Hurricane Irene

My report in Spanish for the Venezuelan TV network Globovision


Transporte púbilco suspendido en Nueva York by Globovision

Five things I’ve learned by living alone

Eight months have gone so fast! Now I’m preparing myself for a new adventure, a new beginning.

In just ten days I will move to the place that will be my home for the next three months: New York. This has made me think about the amazing months I’ve had in Italy and all the things that I have learned.

With every experience we have, we grow and we change. Even if we don’t want to change, our mind and our senses absorb every little detail or fact and make it part of our background. Suddenly we see ourselves thinking in a different way, more mature, doing things we didn’t imagine we were going to do, speaking in a different language…and sometimes thinking in that language even if it’s not your mother tongue.

I consider myself a very analytic person and reflecting about the things that happen in my life is a sort of therapy. It helps me to put some order on my thoughts. That’s why I decided to write this post about the five things that I have learned in the past 8 months in my first experience alone:

 

1. There is no ideal place to live. Yes, that’s it! I came to Italy because I was disappointed of the Venezuelan situation: the violence on the streets, the corruption, the burocracy, the constant fear of losing everything you have worked for in just three minutes. Many of these things don’t exist in Italy and that’s great, but here you have different problems. Burocracy is as bad as the Venezuelan one, people think all the time in a negative way about the country and live in a sort of depression that goes beyond the economic aspect. Needless to say that the economy has hit the country very hard, especially the younger population. Many young and talented citizens, with a tremendous academic record, can’t find a decent job and sometimes they don’t get paid for what they do. Now I’m preparing myself to go to the United States and I know that it won’t be a bed of roses. There is also the economic crisis and I’m not an American citizen, so I will have to face discrimination and all kinds of prejudices. But, you know what, I want to try and nobody will stop me!

2. I can’t plan anything. I think I have lost a bit of the illusion of control. I always bring with me my agenda where I write everything I have to do for the rest of the week…even the most absurd and evident things. But it happened to me that two weeks ago I didn’t know really if I was going to obtain my Visa to go to the USA. I had to pay the rent of my apartment for the month of June and then I had to leave it because is going to be sold. So, I found myself in a very difficult situation because my life depended on someone else. I couldn’t buy travel tickets because I wasn’t certain about taking the plane, and I couldn’t start looking for a new apartment in Milan because I didn’t know if I was going to stay in the city. I just had to wait. Now I know I’m going to NY for three months. What will I do later? I don’t know. Time will give me the answer

3. I realized I’m calmer than the rest of people I have found here. Some of my new friends in Milan have told me that if they would have faced what I have in the last months (the uncertainty about my future) they would have become mad. The fact is that I was really worried about my internship in New York, but I have learned that certain things are not under our control. So, if you can change things, do it! If you can’t, don’t worry because it’s not your fault and you can’t do anything about it.

4. I am more open to other cultures than many people I have met. In Venezuela, I was always complaining because people tend to be very focus about national issues and they ignore other cultures or what’s happening outside of the country. I have realized that in Italy the situation is not better. Here I have found people that don’t know where Venezuela is or people that ignore that Toronto is part of Canada and not the USA and so on…Now in America I know I will find the same situation. So, I have to thank God and my parents because I think they gave me a good education background that allows me to interact with people of Latin America about our problems and also understand European political dynamics and how the North American system works. And believe me, if you are studying International Relations, the ability to communicate with different cultures and to understand what they are expecting form you is a plus

5. Last but not less important…I have learned how to cook, how to wash my clothes, how to rent an apartment, how to prepare a bag, how to choose my flatmates and how to start somewhere else from zero. And that makes me very proud.

So, do you have some experiences like this? I want to hear from you. Please, leave a comment.

Another plane...another adventure

And here I am again. As expected, my short trip to Salerno was excellent. I had the chance to visit the coast zones Amalfi and Positano, the beautiful city of Salerno, the wonderful temples of the Pestum area, and the little town of Santa Maria di Castellabate in the Salerno province. It's the same place that was used as location for the Italian film Benvenuti al Sud and it's more beautiful and clean than what I could imagine.

I took hundreds of pictures, especially the one with the street that was named Via Domenico Antonio Guariglia because of the father of my grandfather. I'm so proud of that! :)

I also had the chance to get in touch with my cousins that were tremendously kind with me and to know them better. It's nice to feel that you are surrounded by people that cares about you.

I arrived to Milan on thursday but I'm here again preparing my bags because tonight I depart to Washington, as part of a study tour that is supposed to be the conclusion of my Master.

These six months have been really important for me and I really appreciate the great opportunity I had to do all this. On May 4th I will go to NY for the second part of the study tour. I can't wait! NY is the city that stole my heart since 2009 when I visited it for the first time and I really hope to enjoy it the same way.

This travel to the USA will prepare me to the internship I will start in a few months, if everything goes well. I decided to not bring my computer with me because it's too heavy. Will I make it one week without internet? 

