Hup Holland Hup

For the past month I have been watching a lot of soccer. After Italia returned to the bel paese, (and Belgium not even participating, but we will be back!) I have started to support The Netherlands (also). Who'd have thunk?*. One thing you cannot accuse the Dutch of is that they don't support their country. For the game between Holland and Japan we went to the Bull Dog Inn. When Holland is playing, this pub fills up with Dutch tifosi dressed up in orange. It was really nice to -although my Italian is decent- actually understand EVERYTHING people say ;).
So here's a little video clip (I picked the one from 2008, cause I just like it more, but there's also a 2010 version), which shows those crazy dutchies in all their glory. (Belgians :can learn something from this!)
For this evening :HUP HOLLAND HUP!!!! GOOOOOOO HOLLAND!!!!


PS : Yes I did start supporting Holland in this World Cup, but this still doesn't mean I like Heineken. ;)


* for those not aware : there's some sort of love-hate thing between Belgium and Holland.

Belgium, here we come....

The Italian and I will be going to Belgium for the holidays and we both couldn't be happier about it. First of all because we haven't seen my family in a long time and second of all because we both need a break from Italy and Rome.
Belgium is currently covered in snow and we have a pretty big chance of having that White Christmas after all. Apart from one big suitcase filled with clothes, we are also dragging another big suitcase with us filled with cakes, torrone and other Italian holiday goodies. Today when buying the torrone, the Italian candidly pointed out that I always said that there was only 1 kind of chocolate in the world. Well his exact words were more like : " You always made me two ***** like this about how chocolate had to be Belgian." Yes, Belgian chocolate is still the best chocolate in the world, but I'm still also buying the torrone. (You can never have too much chocolate imo)
I will surely return to Italy with an extra five kilos on my body, but I'm not holding back this time. Homemade fries, belgian beer, cream tomato soup and endless christmas markets with glühwein, jenever and other bodywarming drinks.
Now if only the airport won't be closed for the snow....
Happy holidays to all! Have a lovely Christmas!

The highs and the lows

It's been months since I last blogged. The past months were filled with highs and lows and for some reason I didn't feel like blogging about it at the time.
This is what's been going on :

The highs :
* In July the Italian and I went to Belgium. We stayed there a couple of days and then drove my car (full with stuff) back to Italy. We stopped at Lago di Garda and San Benedetto del Tronto and then drove to Rome.
* In August my mom and sister came to visit us in Rome, which was great.
* In September my cousin and her boyfriend came to Rome, we had a blast.

The lows :
* For some reason I'm still not getting used to Rome. I have pretty much always lived in a small village in a small country. I never thought this would be an issue, but the big city chaos is sometimes just too much. I then dream of a house with a big garden in which I grow my own vegetables. I guess there is a farmer inside of me somewhere that I didn't know about.
* The househunting is not going fast enough for me. We have seen it all by now. Houses with water in the walls, bad roofs, houses in the midst of about 20 electrical poles, near the river that floods, agency people who don't give you any information except for : 'this is the kitchen, this is the bathroom...' (why would I pay you thousands of euros for that?!)
* The jobhunting is -to say the least- horrible. Nobody cares apparently that I speak all these languages and have a degree. When I came here I was willing to earn less than what I earned back home, but some of the salaries I have seen here are just ridiculous.
* Making new friends has also proven itself to be harder than it is.

Solution :
* I need to step up my game. Easier said than done, but not impossible. And when I wonder if I want to step up my game, I need to slap myself in the face and realise that the only thing I can change is me. Not this country or its jobmarket or its obvious chaos. I need to stop comparing Belgium to Italy, cause in the end it just makes me unhappier.

Now I know what to do, but how do I do it?

Tragedy in Abruzzo

Last night around 3.30 I woke up shaking. I woke The Italianup saying : "We are moving, we are moving!". He replied : "Don't worry, it's just an earthquake." What? It's JUST an earthquake? I'm Belgian, we don't have earthquakes! (ok, not entirely true, there was a small one a long time ago and I slept through it)

Luckily for us, it seems Rome is fine, but my thoughts go out to those near the epicenter of the quake in Abruzzo. As I keep reading the newspapers they constantly report more and more people who died. 92 already and numerous people homeless.

You know you are integrating in Italy when....

