Where am I?

I slept all the way through my flight and am consequently having trouble understanding where I am. I left the cold and gloomy Estonia only to arrive in cold, gloomy and wet Italy. Where are the benefits of the Mediterranean?

I'm also weighed down with a huge amount of materials on cross-cultural communication for my thesis, of which I will scorn some and apply others. It's a lot of fun, though it does make me think too much of anything the people say or do on the street: each action becomes an expression of underlying cultural values. I'll definitely be coming back to all that in the next months.


Estonia is strange in the winter, too. I had a little shock arriving, but got used to it quite fast and then it felt all sweet and homelike again. The truth is that though in the summer the life is beautiful and the Estonians become social enough to truly give Italians a run for their money, the winter is a depressive 8-month gloom. Some people shoot themselves when they can't face it anymore. Others, in order to survive, will construct a personal cocoon consisting of close friends and family, their favourite pubs, visits to the spa, homely tea rituals and simply shut out everything else as if it didn't exist (this is why nobody looks each other in the eye on the street). Occasionally the reality will catch up with them at the worst moments: at the 10 o'clock twilight of a a hung-over morning, or while carrying home heavy shopping bags in the perpetual darkness. At these moments the only thing to do is to pamper oneself, hoping that spring comes soon.

The Italians don't shut themselves away for the winter, though in clammy days like this one the piazzas stay empty and no-one feels like an aperitif. I'm feeling especially cocoon-like after my stint in the north and can't be convinced to leave the cosiness of my tea-cup and heater. Today, everything outside of home can wait for spring.