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...

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.

The last couple of weeks...

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. Some nice things and some horrible things.
I decided to only write about the good stuff...

The Italian and I went to London two weeks ago, which was great. London still rocks -incase you were wondering... will be writing about that in another post.
I tried out some new recipes. I usually stick to pasta with tomato sauce alla me, but suddenly I wanted to try out something new. Does this mean I am slowly turning into the perfect housewife?

Because the Italian loves his peperoni on bruschetta I decided to do a test run before I poison him with my creation. I actually found this perfect recipe on the frutto della passione blog.
The problem was that I didn't have all the ingredients. So I decided to swing it. I grilled the peperoni and garlic, peeled them and added cream cheese. ( I only had cream cheese which was already flavored with herbs). Added salt and pepper and voilà : a tasty spread for my sandwich.
It tasted quite good actually. But that was not all...
Since going on vacation in the US last year, I couldn't stop thinking about those oatmeal raisin cookies. For some reason I can't find them anywhere here. So - yes you guessed it- I made them myself . Pictures to follow later.

I also gave Jamie Oliver's recipe for pasta with little round tomatoes a try.
You just take yellow and red little round tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, some aceto balsamico, some olive oil, salt and pepper. Cut the tomatoes in half, put in a big bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix while bruising the tomatoes a little. Boil some pasta and add all together... It was delicious and very easy.

On top of that I packed a whole bunch of stuff for The Big Move, cleaned, did laundry and washed my car.
A productive weekend it was indeed...

The one with the moving...

Finally we have a date set for my big move to Rome. My boss knows, my parents know, my friends know.. pretty much everyone knows now that The Belgian will still be celebrating Christmas in Belgium, but will be celebrating La Befana* in Rome. I have worked out some issues with my boss and we came to this agreement. She and all my collegues are really excited for me ( I think!) and my friends are already planning trips to Rome expecting to be able to crash on my not-yet-existing Roman couch.

I do get a bit emotional sometimes but I was surprised by how easy it is to let go of material things like my car/furniture which I won't be taking probably. And yes it is hard to not see your friends and family, but Belgium and Italy is not THAT far away so I expect to be going back for a quick visit quite often.

I wonder how other people went through this process and if it was easy/difficult to let go...

* La Befana : 6th of January!