Wait, what? It’s still Monday here. Why are you being so intense, Maria?”
Time zones are ruthless. By the time everyone back home is free, I’m brushing my teeth and ready to collapse.
Calls get missed. DMs pile up. Even emails feel like climbing Everest.
Friendships can start to feel like trophies — beautiful, but fragile, gathering dust at the edge of the shelf.
If that sounds familiar, you might enjoy The Expat Dilemma: 5 Biggest Challenges of Life Abroad.
A Mini Survival Kit for the Time Zone Shuffle
Here’s what helps me survive the timezone tango:
☕ Caffeine — lots of it.
📅 A shared Google Calendar — because “Let’s catch up soon” doesn’t mean the same thing when you’re 18 hours apart.
💛 Patience — truly, the secret ingredient of every long-distance friendship.
This is the part of expat living no one prepares you for — the slow drift where connection doesn’t break, it just stretches.
When “We’ll talk soon” quietly morphs into “Has it really been six weeks?”
For more on rebuilding your social world abroad, see 20 Tips for Expats Building Community Abroad (That Actually Work).
Lessons from Stages 2 & 3: Redefining Connection
Somewhere between building a routine and missing birthdays, you realize something important:
connection doesn’t have to happen in real time.
Sometimes it’s a voice note arriving at 2 AM.
Sometimes it’s a random message that makes you smile while half-asleep.
It’s learning to cherish relationships on a delay, to hold on without holding too tight, and to trust that even across oceans, you still belong in each other’s worlds.
That’s the quiet beauty of being Almost Local — your body moves forward, but your heart still sends postcards home.
If you’re exploring that same tension between here and home, you might like Coming Home: A New Edge of Place.
Four Months In: What “Almost Local” Really Means
To everyone juggling life abroad across time zones — I see you.
You’re doing incredible.
Though we might live on opposite ends of existence, we’re still here.
Still learning, still adapting, still almost local — just vibrating on different frequencies.
As I mark four months of living in New Zealand, I’m reminded of what I wrote in Relocating to New Zealand: moving countries isn’t just about logistics — it’s about rebuilding identity.
And when things get blurry, I turn to tools like my Free Journaling Workbook for Expat Women — because sometimes, reflection is the only way to feel rooted again.
🌻 Listen to the Podcast or Keep Reading
You can also listen to it directly on the website, Spotify, or Apple—whichever you prefer! Enjoy!
If this post resonated, you might also enjoy:
💭 Why I Created Almost Local: The Expat Dilemma — the story behind this space and what it means to belong.
🚴 Biking Worlds: Lessons on Belonging Abroad — how small moments on two wheels taught me about identity.
🌊 Navigating Tsunamis and Transitions: 3 Lessons for Life Abroad — on resilience and starting again.