April 2, 2013

  • The wanderer returns...

    ...to the blog.

    I can't believe I haven't updated this since October 2011. That's an incredibly long time now. I suppose that's round about the time that living abroad stopped feeling like something unusual, something with lots of tales to tell, and started feeling like, well, normal life. And normal life it is, seeing as I am still here, doing the same thing. Lucky I love it then!

    A very quick summary of things that have happened since I last wrote about that trip round Veneto in 2011. "Interesting" things, that is.

    Trips
    Christmas 2011: Back to London as usual for some family time
    New year 2011/2012: Spent in Berlin at my 3rd Taize European Meeting 

    January-March 2012: Trips to Trieste and Venice Carnival, and Mum and Dad visit and we go to Gorizia and Nova Gorica (in Slovenia) and Aquileia and Grado

    April: Venice again, then Easter in Taize, France, followed by a quick trip back to the UK to go to my dear friend Katherine's wedding to Jon in Durham. A few weeks later I was in Ljubljana, Slovenia for another Taize meeting

    May: Discovered the nearest Ikea at Gorizia - cue new shelves for my growing TEFL book collection, another trip to Trieste (this time to visit the chilling concentration camp there for the first time) and general end of year shenanigans in Udine. 

     June: A lovely long weekend spent at Lake Bled in Slovenia with Sean

    July: I accompanied a group of 14 teenage boys to Paris for a few days as part of my second summer with Our World.

    July/August: 6 weeks teaching English to 12-17 year old international students at summer school. We held an Olympic torch. 

    September: 3 weeks volunteering at the Taize community in France - a mixture of cleaning and closing down the family area, preparing the church for services, working in the shop wrapping pottery parcels and singing in the music group preparing for a televised mass on French TV.  My 8th trip to the Taize community since 2008.

     

    October: A new school year. Back to Udine. Trips to Venice/Trieste become more frequent to enable me to go to Anglican services at the churches there (weekly in Venice, monthly in Trieste).  AA&C come to visit and we explore Friuli a bit. 

     

     November: Remembrance Day trip to Venice turns into quite the adventure when the highest acqua alta recorded in years puts in an appearance. Queue wading through thigh deep water all morning just to get to St George's. Rather a wet experience! 

    December: Overnight trip to Venice, enabling me to go to the Carol Service before flying to London the following day

     

    Christmas 2012: Back to London again, and this time with more time at home as I didn't go to the European Meeting in Rome but had a lovely long time at home instead, including a trip to Horsham to see the rest of the family after a long time not! 

    Jan 2013: Back to Udine, experienced my first Pignarul (Italian ephiphany celebrations involve what we do on Bonfire night - Bonfires with an old lady "Guy" equivalent to burn).

    Keith Haring exhibition in Udine

    Feb 2013: Return to Verona for first time since 2010. 2 days after my 28th birthday.

    Meet a wonderful couple at church in Venice and spend the day with them.  

    March 2013: Back to Verona again for second time since 2010, plus Lake Garda. 

     Easter trip to the Cote d'Azur, based in Nice - which deserves a separate entry and is the reason I find myself back here...watch this space!

    Oh and I'm sure other things have happened during that period, many things in fact for sure, but the easiest way to recap was just to go through my main photo albums... can't possibly fill in all the details now. Must keep up better with this in future as it's now a historic record for me from 2001 on!