A Beautiful Day

Yesterday Rome was covered in sun. It was about time, the last weeks it has rained more in Rome than it rains in Belgium I think. And it did start to get me. Having no job is harder than I thought.
I quit a job I was good at to find myself now with lots of free time and no pride. Cleaning and washing doesn't really make me feel like I actually contribute to anything at all. As I'm struggling to find my way, the rain didn't make things easier.
So to cheer me up the Italian took me to the center yesterday to have one of the best gelato I have ever had at Giolitti. We took a walk to Piazza di Spagna, the place where almost 10 years ago I met the Italian for the first time. He was having an icecream.

You've gotta learn to crawl before you learn to walk

Maybe I was too naive when the thought of moving to Rome came in my mind. The first week there was homesickness, getting irritated by Italian chaos and being frustrated to have no friends of my own here. Then feeling like an idiot because I felt that way and not doing anything about it. You can call it a vicious circle if you will.
The Italian has been working and I have been sitting at 'home'. He told me several times to get out of the house and go somewhere, but the rain was my perfect excuse. However, today I felt like I had whined enough, so I dragged myself of the comfortable chair and went to buy stamps at the post office in Piazza Bologna and afterwards I wanted to go for a run. So I took the metro, got off at Bologna and entered the huge post office. (You should know that I grew up in a tiny village in Belgium with like 10.000 inhabitants) I took a number and got a bit confused : 200 people before me? ''This surely must be a mistake!'' I thought. But no, it wasn't a mistake. In the moment I had entered the postal chaos, the big board had number 200-something on it and I had number 400-something. And when it finally was my turn I went to the desk, paid for the stamps and without the lady giving me the stamps she told me she had to go away for a moment and I had to wait. Where was she going? Was it too hard for her to just give me the stamps first and then go away? I waited for what seemed like eternity, then she finally returned and gave me those precious stamps. Maybe they still have to print them first?
At that point it was raining so hard that running might not have been such a great idea anymore. But since I got kinda frustrated by the post office experience, I had to do something. I had to work out some stress. So I took the metro to the Colosseo and went running in the rain while Italians looked at me thinking I was some crazy chick for running in the rain without an umbrella or a jacket. It was nice and I felt a lot better afterwards.
This made me realise that I should be enjoying the beauty of the city and the culture instead of sitting at home. I'm sure there will be more moments of homesickness or frustration. But until those kick back in, I'm going to do what I want to do. Enjoy the adventure.

From Snow to Rain

With a delay of more than 3 hours I arrived in Italy 2 days ago. I left the cold and the snow in Beautiful Belgium behind, to find less cold and rain in Beautiful Rome. Although I really love to be in Rome, the first signs of homesickness have kicked in. But it was time to make a change and I'm happy I did it. It's just that I have the most awesomest family in Belgium...

The Movies

In the last two weeks I went to the cinema 3 times. The first time we saw Transporter 3. Not my choice, but I seem to have a weakness for Jason Statham (nothing to do with his looks). It wasn't bad for an action film. Then - really not my choice - we saw The Day The Earth Stood Still. And although Jada Pinkett and Will Smith make cute babies, this might have been the worst movie I saw in 2008. I'm no fan of most alien movies, but this was just ridiculous. Anyway, so yesterday was my choice. My first choice was to watch Changeling, but they weren't playing it at the time we went. So I chose Pride And Glory. Which turned out to be a good choice! I was sold when I saw that Edward Norton was playing in it and he didn't disappoint.

Time is a tricky thing

Time is tricky. You think you still have lots of it and then the moment is there. The moment in which the time is up. Months ago I decided to move to Italy in January. And I had indeed lots of time. Now the time is pretty much up and I still need to do so much. I had planned to pack in the last two weeks and figured that it would be enough time to do everything. But I forgot to plan some time to meet friends. I forgot to plan some time to meet family. I forgot to take the holidays into account and the countless Christmas parties. I forgot to plan time to be emotional and femotional. The last two weeks were all about that... meeting friends, family, go to Christmas and New Years parties and be emotional. (and gain about 5 KG, another reason to be femotional) I have three days left to pack and get everything ready and basically detox from all the spumante, wine, beer, prosecco, amaretto jenever and other brain damaging liquids I had.

I'm not a big fan of New Year and esp. of New Year resolutions. But in the moment you don't have time to do the things you need to do, I usually find time to do the things that are useless to do. ( Example : In my student years, my student room was never so clean as during the exams.)

So my New Year resolutions for 2009 are :

• Lose those 5 KG and maybe some extra (just to be safe) and get into shape!
  
• Adapt to a new life in Italy and lose some of my much too pragmatical ways
• Learn better Italian
• Figure out what I want to do professionally
• Find a job
• Make new friends
• ...
  

But my first resolution is to come up with a really good plan to accomplish all the resolutions.