The Italian Voice

I feel so bad in these days.

Three days ago my boyfriend’s family found old entries of my Italian blog where I put them down, it was when I didn’t even know about the relocation and something also later, but all written no more late than this spring.
They found harsh word which I never wrote, I realized that someone had access to my Italian blog and changed a lot of things. Yes, I criticised my boyfriend’s family and I am convict about it, but I never thought and written those bad words.
My boyfriend’s family does not believe me or maybe they even do not know this fact.
I do not know how to explain things if someone does not give me the opportunity to do it.

They obviously took offence, I felt bad even by myself reading those words which I never wrote, and now they do not consider me anymore. My boyfriend is unsure about what to do, he took offence too, but maybe he still feel a little bit of love for me.

I had to leave with my parents for Belgium now, but I decided to stay at home to have more chances to talk to my boyfriend as much as I can. I want to proove him that I am not that bad person, that I stopped to think and write those criticisms for several months now, that I was very happy to get along well with his family and to move and that I love him with all my heart.
I hope he will be able to give me that opportunity, but I am not sure at all.

I can not think about these 4+ years together, we were almost ready for the final relocation and we were so happy to start a new life, me too, absolutely (I also wrote it in several entries here).

The unique thing to do now is to stay in touch with my boyfriend, who asks for time and space, and to show him my real intentions and the truth about who I really am.
I hope so badly that he will give me the chance to do it!
Now he does not want to meet me, only phone calls and one or a very few ones per day.

It is ok for me, I can imagine his contrasting feelings, but I also hope that he will think about our relationship, I am ready to be put to the test completely, I am determined to fight for my love and future with him, but I really need to act immediately about the flat and the job.

photo by sp_clarke

I am deciding to spend the major part of the day at my parents’ flat (fortunately they live just at the end of this street) to avoid to see the bills here growing and I am planning to send my CV at some job places around here.

I feel so badly, I hope to retrieve my life with him, but I need him to give me another opportunity, please please please pray for us!!! Then maybe, later in the days or months, I will get the chance to talk to his family.

Everything changes so quickly in this life, I was not ready for something like this, I was ready to move and start a new life with my boyfriend, I love him so much!!!

P.S: Sorry for the whining entry, but I really need to give vent to my feelings.

In this period, I am again dealing with the constant thought of the job hunting.
It is really psychologically stressful, especially if you live in Italy and if you already changed your job some times, like I did for several unwilled reasons.

photo by abuigues

Here you never know what to expect from an interview; in fact, if you changed a lot of jobs, some recruiters may think:

1) that you are very adaptable and flexible and is obviously good;
2) that there is something wrong in you, so maybe you are a goof-off.

So what is the right behaviour to have? What to say exactly during the interview? How to introduce yourself and your working experiences?

I guess that in Italy nothing is ok when you talk about the job, never! If you say that you are flexible, they will think that you are not reliable; if you say that you want a steady job, they will surely end up looking for someone with a more modern mind.

I am also noticing a substantial difference about the job offers in my region, which is the Emilia-Romagna, and my future place, which will be in Piedmont. Maybe I am prejudiced, but it seems that here we have more varied job offers, in many more fields, while there they only offer positions in two or three fields…

Well, I do not mind. I know the job hunting is always hard, I guess everywhere, especially in this era, but I also know that it can be quite stirring in my situation, as I will have the chance to start all over again, choosing exactly who I would like to be and this opportunity comes only a few times in life or maybe only once.
I absolutely do not want to waste my time, I have so many ideas in my mind to explore just before and after my relocation to low Piedmont.

Now I only need a 10 days-vacation to Belgium with my parents (fortunately I was able to plan a little getaway this year, I will say good-bye later, as we will leave only on July 31st), then I will start to move the last things and to really think about my future in Novi Ligure.
Yay, it sounds very exciting!

Hi my friends, I am finally back from the first part of the relocation, I am really satisfied about the result and now I absolutely want to share with you the reportage with the photos which I took during Saturday, it is so much exciting!

On Friday afternoon we loaded the delivery van which one of my foster father’s colleagues offered for the relocation.

On Saturday morning we woke up at 3:30 am to meet 1 our later at my parents’ flat together with my uncle, who did the night shift at work and came with us without sleeping at all.
Along the road, we met my foster father’s colleague with his delivery van, then we took the highway to Tortona, in Piedmont.

From top to bottom, from left to right: my mother driving the car, my boyfriend next to me, my uncle sleeping (with my foster father and his colleague onto the delivery van in front of us in the highway) and myself with the pigtail.

We arrived there about 3 hours later without problems and with 2 brief stops.
We immediately unloaded the van and put our stuffs into the garage, then we went into the flat with the visitors, who clearly showed their big appreciation for it.

After some minutes, men started to assemble the kitchen while my mother and I took the documents of the delivery of the kitchen, which arrived at the flat on June 27th, and drove to the Ikea Store in Genoa to ask for a replacement of 4 doors which were damaged.
On the way to the capital of province of Liguria, which is Genoa, we chatted a lot and enjoyed the landscapes of the green mountains between the two regions of Piedmont and Liguria, I look forward to visit all those beautiful towns.

From top to bottom, from left to right: the Scrivia Valley, a nice town between Novi Ligure and Genoa (I do not know its name yet, but I will visit it soon), highway between the mountains near Genoa, Genoa Bolzaneto (one of the areas of the city Genoa).

