self-creation
this blog has been waiting to happen for a while now. living abroad creates a whole new world of impressions and for a period of time the mind seems to be like an extremely messy room, the kind where under the things is another layer of things and the walls are not visible for they are covered with other sets of layers of things. as confusing as it is, the things keep moving around a lot and there are moments where it seems that there is some kind of self-established order in the mind. this, obviously, is a temporary illusion, and as time goes on, the necessity for fixing things, sort something, or write down gets more persistent.
starting from the beginning is not easy. the story would have to go back two years and describe a lot of people for whom it's too early to surface yet. it's enough to say that for a considerable period of time i've regularly ended up in Italy for one reason or another, and thus spent quite a lot of time in Veneto before i officially became an EVS volunteer here. i will be staying here until the end of July next year. living here more or less permanently is something completely different than being a visitor. i've had to face learning how the bread-shop works. why the post-office resembles a market, and why the market is only in town for 1,5 times a week. i've found myself glimpsing the endless labyrinth of the Italian office system and been bored, surprised or irritated a lot of the time. i'll hope to get to everything in turn.
i'm staying in Italy, in the region of Veneto, county of Vicenza, in the town of Valdagno. i'm here with a youth-oriented non-formal learning programme called the EVS (see Encyclopedia), and working for an organisation called Association 451 that is creating youth projects with a general aim of cultural awareness. what i do every day will vary from writing this blog (as it's a part of the reflection process for the project) to telling people who we are and why does the EC pay for youngsters to go to Portugal for a week for almost no money at all. i've found life here relatively relaxing (despite being the stressed northeast), at least in comparison to where i come from, and i'm sure the people know how to enjoy life much better here.
so from which angle am i saying all this? i'm coming from Estonia, which is a country, (currently very cold, dark and depressive), and anything i observe here is inevitably filtered by my being from a completely different background. the texts here, rather than being straightforward honest accounts of life in Veneto, will be a comparison - only as a stranger would it be possible for me too see the things this way. i will be writing about silly little everyday things that i will probably stop thinking about after a while. then it will take another stranger to remind me that it's not the only way to do things. this blog will be an attempt to write everything down before my mind organises itself and i forget to be surprised.
starting from the beginning is not easy. the story would have to go back two years and describe a lot of people for whom it's too early to surface yet. it's enough to say that for a considerable period of time i've regularly ended up in Italy for one reason or another, and thus spent quite a lot of time in Veneto before i officially became an EVS volunteer here. i will be staying here until the end of July next year. living here more or less permanently is something completely different than being a visitor. i've had to face learning how the bread-shop works. why the post-office resembles a market, and why the market is only in town for 1,5 times a week. i've found myself glimpsing the endless labyrinth of the Italian office system and been bored, surprised or irritated a lot of the time. i'll hope to get to everything in turn.
i'm staying in Italy, in the region of Veneto, county of Vicenza, in the town of Valdagno. i'm here with a youth-oriented non-formal learning programme called the EVS (see Encyclopedia), and working for an organisation called Association 451 that is creating youth projects with a general aim of cultural awareness. what i do every day will vary from writing this blog (as it's a part of the reflection process for the project) to telling people who we are and why does the EC pay for youngsters to go to Portugal for a week for almost no money at all. i've found life here relatively relaxing (despite being the stressed northeast), at least in comparison to where i come from, and i'm sure the people know how to enjoy life much better here.
so from which angle am i saying all this? i'm coming from Estonia, which is a country, (currently very cold, dark and depressive), and anything i observe here is inevitably filtered by my being from a completely different background. the texts here, rather than being straightforward honest accounts of life in Veneto, will be a comparison - only as a stranger would it be possible for me too see the things this way. i will be writing about silly little everyday things that i will probably stop thinking about after a while. then it will take another stranger to remind me that it's not the only way to do things. this blog will be an attempt to write everything down before my mind organises itself and i forget to be surprised.
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