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Archives for April 2010

April 18, 2010 by Kat

Nature always wins

It must be spring, because I am seeing flowers everywhere. Flowers on the bushes and trees, flowers for sale from street vendors, flowers on our balcony. I love it. These flowers for you today are with some Roman ruins of Ostia Antica near Rome. Ostia was the first colony of Rome, a port town on the Tiber river. We spent a day exploring these interesting pathways and buildings.

Seeing the spring flowers in the setting of the Roman ruins makes me think. Everything man builds, once complete, starts to decay. It’s amazing that, two thousand years later, even this much of the Romans remains with us. But in nature, there is an ongoing cycle of renewal. After the darkness of winter comes the flowering of spring. After a severe forest fire comes the new trees. Nature’s creative energy always wins. It wins over these ruins, where the plants and trees have taken root and have been transforming the place back to a natural state. While for man, our creative endeavors begin a slow decay as soon as they are completed, we are constantly fighting nature.

Just something to make you think…

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: flowers, Italy, nature, Ostia Antiqua, Rome, ruins, spring

April 17, 2010 by Kat

Night Lights

You just never know what you might find when you look up. A beautiful spring garden, growing over the street lights on a street in Rome. One evening on our trip we wandered around the old city, to get a feel for it at night.

This year of travel I have fallen in love with night photography. There is such a different feel at night. Different illumination and shadows. More contrast between light and dark. A challenge of it’s own. But the result… beautiful.

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: flowers, Italy, night, Rome, streetlight

April 16, 2010 by Kat

Beautifully Backlit Boy

Occasionally, when I look through photos from a trip, something just jumps out at me. Something different, striking and wholly of my own vision. The Kat Eye View.

This photo of Brandon at the bottom of Pozzo di San Patrizio (St. Patrick’s Well) in Orvieto is one of those photos. A new favorite. I saw the light, I saw the opportunity, I asked Brandon to pause for a moment and… magic. To me, this photo is magic.

When all of the elements of your art come together in a new, creative way you just have to enjoy the moment. Of the thousands of photos I take in the course of the year, I might only get a couple of these moments. I’m happy to share this one with you today.

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: Brandon, Italy, light, magic, Orvieto, Pozzo di San Patrizio, St. Patrick's Well

April 15, 2010 by Kat

One Year in Italy

What’s in this jar? Gelato spoons. 220 gelato spoons to be exact. Approximately one year of gelato consumption for a family of three, not counting the occasional cone we ate or spoon we accidentally threw away. This is a visual representation of our first year here, but there is so much more that has filled this year than can fit this jar.

One year ago today, I stumbled off the plane bleary eyed with two suitcases and a disoriented cat in tow to begin this adventure. I was a few days ahead of Patrick and Brandon, to get into the apartment and get things a little bit set up for when they arrived, while Patrick was finishing up with the movers and getting our house in Corvallis ready for rental.

I had no idea what I was in for.

In this year, I have learned:

– There is nothing like moving to another country, with a different culture and language, to humble you. You go from being a confident, independent, contributing member of society to a person who literally doesn’t know how to pay the bills or find an item in the grocery store. Everything is different, and you have no frame of reference. No experience to pull from. No language skills to work through new situations. You have to learn to laugh at your ignorance, accept where you are, because otherwise you will have a nervous breakdown.

– To throw out assumptions of “how things are done” because you will encounter, over and over again, that they are done differently here. It opens your eyes to how much we really do assume or take for granted by growing up in one culture. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense to you, you have to accept it and move on because doing it differently doesn’t mean doing it “wrong.” You will never be able to change the culture you are in to fit your own comfort zone.

– There will be things you love and things you hate about living here. You have to try it all and then revel in the things you love while accepting the things you hate. I have discovered I love the Italian pizza, real parmesan cheese freshly grated, visiting new places, creative store window displays, art exhibits, hanging out in the piazza of a city to feel the energy, to name just a few things. I have learned to accept the convoluted, confusing beaurocracy you run into, stores closed on Sundays, the passionate responses you get from Italians that quickly blow over, cigarette smoking everywhere, the non-standardization of electrical outlets and plugs.

– Travel is expansive. Travel changes your horizons. Travel gives you an insight into new places and people. Travel is nothing like living in the place you visit. Nothing.

– Many of the things we fill our lives with are not needed. I’m talking about things and activities and people altogether with this statement. By completely changing your environment, you can start to see the essential pieces of your life that are important and which you can easily live without. For example, we lived for two months without our household goods shipment, buying only the essential things we needed. We have a whole lot more in storage in Corvallis, too. But in those two months, there wasn’t much of all of that “stuff” we couldn’t live without. (Except maybe a wine bottle opener. That was at the top of the list of items we bought right away.)

So many ideas are popping into my head to share that I know I can’t share them all today. It’s like they each need their own little essay, maybe I should write them all down and put it in a book someday with some of my photographs.

I think I can sum up the learning from this first year in Italy with one word: Acceptance. Of who I am, of where I am, of the people around me, of the situations I find myself in, of ideas other than mine, of my own ideas. I can’t think of a better thing for me to learn at this time of my life.

I can only wonder, with a smile on my face, what the next year will bring.

Footnote:
I’ve mentioned previously that I’m participating the the Creative Every Day 2010 challenge through CreativeEveryDay.com. I’ve written a guest blog post that will be posted there today. If you have time, stop by there and read it and answer the questions I’ve posed. I’d love to see your answers!

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: Creative Every Day, culture, expatriate, gelato, Italy, language, personal growth, travel

April 14, 2010 by Kat

Functional Beauty

Security and art, all in one. If you are going to have bars on your windows, you might as well make them pretty. That seemed to be the theme in Assisi.

This is the first of images from our vacation last week to Assisi, Orvieto, Civita di Bagnoregio and Rome. I’ve barely, barely scratched the surface of images from this trip, this is going to be a fun but time consuming adventure!

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: Assisi, Italy, reflection, vine, window, wrought iron

April 13, 2010 by Kat

A Final Peek

Sometimes I feel a little voyeuristic, peeking into people’s lives with my camera while we are travelling. But I love to look inside, if only for a moment, to snatch a glimpse of the lives of the people in the towns that we visit. Doesn’t it make you wonder – who lives here? How old is this building? What interesting stories could this place and these people tell? It sparks the imagination.

This is the last of the photos I’ll share from our day trip to Brescia. I hope you enjoyed the “peek” into another place in Italy!

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: Brescia, courtyard, door, Italy

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