It was not hard at all to find the Ikea Store in Genoa compared to the previous time when I have been there with my boyfriend, maybe because I already remembered the path.
The operator at the customer service was very kind (and also young and handsome, hahaha), he explained that they will deliver the new doors in one week directly in Novi Ligure. Great news item!

After that, we immediately drove back to Novi Ligure and, before going to the flat, I wanted to show my future city to my mother with a brief tour by car, it was my very first time without help for the directions to take.
When we arrived at the flat, we discovered that my boyfriend’s mother and brother visited men, who were assembling the kitchen, just some minutes after our departure to Genoa. It was the first meeting for them, fortunately my foster father and uncle were able to know two members of my boyfriend’s family, but my mother was curious too and I wanted to see them as well…well, it will be for the next time.

We continued to work together to assemble the kitchen. We had lunch in the balcony onto the package of the kitchen, because there are no chairs yet into the flat, with pizza, salted croissants and croquettes of potatoes; we needed to be quite quick, as my uncle was very tired after the night shift and we had to be back home not very late in the evening.

From top to bottom, from left to right: our quick lunch in the balcony (already full of plants, hahaha), men relaxing before continue to work, a glimpse of our kitchen, the part behind our block of flats (our flat is at the 2nd floor).

At 6:30 pm we had to stop working at the flat, because we realized that we still had 3 hours to reach Bologna and we all were very tired.
On the way home, my parents and uncle expressed their satisfation for my future flat, kitchen and city; I was worried especially about my mother’s opinion, because I get along very well with her (well, it is my mother!!), but she told me she liked everything a lot and now she can picture her only daughter over there living her new life with her boyfriend.

You can not imagine how much I was relieved to see those positive reactions, now I really feel better and practically ready for the last part of the relocation at the end of August 2008!!
Another big news item is that I decided to travel with my parents to Belgium for the first week of August, so I will have some days to spend with them into our camper van, before moving permanently.
I could not imagine to live such an exciting summer for this year, it turned out to be one of the best ones in my life, I feel ready to move and finally able to look into the future without fears, it is a great feeling!!

P.S: Tomorrow evening I will attend the Notte Bianca with my mother in Bologna (via S. Isaia), so stay tuned for updates and new shots about the event which will take place with nice music and shopping!

I am still alive, my friends!! Do you wonder what I am doing?

shot by aemkei

Yep, I have been busy for some days because my boyfriend came home and will stay here until Saturday, when we will pack our things and we will start the first part of the relocation to low Piedmont; we are plenty of commitments, such as meeting friends to say goodbye before moving, buying products for the new flat and obviously packing the major part of our stuffs.

On Friday evening we will get the delivery van and will load everything on it, then on Saturday we will wake up at 5 am, we will meet my parents and uncle to reach Novi Ligure, which is our future city, to unload our stuffs and to assemble the kitchen, which is already arrived at the flat.

How exciting!! On Saturday I will surely take some photos to show you the works, the flat and the kitchen.
So stay tuned and have a nice rest of the week, I will be back soon.

Another little news item before cooking lunch today: I joined the contest called Blogger’s Choice Awards and my blog has been nominated for the Best Photography Blog and other sections; if you want to vote for me, you can click on the homonym banner of the section called “Get Updates” here in the right column or simply click here, I would be very happy to receive your recommendation.

Ciao my friends and thanks for following my steps to my new life, it is great to share all my feelings with you!!

Today I want to start to write about my own life, just because I think that the facts which happen to me could make you understand something more about Italians, but also because I am glad to share everything with my readers, I would like to know you all, so this is the best way to let you know me better.

I am currently waiting to move to another region because of my boyfriend’s job; at the beginning I refused the idea, but now I am starting to be very curious to start my new life, to discover the new city and to get new friends.

I do not visit the new place so often, because I have to travel by train and I realized that it is not so cheap each time; I spend about Euro 23 for a round-trip ticket from Castel San Pietro Terme (province of Bologna) to Novi Ligure (province of Alessandria), so I avoid to see my boyfriend once a week, looking forward to cohabit again.

Novi Ligure is in the bottom-right corner of the highlighted region
(map taken from Wikipedia)

Novi Ligure is a city of the region of low Piedmont (North-Western Italy), it is situated in a favourable area just between the three big city of Turin, Milan and Genoa. Its name reminds of the region Liguria and it is not a fortuity, because in the past it belonged politically to that territory for a long time and only in 1859 was annexed to the province of Alessandria and so also to Piedmont.

I have been to Novi Ligure in the last week of May for a couple of days and I took the chance to take some shots of the city downtown and of the surroundings of our new flat; I must admit I am starting to appreciate it, even if it is not my own hometown and if it is quite different from my own area, but I think that my region of Emilia-Romagna should learn some lessons from Piedmont, especially about the eco-friendly solutions.

Here there are my latest shots, enjoy!

Via Girardengo, main street downtown

Church of the Collegiata of Santa Maria Maggiore

Porch of entrance of the city hall

Via Roma and Church of St Peter from afar

Church of St Anthony from Padua, managed by friars

I plan on taking more photos during my next trip, so stay tuned and you will start to discover Novi Ligure together with me.
Thanks for visiting my blog, have a nice Sunday and see you soon!