💖 深厚的情感纽带：作者在新西兰度过了人生中最快乐的六年，与孩子一同沉浸在大自然中，对这片土地产生了深厚的情感依恋，离开时更是充满了感激和不舍，形容如同“撕裂一个孩子与母亲”。

🌍 探索新视野的驱动力：尽管对新西兰充满爱意，作者相信“搬迁对心智有益”，渴望从不同视角看世界，并开始探索欧洲的51个心仪之地，寻求新的生活体验和成长。

✨ 牛津的独特魅力：在众多欧洲城市中，作者选择了牛津，尽管慕尼黑是更实际的交通枢纽。牛津的魅力在于其“美妙的韵味”，以及奥斯卡·王尔德所描述的“生活与艺术完美融合”的特质，这正是作者所追求的。

🏡 实践与憧憬的结合：作者早在2007年就开始考虑搬到牛津，每次到访都感觉“恰到好处”。这次终于付诸实践，带着孩子和少量行李，开启了为期一年的牛津生活，将长久以来的憧憬变为现实。

I rarely cry, but I cried a lot last month, leaving New Zealand.I’ve never loved and felt so connected to a place before.It wasn’t simple sadness that made me cry, but overflowing appreciation.I’d been feeling it for years, almost every day, amazed at not just the nature but the people and way of life.Knowing I was leaving made me re-play all my memories from my last six years.Most of that time spent playing in the wilderness with my kid.The memories are so overwhelmingly wonderful that seeing them all together like that made me sob with appreciation.They’ve been the happiest years of my life.Leaving felt like tearing a child from its mother.

So why did I leave?

I believe moving is good for the mind.I like seeing the world from different perspectives.I usually get where I’m going by leaving where I’ve been.

I’ve been on a semi-sabbatical for the last six years, and ready to make a change.I felt like being in the middle of things again, but a different middle than before.

I’ve never really lived in Europe.I have a list of places in Europe that I’m curious to get to know — places I’ve learned about but have never visited.The list has 51 places on it already.

Munich would have been a more practical travel hub, but Oxford has a wonderful charm to it.A search of my diary showed I’ve been thinking about moving to Oxford since 2007.Whenever I visited, it always felt just right.So I finally did it.I moved to Oxford England a month ago today, with everything I own in three suitcases.(My kid had another two suitcases, and one of them was just Lego.)I plan to stay here for a year or so.

Oscar Wilde:“Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made one.”

Henry James:“Oxford lends sweetness to labor and dignity to leisure.”

UPDATE: I loved living in Oxford, but I moved back to New Zealand in July 2020.