My bf becomes a star...

This was a tough week. A very tough one, I'd say. But it's Tuesday again, I want to (and need to) move on. Thank you for your comments, emails, for your support. I didn't reply to you, I didn't leave comments on your blogs because I had to concentrate on only one thing.

It's not a Valentine's Day, but this post will be entirely dedicated to my bf, who slowly becomes a Very Important Person here, in our small Siracusa. He, as you know, is a lawyer and despite his young age, starts to distinguish himself as a young, ambitious and extrememly nice professional. I can bet that when you think "lawyer", the first words-associations that come to your mind are: money, even more MONEY, success, a big house, no, not a house, a mansion sounds much better and loads of work. Well, I will disappoint you: on this list, only a lot of work is the factor that characterizes this profession. My bf works hard. At the beginning this caused many rows, disagreements between us. I insisted on having him more at home and not just for meals, he kept telling and explaining that this is what his work involves: long hours in the firm, long meetings with clients. Plus with the competition one cannot afford to decline seeing a client for this or that reason... So finally we made a compromise: no coming back home after 9.00 pm, free Saturday afternoon and Sunday. And this seems to work : ) I'm pretty busy myself with classes, plus Artù now so I believe we spend enough time with each other.

Anyway, this all to tell you that finally his work bears fruit. Not in terms of money and earnings (yet) but surely in terms of prestige and respect he's earning from other lawyers. He was asked to write an article for a national newspapaer for Italian lawyers:



He's invited to take part in conferences not only here, in Sicily but also in Rome and Milan. Last night he came back from Milan and despite the fact that he didn't have time at all to buy me little something, these are the gadgets he received and which I became an owner of:

1. A fancy, original piggy bank made of ceramics


2. A strong, water-resistant laptop bag


3. Cute packet of jelly candies in an elegant box:




4. Beautiful little blue notebook to use at the meetings:



5. A packet of mini-crayons, beacause who wouldn't like to doodle in this brand new notebook during these boring, long meetings : )


What's more, during the last conference, a serious Italian newspaper, Sole 24 ore interviewed him and a fragment of this interview was actually published! You can see it here. Unfortunately, it's in Italian. Don't ask me what it's about, it's too ambigious and complicated...

Anyhow, this all to say I'm utterly happy and proud of YOU : )) I love you!!!

PS. I want to welcome back my dearest Jordan, who started a new blog (finally!!)

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My birthday, my presents, and some update! : )

This will be quite a long post...

I know it took me a while, but here I am, finally! : ) I have started to advertise my lessons, especially among people who work in the tourism industry who, as you can imagine, are a big part of the population in Sicily in general. Some of them have already responded, and so I'm getting really busy: in the morning I'm (still, for the last 4 weeks) in the office, and then from 5.00pm I work as a private tutor. I love it and I don't have time to waste! : )

Anyway, girls, I had a wonderful time during this little gathering with my "second family" and my closest friends : ) I think these pictures (some of them are not of a perfect quality, we forgot to take the camera with us, so used Ra's IPhone) speak for themselves:

1. Some of my invitees, i.e. all the people I care about most when in Italy (unfortunately not all could be here with me that day):

I had a problem with the ONE wish I had to think before blowing off the candles.. there are so many of them these times...




3. And then... PRESENTS time!!!!


The necklace from my collegues:

and in this little box...

I found this little beuty from my bf... :)


.. somthing for the senses by Coloniali from my dearest friends:


and a bag from Benetton from my bf's parents, sister and her husband:

Aprt from those, I received also a beautiful plum coloured coat by Benetton (together with the bag) that you can see in one of the pictures above and a violet shawl for colder days. from another colleague of mine. I love all of them!

Then, yesterday, we went to Ragusa, a little town in Sicily, where we participated in the "Buskers Ragusa Ibla" event. Travelplan website describes it this way: "Since 1994, Ragusa Ibla’s streets and squares have been invaded by street artists from all over the world every October for a week: jugglers, acrobats, clowns and others all perform in exciting shows." It's a wonderful occasion the city gives to local artists to exhibit their works and present themselves to the public.


.. I just couldn't resist this Dalmatian with a red ribbon (on the right there's a real fortune teller..at work!)...



