Back to work special

Ciao tutti,
'All beginnings are hard' is a commonly heard proverb and coincidentally also the first line of Chaim Potok's 'In the beginning' (which I didn't know but just found out when I googled the saying). And this year's beginnings weren't easy, to say the least. After our great though excruciating tour of the Netherlands, we really needed to relax for a whole weekend. I slept a lot and all we did on Saturday was doing the groceries. Late in the afternoon, I went into the city centre to go shopping with Belinda and Melina (a lovely Slovenian girl who I know through Belinda). Olaf had also gone shopping because he desperately needed some things and we met him briefly so he could wish them a heartily Buon Anno, as it was the last day we were actually allowed to do so (it was the Epifania or the Advent of the Magi). I'm very proud to say that although we went into La Rinascente, smelt every single perfume that was on sale - and got quite drunk on all the different scents and consequently confused - I didn't buy anything at all! Except for a cocktail afterwards, of course...

As we didn't really do anything else that weekend, we had a lot of time to relax and plan the implementation of our New Year's resolutions, since we obviously hadn't had time or the opportunity to do that in the Netherlands. I also got some time to think about a little paradox I had been wrestling with. On the one hand, I was very happy to be in the Netherlands again and meet all my friends and family. Most of the time, it felt like I had never left and still fit in exactly. A lot of people acted like I hadn't gone to live in another country and luckily the semi-obligatory 'How is life in Milano'-conversation was usually quickly handled, concluded and disposed of in order to go on to regular not-so-unnerving conversation topics. It made me feel very much at home again, as if I'd never left. Thank you all for that! However, on the other hand I have left the Netherlands and the friendships I had with people there will have to change into something different if I want to keep them as my friends. We simply cannot be the kind of friends we used to be because I am not there to experience their lives with them and cannot be part of every day activities anymore. Our relationships should develop into something I have not completely figured out yet. But the thing is... I don't want them to change, because they are the way they are because I want them to be the way they are (after spending a lot of years accumulating the amount of friends I've got and building on relationships, I'm quite happy with the result). Voilà, paradox! Anyway, this one thought strain our holiday in the Netherlands got me pondering about. I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point but thinking about it has been taking up a significant amount of my time of late, I'm just not sure whether I'll like the conclusion.

And after the weekend it was time to start work again on Monday. After not teaching for two and half weeks and mainly having spoken Dutch in the meantime, I wasn't really confident it would be that easy again. I've come to realise lately that constantly switching between different languages doesn't have a very positive effect on my English or my Dutch. Moreover, before I had even taught one class three of my lessons had already been cancelled which didn't improve my confidence at all. In the end, it turned out all right, of course, because after a few minutes I got right back into the teaching mindset - and my first lesson was quite easy and a lot of fun which also helped a lot. I am proud to announce that as of this week I've finally got my long-desired 25-hour working week! And that's not even counting my extra work designing lessons! But as a lot of lessons get cancelled I'm aiming for some more hours a week.

On Thursday, we went to our first 'NL-borrel', an aperitivo for Dutch people which is organised by an association for Dutch people living in Milan. Olaf quite liked it, but I really didn't feel comfortable there. I'm just not used to hearing people speak Dutch around me anymore - or rather, used to having people around who can understand me when I speak Dutch! The thought alone makes me panic and paranoid at the same time, I don't want people to be able to understand when I criticise them! Anyway, by the look of them (because I must admit I jumped to the conclusion I didn't really want to get to know any of them the moment I walked in and didn't make any effort to meet anyone at all) they were mostly serious business people who are in Milan because they are really cool and have got very good jobs. In short, I decided they were yuppie 'ballen' and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I'm afraid I was obviously pushing Olaf to leave and they probably didn't like me much either. Which is fine by me, as I'm trying to banish everything Dutch from my daily life because it has a too negative effect on my English, so I'm obviously not looking for any new Dutch friends in Milan anyway! I've got Dutch friends in the Netherlands who I treasure very much, basta. But I'm sorry about Thursday, darling, you know I am! You're right you should go alone next time.

Friday was the last day of the week and getting back into the rhythm had been quite tiring so even though Belinda had invited me to go clubbing I decided to pass and get some rest. But then it turned out we were going to have aperitivo with Olaf's study mates at Le Trottoir - which obviously meant we would go dancing afterwards, because Le Trottoir has usually got great live music and is pretty much a guarantee for a good night out. Plus, it's around the corner. So in the end we danced (part of) the night away and went to bed around 2.30, completely beat. This meant I slept late yesterday and besides groceries I didn't really do anything - although I should mention Olaf and I both set out to get new scarves at the market, each of us with a pretty good idea of what we looking for in our minds, and he found exactly what he wanted and I didn't...*grrrrr*

Yesterday evening, we stayed in and started our Lord of the Rings marathon (we watched 1,5 movie) which we'll hopefully finish tonight. Today we got up reasonably early because we both wanted to get some work done (I had to catch up on making exercises to a couple of issues of The Economist because of Christmas break), really needed to clean the house and Olaf wanted to bake some apple pies as a treat to his study mates to celebrate his birthday on Tuesday. I'm happy to say we've both finished these chores by now so we're getting back to LotR now - aren't those movies just amazing?!?!?! I'll write another post soon, hopefully about my first Italian lesson - if all goes well, Lauren, one of my Australian colleagues, and I are starting an Italian course with our Italian colleague Paola (as our teacher) on Wednesday. This means I'm finally going to start improving my Italian in a structured and efficient way! Whoohoo! Until then, I hope you all had less trouble getting started again than I did.

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