ITA Blog #5- "Be kind to one another"

The other day I was reading a book for my history research. It's a pretty famous book by the contemporary sociologist Zygmunt Bauman: yep, I'm talking about "Liquid Modernity". So I got to the chapter that discuss "work" and its role thought time and especially it the new "liquid society" as he calls it, and at a certain point I read something very interesting...

" The most dreadful disasters now strike at random, picking their victims with a most bizarre logic or no visible logic at all, scattering their blows capriciously, so that there is no way to anticipate who is doomed and who will be saved. The present-day uncertainty is a powerlful individualizing force.

[...] Contemporary fears, anxieties and grievances are made to be suffered alone. They do not add up, do not culminate into a common cause, have no specific, let alone obvious, address. "

This is the thing: the contemporary society has created so much uncertainty that the people have to fight alone every day for their problems and the others "can't" care because they have their problems themselves. Therefore in the end "you do you and I do me". 

But is this really what we need? Is this actually the best for us? Can we really survive alone in this crazy society? 

I don't think we can. I'm pretty sure we can't. As Aristotle said many centuries ago, "human beings are social animals". We need the society to survive. We need a group, we need to help each other. 

This is, according to me, one of the biggest problems of our world today: there's simply too much hate and not enoguh love. Of course in the job world is important to be copetitive to keep your position in this uncertain society, but this does not mean you can't be nice to your coworkers. 

We're all going through something, everyday. We all have our troubles, our problems, our differences. And this means that we all need each other. In different ways maybe, and in different times, but we all need, at some point, some help. Even just a kind word can make the difference. 

"Why are you telling us all this?" You might be asking. 

Well, I had a pretty weird month and an half, some really great things happened, but also some very annoying and stressfull ones. And what I realized is that there were days in which the presence or the words of a loved one could make all the differnce. 

We don't have to do a great gesture or to change the world today. But if we try to be nice during our day, to smile to the people we meet in the street, to listen to our friends or our coworkers, to call our parents or grandparents more often, to leave our problems out of the door when we come home and we go in ready to have a comfy and happy evening with the others.

I promise you, you don't need much to make someone happy. Just try for yourself, you'll see how easy it is. And when other people are happy or at least less worried, you'll feel better too. 

Because you know, you did a good thing.

It's all for today, have a great day, see you soon

Fennec Fox

P.S.:  The title of this post, "Be kind to one another", is what Ellen DeGeneres says at the end of her shows. I like her a lot and I love what she does and the messages she spreads.

P.P.S.: So what did I actually do in the past month? Let's see...

...On the 31st of October I went to an amazing Halloween Feast at Alfonsine, near Ravenna...there were ghosts hanging from the street lights, whitches flying over the canal, fires burning avery now and then to worm you up a little bit, pretty cool street performances...and then there was a huge parade and eveyone was in costume and it was so much fun!!....

...Then on the 4th of November, I went to eat sushi with my friends from college in Padova and it was really good!! (we went to that specific place because one of my friends said he tried most of the sushi restaurants in  Padova and that one is the best). We even got the change to tour a bit the city and I liked it a lot (I had never been there before)!!....

...I had my first college exam!! The written part was on the 3rd of November and then the oral part was on the 14th; they both went really well, because the exam in general was pretty easy. The thing is I didn't know that before taking it, so I studied a lot and it was a pretty stressfull couple of weeks...I'm glad it's over now....

...Then Laurel came to visit! On the weekend of the 11th of November, one of my USA friends, currently in exchange in the UK, came to visit me in Venice!! We had such a great time, I'm so glad she foud the time to come here and spend some time with me!!...

Laurel and I with the S. Mark Basilic

Laurel and I with the "Ponte dei Sospiri" in the back

Bigoli for lunch

 

"Acqua Alta" Book shop

 

Laurel and I with on the Rialto Bridge

Christmas Trees!!

A souvenir from a nice lady ahah

 

The typical Saint Martin biscuit

 

Wandering around the Biennale

 

A visit to Muran...the Island where the glass is made!

...I had a great time hanging out with some of my best friends! I'm so glad we managed to find some time to meet!!...

 

 ...And I guess that's all for today, thanks for reading...bye

ITA Blog #4-Trains, Trains, and...trains again

Trains.

Have you ever been on a train? 

It might seem like a stupid question, but if you  live in the USA and you've never travelled to Europe, you probably have never really travelled long distance by train. I mean there are the undergrounds in the big cities and sometimes even some over ground small trains, but nothing that is longer than 30 minutes. 

In Europe instead we have a huge reilway system that can take you almost everywhere. People use trains daily, because it's cheper than a car and on the train you can sleep, study, read or whatever, all things that you can't do while you're driving. And when somebody goes to college in a nearby town, he or she might decides to do "il/la pendolare", which means he/she will still live at home and will take the train everyday to go to the lectures. Some people have to become "pendolare" when they are even younger, for example if you live in a small town or village that doesn't have high schools (or sometimes even middle schools) you need to take the train or the public busses to go to school everyday. 