Except for feeling like a total foreigner when standing in the metro while towering over everyone including the men, I'm starting to feel more at home here in Italy.

Ten reasons you know you are integrating well in Italy - in no particular order :

1. When crossing the street and a crazy driver shows you the 'areyououtofyourmindwomansign' - you know the one with the hand in front of the face - and instead of yelling something at him, you gesture back saying it all.

2. When you become fussy about your pizza. Nonono I don't want the thick crusted 'Napoli' pizza, only the very thin one and make it ben cotta.

3. When you -while speaking Italian- throw in a lot of 'però's' for no apparent reason.

4. When you walk in the center and whine about the many tourists.

5. When you don't get offended while getting 'Ciao Bella' , ' Amore', ... yelled at you from across the street

6. When you want to cross the street and you are the only one who dares to go out there and raise your hand at the driver so you can actually cross the street and all the flocks of tourists follow you.

7. When you understand there is a lot of traffic, because two drops of rain fell out of the sky.

8. When you are in Panorama and people come to ask you where the salt is or when you are at the metro people ask you if it goes to ''Piramide''. (I must add I absolutely don't look Italian)

9. When you actually defend Italy and put down Belgium in a discussion about politics - I can't believe I actually did this, seems a bit stupid in retrospect.

10. When yesterday you spotted a tourist in a t-shirt and flip flops while you were wearing your winter jacket and thought they were the ones who were crazy.

More than a suitcase full of food...

Last weekend I made a little trip back to Belgium to see my family and to bring over some more stuff. My first weeks in Italy weren't always easy as you could read in my previous posts and I started to create a bit of an unrealistic image of what Belgium respresented. For example I began to worship Belgian food and could not believe my eyes when in Italy you can't even buy brown sugar. Which by the way is needed to make one of my grandfather's famous dishes and therefore Belgium rules over Italy. You know that kinda of thing. I am ashamed to say I got a bit carried away. Because - let's face it- although Belgium's very nice (uhum), Italy isn't so bad. And I realized this when I came back from my little trip back.
When I was in Belgium last weekend, I couldn't sleep from the cold. And although I loved seeing my family again and eat Belgium food again (sorry Italy but making fries is not something you are good at), I also realised that being with The Italian makes me happy. For years we only saw each other a couple of days a month, and now being apart for 4 days, I started to miss him.

I had a lot of fun though. I went to the hairdresser. (I still have to find one in Rome and I'm very picky about my hair and therefore my hairdresser) I went shopping with my sis and my mom, went out for drinks and food, etc.
I left Belgium to return to Italy with a suitcase full of items I cannot find here and more importantly with a more positive attitude. I am sure there will be more moments in which I will find myself whining about not being able to eat Belgian fries or chips or speculoospasta.
But for now I'll take that ride on the positive attitude-train because it does make life brighter after all.

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...

Ryanair vs Easy Jet

I had quite the weekend. Last Friday I flew to Rome (with Ryanair) thinking my last hours on planet earth had presented themselves. There was so much turbulence that the plane didn't stop shaking and it took about 50 minutes to actually put the plane down. Another five minutes and I would have had to search for one of those cute little paper bags. Felt sick all evening but still couldn't pass up on my future mother-in-law's home made pizza. Last weekend was the last weekend I flew to Rome before moving in January. The Italian will be spending the holidays Belgian style and then we will go back together. Writing this I get kinda nervous. Not so much for the move, but for all the things I still need to do. I'm the master procrastinator.

On Monday I flew from Rome to Milan for a job interview. I think it went alright. I had a talk with the Italian H&R manager from the company I work for now. He told me, what I already knew, that they didn't have a job opening in the company we have near Rome, but that he was going to see if he could do something for me anyway. It was a very long day, but I figure that it's never a bad thing to know people like him (read : with his connections).

The flight from Rome to Milan was the first time I flew with Easy Jet. I had made sure I took the smallest trolley I had so I didn't have to check in any baggage. The (young) girl behind the check in desk then decided to show me what kind of power she had. She asked me to please check if it would fit in one of those iron baggage size things. It didn't ofcourse. The little wheels must have stuck out for about half a centimeter. I had woken up at 6 and had a headache from hell, so I wasn't particularly very amused by this. She got very rude in telling me I couldn't take the baggage with me. Ofcourse when checking in for my Milan-Brussels flight (again with Easy Jet) about twelve hours (!) later, the nice (older) lady at the check in didn't see the problem and let me take the trolley as hand luggage.

