Kat Eye Studio

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Angles and Lines

I love all of the angles and lines that were in this corner, and the little bits of stucco that were left off to show the old building underneath. Just a little taste of what the building truly is on the inside. You see this quite often in Italy, and a lot in Brescia, just an arch of bricks here, a corner there to show the original stone or brick work. Enough to know that this really is an old place, without letting the entire building sit out in the elements to eventually crumble to the ground.

As an added bonus today, I share this quote I read this morning in Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter:
The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lovely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow.
Today I am blessed.

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Back with a Bell

I love the monochromatic scheme of this photo… in the weathered bike and bell, and wall, in Brescia. What stories do this image tell you? We each make up our own. That’s what I love about these images.

We just got back from our week long vacation to Rome and Umbria. I had every intention of scheduling blog posts for the entire week we were gone but time got away from me. It was a wonderful week of experiencing something new (or ancient, depending on your perspective!) and I look forward to sharing some images after I sort through the gazillions of photos I took. I don’t even want to think about the number!

(By the way, try explaining a word like “gazillion” to a non-native speaker sometime, it makes you realize how much a language is absorbed, just soaked from the environment, not intentionally learned.)

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City Portrait

I tend to like these photos through gates and arches and doorways. It’s as if the city itself is both the frame and the subject. You get a sense of being outside and looking inside, but the twist is that you are already inside, just by the nature of seeing through the arch. Enjoy the perspective, and the little view of the duomo piazza in Brescia.