Archive for April, 2008
I’m inviting you to take a peak at my new little toy, here.
I decided I was ready for my own domain. And also ready to centralize everything into “Tina’s World” instead of keeping the topics of tango and italy separate. I didn’t want to write about Italy on the tango blog, and I didn’t want to write about tango on the Italy blog. So I thought I’d just come up with a new one and see how it goes.
What that means for this blog right here I don’t know. It has been with me through a lot of things in life, and it contains some valuable information for people who want to take the leap to bell’Italia. It’s also tied to my favorite website, expatsinitaly. No giant decisions just yet.
But for now keep note of that new address as I’ll be playing around with the other site quite a bit. Hopefully I don’t do something stupid and shut down the whole blogosphere. 
ha ha
April 15th, 2008
You know the saying, “Thoughts become things”? Well, yeah. They do.
Imagine: I’m in Buenos Aires, living and translating while I wait for my move to Italy. I’m in this big beautiful house too.
Life is good. Freelance is good.
Well, I’d better get back to work…
April 8th, 2008
A couple weeks ago at a milonga here in Buenos Aires, I accepted a dance from a man who I could have sworn was Argentine. He certainly danced like it. I was surprised when in between songs he told me he was from Florence. What a coincidence, I told him, I’m moving there in September! I told him I was an Italian descendant waiting for my Italian citizenship, blah blah blah. Since I’ve been trying to speak Spanish here, my Italian was peppered with it. As a result, he thought I was from Buenos Aires and I couldn’t convince him otherwise.
I saw him again at another milonga a week later and we danced again. We exchanged e-mails so I could be kept in the loop about Tango in Florence, because apparently it’s quite good – it’s just hard to find information about it on the internet. As we were saying goodbye, he said, “Se è più facile per te, mi puoi scrivere in Spagnolo, perché lo capisco.” (“If it’s easier for you, you can write to me in Spanish, because I understand it.”) “Ah – no no… per me è più facile in Italiano,” I said. (“It’s easier for me in Italian”). He laughed and didn’t seem to believe me.
Ah well. What can I do. Anyway, I was worried about not being able to find good Tango in Florence, but if there are others who dance as well as he does, I think I’ll be okay.
April 5th, 2008
Wow.
Two years ago today I was in Florence, sitting on a train (to go visit relatives in Pistoia and later Lucca), confused, crying, wondering what this big change was that was taking place inside of me.
I longed to stay in that city, that country. I needed to be there. It was me. This was the beginning of a huge shift in my life. Everything I had made important in life was no longer important. I just had to move to Italy.
It’s amazing to think of all the things that have happened since then. I went home, remained anguished for another month and a half and one day, on Memorial Day to be exact, I sat in front of the computer and did it – I booked a ticket to move to Italy for that September. It was 2006.
A whirlwind of changes took place. I gave up all of the previous security I had created for myself, with my apartment, my relationship, my job. And I went to Italy.
I threw myself into the arms of Perugia and its tango community and they embraced me with all their hearts. I opened myself up to the riches of the earth on a daily basis. I flourished as woman.
Then an Argentine man swooped in from Seattle, reminding me of what it is to be in love, and I suddenly found myself in Buenos Aires instead. After some time I found myself back in Seattle, Exhausted. Trying to catch my breath and make sense of what was around me as the American world ran past me, my relationship falling apart.
I became a translator.
And now here I am in Buenos Aires, where I’ve been since the beginning of February.
I’m preparing to move back to Italy in September.
These past two years have felt like two months. They also felt like an eternity.
Life is strange.
Delightful and strange.
April 1st, 2008