Exploring Cambridge!!

Well, what can I say? It's already been a week since that 10th of February, but to me it looks like a month!! What I'm sure about though is that I'm handling it quite well, all things considered, which is rather surprising!

The only truly tough day was the last one before leaving: I still remember how nervous, anxious and, I would add, sad I was feeling. And now everything is almost completely gone, which means I'm able to fully enjoy my time here.

The impact was fairly traumatic though, and that is largely due to the (way more than) crappy weather conditions: I can understand the cold and the rain, and even some fog, but not the snow!!
That aside, I didn't have to struggle a lot to find the hostel I had booked for the first night, even though, to be honest, the luggage slowed me down a lot (must've cursed like never before haha ;) ).

I also got to socialise with my roommate for the night, I believe we went on talking for 2-3 hours before going to bed. I was so tired and my English -which is not special at all in and of itself- was completely lost by 1 am, I cannot imagine how big his effort to understand my twisted reasonings must've been! Nevertheless, he was a good guy for sure (I couldn't believe a 20 year old person could talk about such elevated topics!)!

Another highlight I'm never going to forget is that time of the following day when I carried about 40 kg of luggage from one side of Cambridge to the other. Did beat my cursing score of the previous day here, no doubts!

Anyways, Maggie, my host mother for the first week, has been such a kind person, willing to help me with anything I might need and I'm thanking her a lot for this. She even offered me permanent accommodation for the following months! What I'm gonna miss the most though, beside her and my lovely giant bedroom, are the cat, Snowie, and the dog, Milka. I have never seen such a famished -and yet adorable- cat and such a crazy dog, I swear!! :-)

All in all, this has been a nice week. Since I was lucky enough to impress the very first landlord I met on Sunday and thus solving the accommodation thing immediately, I decided to use the following days only to try and see as much of Cambridge as possible. As in every city, there are some things I like and some others I don't, but my review so far can but be extremely positive. Especially when you get to see it with the sun, Cambridge is lovely. You can feel so much history by just walking aside the walls of the many impressive buildings (mainly colleges of course ;-) ), which are truly huge. Honestly, I would love to be enrolled in a course just to have permission to walk freely inside them and feeling cool while doing so ;-).

Yesterday I even visited the Fitzwilliam Museum which, I got to say, left me positively impressed. It offers quite an interesting collection of pieces of art that covers many centuries and is related to multiple cultures. I found some of my favorite works here, which made me appreciate the whole exhibition even more ;-).

One thing I'm not going to miss in the future is the food though. I basically got only some grab-and-eat stuff up until now and I'm ok with it, though I do miss a cooked meal a lot. I can't wait to go shopping and use my chef-level cooking ability ;-). But eating this way has been interesting as well: here it's much more common to just walk into the first supermarket, grab some random stuff from the shelf and eat it on a bench or while walking. Some small cultural difference with how food and meals are perceived here :-).

What else can I say? Mmmh, except from averaging almost 10 km per day by foot there's not much left...

Oh right, I love the fact that finding a free wifi is the easiest thing to do here, even though I have my favourite spot where to suck internet from while comfortably sitting on a bench. I'm talking about the huge mall in the centre, where I also enjoy listening to all the awesome and incredibly gifted people who stop by to play the piano and create some great fantastic music. Oh if only I could play the piano!! :-(

And for now I guess I'm calling it a night! I apologize for the many typos/mistakes I'm sure I have put into this post, but I do not have much time to revise it and I wanted it finished before tomorrow!
Right, for tomorrow things are going to get a tad more serious, since I intend to begin my proper search for a job, which includes several other things to take care of and to arrange, but if a good beginning makes a good end... ;-)



Prima o poi tornerò a scrivere anche in Italiano, abbiate fiducia!!! :-)

A Big...No, A Huge Step Out Of The Comfort Zone

So, here we are, the time has eventually come. I've been mumbling quite a lot about what title I should choose for this short and monolingual post, and I've come to the conclusion this is by far the most appropriate.

Yes, what I will be doing tomorrow can but be called a huge step out of my comfort zone and, in a wider sense, out of my world, my safe little bubble.

I'm going to be completely honest with you: with the date of my departure coming closer, a part of me -do not ask how relevant- began refusing the whole thing. This part of me just didn't want to carry on the project I had been dreaming of for a while. Hence why the last few days have been, well, pure crap (huge thanks also to the misery and the cold that came to torment me, as if this emotional struggle of mine weren't enough). Saying goodbye to everyone you love has been probably the most difficult moment I've found myself into, especially as I don't know when I'll be seeing them. 

End of part one, the sad one.

Part two:

This is the half of the post in which I'm going to show the jubilant part of me, which I am pretty sure (see the positivity here!! ;-) ) will completely defeat the melancholic one in the next days. 

After all, I'm a few hours away from going to Cambridge (which is in the country with the language I love and I have always wanted to "explore") to try and live there for a while. I am aware I'm fulfilling one of my ambitions and I can't wait for everything to begin!

Of course, I need to be realistic as well: I know there are a few chances things aren't going to go well -after all, I am going there completely and utterly by myself, with no help at all-. I need to accept this and try to overcome any fear I might have in order to just live the whole thing as it should be lived, with joy, happiness and will to learn. Pretty much a kind of holiday which might help me growing up a bit ;-).

And being there alone doesn't mean I'm going to face the thing alone. I am so lucky to have such an amazing and caring bunch of people around me willing to stand my moaning and reassure me with the right words. Thanks to all of you!!! <3 :-)

Last but not least, I am not risking anything -except for some money eh ;-)-. Worst case scenario, I can always catch a plane and be back home in the blink of an eye! 

That's all folks! Hope to have many awesome things to write about in the close future! :-)

Good luck to me!!!!