Post- double immigration effect

It seems only natural for me to write on immigration topic, especially, after living through two immigrations in my own life. Nevertheless, I must admit, that it is not an easy mission to pen something sensible about such diverse experiences. I have first immigrated with my family from USSR to Israel at 11 years of age. Needless to say, that next 24 years spent in Israel have significantly shaped me and made me a person I am today. Being a teenager in an immigrant family is a topic on it's own, not today's one, though...My second immigration, on the other hand, was a fully conscious decision, which we have made as a family. Consequently, almost four years ago, I have packed my life in boxes again and moved literally to the end of the world, otherwise called New Zealand.
Being an immigrant at least once in a lifetime changes one's life forever, let alone, twice...
Since making lists is something that proved to work well in my previous posts, I will try to make a list again, of twists in my mind due to immigration experiences.
1. Language salad- One of the privileges of a young age is the amazing flexibility of our brain that allows us to quickly absorb new languages. On initial stages, it's a matter of survival, of getting on with basics, finding your way from A to B, explaining your classmates that you are not an alien and not an idiot, you just don't speak their language yet. Later on, as years progressed and with them my broader understanding of the cultural context of the spoken language (Hebrew, in this case) , I have gained more confidence and gradually Hebrew became my second- equal to Russian language. All the new knowledge that I have acquired in Hebrew became virtually impossible for me to discuss in Russian, due to lack of sufficient Russian vocabulary.The more I have used Hebrew in my every day life, the less I have used Russian, but my accent stayed right there, refusing to let go. Russian had, sadly, remained on the level of 11 years old girl....and that was the case until I have met my hubby, who gave it a serious push up. It wasn't until much later in my life, when I have started travelling the world and, in fact, planning my next "big step" of moving to NZ, that I have realized my priceless gift of knowing two completely useless languages, outside of their respective countries of speech. Today, in NZ, I feel how my kids repeat the same old pattern and how the battle now is to preserve our precious useless languages and not to succumb to English fully.As far as I am concerned, third language will always remain third...I am only afraid that in case of stress and emergency, I will have a black out and people will find it (even more...) challenging to help me:-) In every day life, my resolution is to speak out, not to shy away, as funny as I might sound sometimes, I choose to laugh with others, rather then take offence.
Here are few of my "pearls of wisdom":
- I like to rinse (instead of dip) a biscuit in my tea
- I have once said to my patient that he has a pale leather (rather then skin:-)
2. What/Who is "normal"? Sense of "normality" is very variable and is dependent on cultural, mental and geographical aspects, but we, humans, are constantly sub-consciously measuring ourselves and others on that spectrum of "Normality". Some of us are more conformic to the concept, some are less, but it's always on our minds. In a foreign country "normality" of myself and others is constantly questioned and being put to the test. The deeper I dig , the blurrier are the borders. What is considered "normal" in one place is absolutely unacceptable in another.
~Kiwi people (...as opposed to Kiwi birds and Kiwi fruits:-) can be often seen walking on the streets with their bare feet. Interestingly enough, their feet are reasonably clean despite that fact. In Israel walking with bare feet would be considered completely distasteful, wierd and even potentially dangerous.
~We, Israelis, have a habit of speaking out loud, using our hands. In NZ it may come across as rude or aggressive.
~Kiwis have a very "laid back" nature. Sometimes, when applying for a job and naturally expecting to hear from potential employers within a reasonable amount of time (2 weeks or so...), I and Mark were receiving replies even after 2-3 months, not even remembering what was exactly the job in question. In our Israeli shaped minds, it was "normal" to assume that our application must have been declined, since no response was received within our (again!) reasonable time frame...
The realization of lack of absolute "normality" and acknowledgment of diversity makes me much more open- minded and adjustable person
 3. Life is NEVER boring! Being an immigrant gives me an external objective view on the country welcoming me and also, after few months, on the country, I have left behind. Despite the relative comfort of knowing English on time of arrival to NZ (as opposed to NOT knowing a single word in Hebrew on arrival to Israel), I still needed to struggle daily with language difficulties, cultural gaps and constant minor day-to-day issues.
Let me start with the Kiwi accent (the one that Kiwi people produce)- On initial stages I was absolutely terrified by it, it didn't even sound like English to me. Having a common sense and knowing the general context of a conversation, I could have managed to carry on, as long as the person was in front of me and I could see his "body language" in action and also use mine. My stress was sky rocketing whenever the phone was ringing. The fear of not understanding the person on the other side of the line ,or even worse, misunderstanding him and sounding stupid on reply, had paralyzing effect on me. And I was willing to do virtually ANYTHING to avoid phone conversations.
My own accent- the one that speaks volumes for me and even the politest of people, I have met here, couldn't help themselves asking me about my "exotic" accent. My friends at work even "renamed and re-branded" some of the widely used medical terms, to make them sound with "Bialik" accent. I have decided to take pride in it, rather then offence.
Cultural gaps- Wow, what a strong expression! These "gaps" or differences do exist, indeed, but second time around, they don't seem to me as deep or significant, as I would have perceived them as a teenager.One of my "brightest/darkest" memories of first days in Israeli school, was getting into a physical fight with a girl who made fun of my "Russian" clothes and appearance. Back at the time, it was super important to me to be "popular" among my peers. Today, 25 years later, I'm  confident with who I am and can't be bothered to make any efforts to make people "like" me, so they either do or don't! Today, when the Israeli in me takes over, I can speak out loud(er) then the average Kiwi person, I can be very straight forward and "call rock a rock", I'm not always happy to join the "laid back" nature at work (but I am getting there...:-) When the Russian in me takes over, I remember my childhood spent in a communist country and think that actually, it did have some positive aspects, such as self-discipline and sense of collective responsibility, which wouldn't hurt my kids to have. It does also contribute to our "Friday drinks" in a shape of Vodka with my Russian accent. When the (new) Kiwi makes attempts to come out of me, I am always happy to busy myself with finding the perfect costume for the next dress-up party, or stay for drink at work on Friday evening, or take interest in the Royal family..., or Lorde.., or cricket..., or rugby( Go All Blacks!)
A term of "Darwinian intelligence" comes to mind, when I think about the many impacts of immigration on one's life. Darwin stipulated that “Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things it needs to survive.” 
For me, almost everything that seemed to be an absolute truth, becomes irrelevant in the New Zealand. The differences begin with the way I say Hello, my sense of humor, what I like to eat, what I like to wear, etc... It feels like a complete loss of reference that needs to be rebuilt as fast as possible, for my own survival and success. Only my own open mindness and flexibility, I reckon, will enable me to call my immigration story, a successful one in a time perspective.

 Every day for me is like a daily practice of my "Darwinian intelligence"