I blame the Italian. He was with me checking in in Rome, and the rude girl was obviously struck with the 'Foreign Girl Has An Italian Boyfriend and Therefore Is Taking Down My Chance Of Happiness By 1' -fever.

I say to her : go find yourself a Belgian guy and we'll call it even.

It's official..! I'm getting nervous...

Last week I finally asked my boss if it was possible to find me a job with the company in Italy. ( same company, but different as they don't make the same things as we do)
She already knew I was toying with the idea of moving, but I never made it a 'sure thing'. Now, you should know that my boss and I get along very well, so she agreed to take it up with her boss and then some higher people to check if there was a possibility. I don't know yet if it will be possible, but it's nice they are checking it out. Even the P&O lady is helping me figure out some practical stuff even if they can't move me and I have to quit. This is all wonderful and I can't believe they are willing to help me with this in such a great way. However it's making me nervous.. the move is becoming very real all of a sudden and it's scaring me a bit.
The fact that one of my best friends gave me some tissues that say 'Friends Forever' didn't really help and almost made me cry. And today my boss asked me if they can put out an anouncement next week or so to tell the whole company... so yup there is not way back.. To be absolutely clear : I don't want there to be a way back. I'm sure about going to Italy, being with the Italian, getting rid of taking planes every 1-2 months... still I'm getting nervous.
Nervous, but also excited to live with the Italian, in a new place, with a 'new' culture,and (hopefully) making new friends...
Yup.. this kid is growing up... or so it seems...

Amalfi, Ravello, Paestum, Atrani etc...

Last weekend we went to the Amalfi coast. We found a little bed & breakfast the day before and got lucky they had one room left. We arrived around lunchtime and dropped all our bags at the b&b and went on our way to see Ravello. Very cute little city, with amazing views.

Having not read a thing about the Amalfi coast before leaving, we didn't realize these little towns were all so small and you could actually see them in an hour. We had lunch in Ravello and went on our way to Amalfi. In the evening we had a great dinner at 'our' b&b. It had a spectacular terrace filled with lemon trees and amazing views on the coast line.
The day after we decided to head to Paestum and then head back 'home'.

Geek

I just finished the 5th year of my Italian class. One night a week, three hours, a whole schoolyear.
Today was grade day. Went there and it went a little like this :

Me : I'm here to pick up my grade

Teacher : So how do you think you did?

Me : Alright, worse than last year though

Teacher : How much did you take last year?

Me : I don't know, around 80%

Teacher : Well, you shouldn't be so modest! Your result is ... 88%

He said I made a very good exam. Ok, really, this doesn't mean so much, it's just Italian. Still I felt again like a little girl whose teacher just told her she did good! Because let's face it, that didn't happen anymore since like primary school. Not because I didn't do well after that, but - from my experience- high school teachers and university professors don't give a crap about their students.
But that's a totally different discussion.

Point is that I was proud of myself for doing well. It sounds geeky even writing it down, but it's the truth! (I do shamefully have to admit that I didn't study for it that much)
The problem with this result is also that it shows that I'm not that bad at Italian, the only thing that's missing is the guts to actually speak it around Italians... which could be useful!

After my intention to blog more, I also need to speak Italian more.. with all these good intentions it kinda feels like the 1st of January...

Soccer Fever

When I was younger I used to watch a lot of soccer. Not just the national team, but also the Belgian league games. I don't anymore. BUT when there's a European Championship or a World Champion ship I do watch soccer. I love seeing all these countries compete and everybody dressing up in 'Their' colours. Unfortunately the Belgian team has been going through a rough patch the last couple of years and we aren't in the European Championship this year. One of the good things of having an Italian boyfriend is that noone is surprised I support the Italian team. Unfortunately they haven't really played very well. If they don't beat France on Tuesday and Romania wins against Holland, they are out of the Championship.
I have lots of Dutch collegues who are pushing me to support Holland together with them, but until the Italian team is out, I can't, I won't, I shall not.
After that... you could spot me wearing one of those (ridiculous) orange shirts...
Let's hope the Italian team stays in though, I wouldn't want to miss all those good looking guys in their tight shirts and shorts..
Because let's face it, when it comes to having cute soccerplayers, there is only one Champion and that's Italy.