I stay put!
In case nobody noticed, the world is in economic crisis. Aha, big crisis! (that was not sarcasm!!!)
The NZ Dollar was back below 50 yen yesterday with the company I use to send money home. Oh my goodness, if it goes down to 45 yen I will send the money I've been saving home all and once and pay off my credit card completely. But, I can't send my money straight home just yet...
My parents and sister are coming to Japan in March to not only see me but to see Japan. They came to Japan in 1983, when I wasn't even thought of quite yet. Big sis doesn't remember it though, so she wants to go to Kyoto and Osaka and other places that she has, in fact, already been to in a blue push chair with white blonde hair and got stared at around every turn. She also wants to see the snow monkeys in Niigata or Nagano. Mum and Dad, on the other hand, having done the touristy stuff want to go to rural areas and skiing. I am dragging their butts to Kyoto because I told my host mother in Nara that I will find a way to get them to her. They want to go to Obama, Fukui; Tottori and other out of the way places because they have the train pass and want to make proper use of it.
It's fair that Mum and Dad want to use their train passes to maximum effect and I think it's great that they want to go rural because it's cheaper and since I am saving up my money to pay them back when they get here. I owe them my first month in Japan and my electronic dictionary. It's only fair that I buy the dinners, lunches, breakfasts and pay for the hotels really isn't it?
I'm really excited that my family is meeting at my house this time. For the first time in my life I am the halfway point for us all. That's one of the reasons that I signed the recontracting papers, I like being halfway. 11 hours to Mum and Dad, 12 hours to big sis. One big plane between me and the rest of the family.
I watched with interest as President Obama gave his first speech of his time in office with a back drop of a city that I temporarily called 'home' (or almost, home was actually across a coupla bridges away) in the early '90s and realised that this is the pattern for my life, move somewhere, stay a while watch my actual home change before my eyes, not recognise it when I return but also realise that psyche hasn't changed.
On the other side of the coin, I find myself wondering whether this financial crisis that seems to be hitting NZ bad, will change the psyche of NZers from the spenders that we have become back to the savers and family people we once were. NZ needs to change its focus. Here I shall stay until July 2010 at least to see if it has any effect.
Who knows right? The world will change around me, I will find out in snippets from the internet and the odd announcement regarding changes to my job description from the Board of Education, and I will stay put for now.
My family is so blessed that we're all employed and are able to meet in March. Roll on March, I can't wait to see them, woohoo! (Haven't seen the parents in over a year!)
1 comment:
One year ago the government said "kiwis are terrible savers, you need to learn how to save".
Now, they are terrified of people saving and want people to spend, so that the economy doesn't suffer any more.
No one is going to be encouraged to save if interest rates continue to fall.
So, if anything, what the government is doing to "solve" this crisis will not turn us into better savers at all.
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