At the beginning of this year, things got rough at work. The company wasn't doing too well and things had to happen. The atmosphere got really tense and it became increasingly clear that things couldn't go on the way they were going. I don't want to go into details but in the end it was a good thing that I decided leave at the end of May instead of continuing on until July. In the end, Caroline, my boss, came back and had to make some pervasive and unpopular decisions to keep the company afloat and find a buyer. This decreased my work enjoyment even further and I was ultimately happy to leave that company. I hated leaving like that and we sort of figured it out and made up but it wasn't pretty. I was also not too happy about the prospect of leaving Milan and settling in Berlin. All this contributed to my not feeling very happy. The company was eventually sold to one of my colleagues and her fiance who are now trying to make things work.
Here is a summary of some cool things that happened while I was still in Italy:
In February, we went on a weekend retreat in Cocconato in the Piemontese hills with four other couples: Jen and Massimo, Louisa and Mickael, Shruti and Gianni and Kate and Giammaria (who after that broke up). Good food, wine and lovely views. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/CouplesWeekendCocconato21And22Feb09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKSzhcyg0_ileg#
In March, Wouter and I spent our annual weekend away in Frankfurt. It was very good to have some time alone with him, even if Frankfurt itself was not everything I hoped it would be. The Staedel is a great art museum though. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/FrankfurtMar09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKaD_eWv2peIlwE#
Olaf left for Berlin on 1st April and I had two more months in Milan. Although it meant we would spend two months apart (except for visits of course), it was good for me to have the time to say goodbye to my friends and take the time to let go of the city. And to have time to think.
In the beginning of May, Marike came over for a long weekend and we had a blast. We reminisced about the past, analysed the present and the future, drank too much, smoked too much and overdosed on cultural experiences. The most impressive of which was our visit to Sirmione on Lake Garda where one of the best preserved Roman villas has been excavated. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/MarikeSVisitSirmioneMay09?authkey=Gv1sRgCOzq2tfh5P3s5wE#
May was a good month. It was my last month in Milan and I did lots of fun stuff. Jen, Kate, Caroline, Massimo and I went to Lago d'Orta for instance, a beautiful small lake near Lago Maggiore with a little island with a church on it in the middle and a Sacro Monte nearby. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/LagoDOrta170509?authkey=Gv1sRgCJj8wf-HiJzdbg#
At the end of that month, Olaf came back for his defense of his PhD, which he passed of course. We celebrated this with a party on a tram: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/OlafSGraduationPartyOnATram230509?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDu94LBufrP6AE#
I also finally made it to Brescia, where you can see the remains of a Roman forum. It was an exceedingly hot day and thus a great day for my very last day trip from Milan: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/Brescia260509?authkey=Gv1sRgCK6f3u7tx83kbQ#
And the last weekend I was in Milan, Jen, Massimo, Kate, Flora and I went out for the best mussels in the world at La Cozzeria: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/LaCozzeriaMyGoodbye290509?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvhnYqZpsy_igE#
So, then I moved to Berlin. I arrived on 1st June, which happened to be a bank holiday. You may wonder why I was surprised at the second day of Pentecost being a holiday, well it is because for some reason they do not celebrate it in Italy, bulwark of the Roman Catholic faith though it may be. I had hoped to find a job before the summer but that soon proved to be difficult. In the end, I was at home all summer, apart from the occasional private student. This is the way it is for language teachers. People finish their courses in June or July and don't start new ones until after summer, so language schools don't hire until September. I managed to get hired by two different language schools as a teacher of the English and Dutch languages the very first week of September though and have been working on getting more courses in ever since. Hurray, I am no longer unemployed, which - to be honest - I had had enough of after a month. I am simply not made for three-month holidays...
Since moving to Berlin, I have been exploring the city to try to get to know it. Not having a job made me feel like being a tourist on an extended stay here and I don't feel at home yet, but I hope that will all change with having a job. I'd like to start feeling like a part of this city.
Fortunately, I had already planned some trips to take mind of spending a whole summer in Berlin. I went to London for Marike's opera's opening night and spent a long weekend in Nijmegen with friends and family, where I tried to leave a lasting impression on my supercute nephew Neo: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/Neo#
Several people came over to visit, like my mother,
my father and his girlfriend,
Maartje (http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/MaartjeSVisit2123Jul09?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHVwpPPlMWkVA#), and Olaf's brother Lars and his family.
We also had a lovely housewarming party themed 'Stock the bar'. The bar was stocked and emptied that same night: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/HousewarmingParty130609?authkey=Gv1sRgCIOx59mkmu_2mQE#
Summer came and went. The weather wasn't that great but we had three sunny weeks in August. I guess I am still too hung up on Milan to be able to call that a summer. I got a little tan, read loads of books, started a yoga course (which I love!!) and started swimming again. I hadn't worked out since before Christmas and I had put on about 10 kg of surplus weight which I am still working on getting rid of.
And then I could finally start working. I am teaching a couple of General and Business English courses at my one school, and a beginners' group course of Dutch and an intensive English course at the other one. This is obviously very tiring. So, when I had been working for 1 week, I really needed a holiday. So, it was a good thing we had already booked a 10-day holiday in Italy!! We spent a couple of days in Rome, where we visited Ostia Antica and the Vatican museums and had a great lunch with my former colleague Katherine on the beach. We then proceeded to hire a car and explore hilly Umbria with its hilltop towns of Orvieto, Perugia, Gubbio, Assisi, Montefalco and Spoleto followed by a night on the Piano Grande, a 1500-meter high bowl-shaped plateau which fills up with mist every morning leaving the little hillock with its hamlet Castelluccio on top of it as a virtual island in a sea of mist. We then drove back to Rome to fly to Sardegna to spend an amazing party weekend at Jen and Massimo's place. Sun, sea, beach, fresh fish, a barbecue, an exciting dinghy ride and booze, booze, booze. For pictures of this lovely and well-deserved holiday, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/ItalySept2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMeZovPX5vGVdA#
Ciao,
Fedor