... and we also performed! : )




You should visit the website for some wonderful pictures!

And in the end, when ironing at home, we had some rain here, and then, we spotted this:

Mother Nature.. isn't She great?!

That's all from me, my Dears! Have a wonderful Sunday! : )

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Marriage, wedding, getting married...

Yesterday afternoon I received another invitation for a wedding. Yesterday evening I received an email from one of my best friends informing she got engaged last weekend... Wow. Wherever I turn, wherever I look or whatever conversation I hear, there's always uttered THAT word starting with an "M". I mean really. Ok, I am 27 and it's high time I started at least thinking about that. On the other hand, I live in Sicily where the average age of the couples who decide to get married is: 30-35 for women and 35-40 for men (no, I'm not kidding), so there's no rush. I mean I want to get married, I really do but I think in my situation it wouldn't change much and organising all that thing would only trigger problems... Where? Here in Italy or there, in Poland? Who invite? Only the closest relatives and friends or also people who invited me for their weedings in the past but with who I haven't had any contact at all for long years (but who may feel offended if I don't invite them). Why? Just because I should or because I want? I think I'm getting a depression.

Take a deep breath... OK... Better. Here are the facts. I'm living with my bf, we are happy. We aren't thinking about having children now. We want to buy a new, bigger appartment in a year or two. This is the goal now. I'm 100% certain that getting married in our case wouldn't change a single thing. Besides I still feel a (little) girl not a woman. And more than a wedding ring, I would prefer getting a dog.

And at first I would look like that:


And then after a few months like that:

Images by Getty Images:

"ring", "panic", "a girl with a dog 1", "a girl with a dog 2"

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Etna!

I'm a big fan of skiing. I have started to practise this sport when I was like 4 or 5 years old. Then kept on going on my winter holidays every year, first with my parents, then with my friends and bfs. It may seem amazing but none of my previous bfs knew how to ski and they never really wanted to learn.. Horrible, since my love for skiing was too big to quit it and we usually spend the winter holidays separately... Then I came here and it really seemed that I closed this chapter of my life definitely. Everyone was saying: "Yeah, you can ski on Etna but since you surely are a good skier, you are just going to regret going there... no good conditions, nothing to compare with the Italian Alps". And so I believed... I believed all those people who never ever tried skiing in their lives and who never went to Etna in winter. But this year, I said to my bf (who has never skiied in his life before): "Oh, come on! Let's see what Etna looks like in winter". And we went. The weather was great, there was lots of snow, not many people and the ski lift was really modern. We rented the skis and my bf fell in love : ) It was 2 weeks ago. Yesterday we came back. Just look at these pics...

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Why Sicily?

Yesterday one of the American students at school added me as her friend on the Facebook. I was glad, it made me feel appreciated and esteemed, even though the girl is like 8 years younger than me. Today she said she took a look at my pictures and liked them a lot. Then, all of a sudden she added: "And I saw your bf... He's so cute! Now I know why you had decided to come to Sicily!". Well, I just blushed and smiled but actually that's the sheer and inescapable truth- I came here for him! To be honest I never really regretted that decision. Of course I have my better and worse days, at times some moments of hesitation and I feel quite homesick when the Easter or Christmas time comes and I can't get back to my family in Poland, but on the whole it's an amazing adventure and experience that I'm undergoing! I'm extremely lucky having a steady job, wonderful colleagues and a pleasant working environment. I feel lucky being able to claim that my boyfriends' friends became my friends and that his family accepted me fully and completely (although we aren't married or engaged). But the best is that I still feel like during the first meeting with my bf in Rome more than 4 years ago. That despite the fact that we live together and see each other every day, there's still an enormous amount of love, respect between us. Of course there are ups and downs and we quarrel quite a lot (mostly because I love everything to be neat and tidy... and my bf... well, not always... or because of some cultural background differences) but then we kiss and make up and we plan on our next holidays or another short but romantic weekend in Milan... And then it always dawns on me... It makes sense, I say to myself.. and I'm happy. Like now when after the whole day of school and lessons, I'll call him to ask to take away some pizza for dinner when coming back from work since I'm too worn out to prepare anything... : ) And then we'll watch sth together and just relax. Another idle, agreeable evening... : )

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