Life is made of changes

For good or for bad, this is the only truth: life is made of changes

Six months ago I couldn't imagine I was going to make it and finally go to Italy (the country of my dreams) to start studying a Master in Communication for International Relations, something that I wanted to do since I took a course in International Information at college in 2006.

Now I'm attending the last lessons and in less than a month I will finish.

Time is in a rush. I'm 25 now and I have a lot of dreams, expectations and projects. This travel to Italy has been amazing for me. First I had the opportunity to confront myself, to realise finally if I was able to make it on my own, to live alone and deal with all the routines of a normal life. I have to say that the adaptation process in Italy has been really easy. People is fantastic in this country. I've met so many nice and caring people and I know that some of them will be my friends for life.

I visited Milan, Genova, Rome, the Borromeo Islands and now I'm in Salerno, the city located in the Campania Region where everything started, where my family comes from.

Tomorrow I will depart to Santa Maria di Castellabate (the little town where my father and my aunts were born) and I will meet new aunts and cousins I haven't seen yet.

This visit to Salerno and Santa Maria di Castellabate  for me represents a connection with the past, with my past I should say. This is the incredible opportunity life has given me to know better who I am and all the sacrifices the previous generations did for us, the young ones.

 

I had the opportunity to re-evaluate things, see them from a different perspective and understand how lucky I really am.

Today I received bad news too: The Agustin Codazzi school, where I did elementary and secondary school, won't open on the next academic year due to economic problems. This is very sad for all of us who had the chance to study there and learn Italian since a very young age and it's a big loss for all the Italian-Venezuelan community. This reaffirms that we have to take every opportunity, we have to live every day and take the best of each experience because we don't know when it's going to end.

Next week I will be back to Milan, then I will stay for a week in Washington and New York and I will return to Milan and stay there until the end of June. From July to October I will be in New York to complete an internship at the United Nations and then I don't know what I'm going to do. And even if doubts invade my mind and I'm worried about my future, I know that I did the right choice and I'm so glad for having lived this year as a happy and PROUD NOMAD!

Empire State of Mind- Jay Z feat. Alicia Keys

Yeah
Yeah I'm out that Brooklyn.
Now I'm down in Tribeca.
Right next to DeNiro
But I'll be hood forever
I'm the new Sinatra
And since I made it here
I can make it anywhere
(Yeah they love me everywhere)
I used to cop in Harlem
All of my Dominicanos (Hey yo)
Right there off of Broadway
Brought me back to that McDonalds
Took it to my stash spot
560 State Street
Catch me in the kitchen like Simmons whipping Pastry
Cruising down 8th street
Off-white Lexus
Driving so slow
(but BK, it's from Texas!!)
Me I'm out that BedStuy
Home of that boy Biggie
now I live on Billboard
and I brought my boys with me
Say what up to Ta-ta
Still sipping Mai Tais
Sitting courtside
Knicks and Nets give me high-5
Nigga, I be Spiked out
I could trip a referee
...tell by my attitude that I'm MOST DEFINITELY FROM...

New York!!!!
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can’t do,
Now you're in New York!!!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

I made you hot n-gga,
Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game,
sh-t I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can,
you should know I bleed Blue, but I ain't a crip tho,
but I got a gang of n-ggas walking with my clique though,
welcome to the melting pot,
corners where we selling rocks,
Afrika bambaataa sh-t,
home of the hip hop,
yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back,
for foreigners it ain't fitted act like they forgot how to act,
8 million stories out there and they're naked,
city it's a pity half of y’all won’t make it,
me I gotta plug a special and I got it made,
If Jeezy's payin LeBron, I’m paying Dwayne Wade,
3 dice cee-lo
3 card marley,
Labor Day parade, rest in peace Bob Marley,
Statue of Liberty, long live the World Trade,
long live the king yo,
I’m from the Empire State thats…

In New York!!!!
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can’t do,
Now you're in New York!!!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

Welcome to the bright light..

Lights is blinding,
girls need blinders
so they can step out of bounds quick,
the side lines is blind with casualties,
who sip the lite casually, then gradually become worse,
don’t bite the apple Eve,
caught up in the in crowd,
now you're in-style,
and in the winter gets cold en vogue with your skin out,
the city of sin is a pity on a whim.
good girls gone bad, the city's filled with them,
Mommy took a bus trip and now she got her bust out,
everybody ride her, just like a bus route,
Hail Mary to the city your a Virgin,
and Jesus can’t save you life starts when the church ends,
came here for school, graduated to the high life,
ball players, rap stars, addicted to the limelight,
MDMA got you feeling like a champion,
the city never sleeps better slip you a Ambien

New York!!!!
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can’t do,
Now you're in New York!!!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

One hand in the air for the big city,
Street lights, big dreams all looking pretty,
no place in the World that can compare,
Put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeaaahh
come on, come,
yeah,

New York!!!!
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can’t do,
Now you're in New York!!!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

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