Last week I took a Saturday wander to the mountain town of
Asolo. It was a lovely warm sunny spring
day and my thoughts turned back to my last visit this way which was in my first
few weeks here when I seemed to spend every weekend in this part of the
Veneto. Thinking back to those first few
weeks it hit me – I’ve been here a year – what do I do now?
I can hardly believe it but this blog is now a whole one
year old. I started this as a way of
letting dear ones keep up to date with the events of Raji world and ease my
guilt about sending what I always feel is a self indulgent email detailing
adventures – yes I understand the notion of a blog is self indulgent but you
dear reader do have the choice of venturing to the rajisphere or not. I never gave a thought to complete strangers
finding my adventures worth reading but to my great surprise I have a bit of a
following so I would like to take this opportunity to extend a welcome to my
German, Russian, Ukrainian and American readers – it’s good to have you
aboard. To celebrate the one year this
blog has a whole new look and a new subtitle – I figure I can no longer call it
adventures of a year in the Veneto.
As with these kinds of anniversaries one has a tendency to
look back over the year and assess just what the hell it’s been like. Looking back from the position of now being
quite established here I would be lying if I said it hasn’t been hard. Travelling through countries alone has never
been a problem for me but living in a place without a support network was
harder than I had imagined. Many things
were surprisingly easy and fell into place quite fast – finding work and a
place to live etc (although sufficient credit needs to be given to forward planning.) Staying in one place has been a strange
adjustment, prior to this Italian year I hadn’t managed to stay in one spot for
more than five months, looking back my life over the past few years has been
very chaotic so having a base has been refreshing even if at times I have
craved an adventure. Small town life has
also been a bit of an adjustment.
Trevisans have proved a hard nut to crack being used to the casual inclusiveness of
Australians having to negotiate a more reserved population has been
difficult. Many of my expat friends are
here due to relationships and these connections have helped them find their
social way. Italian society is so family
focused that my living solo, without family or relationship has rendered me a
bit of an exotic creature, at times I have felt more like a visiting alien than
an expat. It is only recently that I
have begun to feel a little more established here.
As for life in a little town where nothing
happens well that has proved quite pleasant, Treviso is such a pretty peaceful
place that while the life is a million miles away from the world of gigs,
exhibitions and festivals of Melbourne I haven’t felt the boredom that I had expected. Ok this is in part due to long working hours –
when you finish work at 9.30 at night all you have time and energy to do is go
home, eat and fall asleep while reading.
Of course having Venice so near has kept me occupied. Whenever I get an attack of the lonelies or
find myself needing some thinking time I always head to Venice for a bit of a
soul revival. Even after a year I still
feel excitement whenever I step out of the train station to see the city in
front of me – I had expected to become inured to its beauty but it still takes
my breath away and perhaps always will.
I’ve learnt many things about myself this year – one that I
can cook! This probably sounds stupid
but before necessity demanded that I get down to some serious ethnic cooking I
used to describe myself as burning water!
Two that I enjoy my own company, I’ve lived alone for a full year now
and still enjoy it – pottering around by myself, knowing that any mess is my
mess, playing music that I like it’s all been fun, yes there I times you wish
there was someone to talk to but on the whole solo living has much to recommend
it. Three; I’ve learnt that I really, really
need a home, a sense of family and some stability – this has been yearning that
has been growing for some time now and as much thought as I’ve given problem I
still have no idea of where my home is – should I go back to Aus, can I make it
in Italy or try somewhere new? I had
hoped that the truth would reveal itself over the time but I’m as confused as
ever and now very tired of the problem – if anyone can help me out on this one
I’d love to know!
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