But I was never among them. I grew up in a pretty big city, close to the town center so I could go everywhere biking or walking. I think I took the train a few times to go to my aunt's house in Bologna or when we went to Paris and took the night train. But other than that, not many trains in my life. You can easily understand now how taking a train became a special event, something to be excited for. I loved them. Their sound, that helps you to sleep. Their gentle moving that let you read without making you sick. I prepared days in advance for that event: I decided what to wear, what to bring inside my backpack, which backpack to bring. One time I remember missing a train to go home from Bologna. I was about ten and I was with my cousin (who is about my age) and my aunt. It was snowing and it was pretty cold and the taxi was late so we got to the train station just in time to see the train leave. That was pretty heart breaking for the younger me. (We took the next train and nothing really happened, but still I will never forget that "wilde" experience).

And then what happened? I went to college. In Venice. Two hours and an half by car and three hours by train (switching train in the middle) away from home. Of course I can't be a "pendolare" it's too far away and to tiring, so I'm staying in a small apartment in Venice, as you know. But still I'll go back home every week or every other week and this means only one thing: trains. 

Taking a train, printing a ticket for the train, finding a way to fit everything in small backpacks I can easily take on the train, this is my new normal. And I still love trains. I love the way they make me feel. Like a traveller, an explorer always leaving something behind for something new ahead of you. 

Taking a train, it's a lot like starting college. You leave your family and all your friends behind, on the platform waiving goodbye with (maybe) tears in their eyes. You leave them behind to jup on a train that will take you somewhere, but you don't really know how the journey will be. You jump anyway. You try not to cry because the people you left behind can't see you. You are alone, indepent, all grown up. And this is exciting and terrifying at the same time. You love deciding alone what to do and what not to do, but sometimes you miss the comforts of being at home. And this is all fine. 

As the train tells you while it's leaving the platform. It's normal. It knows it, because it saw many people before you in the same situation. Everything will be fine. Everyting will be fine. It keeps repeting it in a endless nenia while the engines are working. And you end up beliving it. I'll be fine. I can do this. Everything will be fine. And a small weird smile appears on your face. Everything will truly be fine. Oh men, how I love trains!

That's all for now, 

love you lots,

see you soon,

Fennec Fox

ITA Blog #3- What if?

 I've always been intrigued by the random quality of our lives, by how many fleeting encounters we have, or almost have, that can change what we do or where we go or who we love. Some of my very closest relationships could so easily not have happened. [...]
I always find myself wandering how many of the lives have glanced against mine before, or will do so in the future, whether, as Tess asks in Miss you, "...if we all had a tracker device, a tiny light that you could see from space, then everyone's paths would loop and intertwine?"

Kate Eberlen

 
 Hey everyone! How are you? Ready for school to start? For everything to be back to normal? Ir already hating the usula rutine? I'm feeling kind of scared and excited at the same time. This year I won't go back to the usual rutine. As some of you might know, I'll start University this fall in Venice. So new city, new school, new people. New everything. Soon I'll move there and start attending some of the "welcome freshman" activities, but not quite yet. I wanted to write this post because a few hours ago I finished reading a book and I needed a place to write some of thoughts down...so here they are...

Do you believe in faith? Or destiny? Or however you might call it? Do you believe that random people you meet everyday can turn out to be very important people in your life? Or maybe in a dark moment of your life a smile of a word from a stranger can make you snap out of your limbo-like situation?
This and many others are the questions that Miss you* asks you through its pages. And now that I've closed the last one, in a mixture of smiles and tears, I still have to figure out what's my position on this matter.

Thinking about it even buying this book was a random act that could have easily never happened. I was at Gatwick, one of London's airports, at 5 a.m. in the morning and I had to wait until 6:30 for my gate number. I couldn't sleep so I decided to wander around the stores and shops.... after a while I spotted a small shop full of books on the other side of the airport hall. I managed to walk through the families with huge bags and the campers with small and practical backpacks and I finally reached my destination. It was a very small shop, one of those that sell mostly newspapers.

And it was pretty crowded so I started looking at the books that were on a little trail outside the shop and there it is...a big white book with a simple cover and a simple tittle wrote in red letters...I picked it up and after looking at it for a while I couldn't find any summary of the story. So I just decided to start reading it and in a few seconds I found myself walking in Florence at the first lights of the day...and in that moment I knew I had to buy the book. So as you can see, totally random.

So yeah, I think I believe in faith, or destiny, or however you want to call it. I do. And I believe in the power of words and of actions even towards strangers. We meet million of thousands of people in our lives. Especially nowadays that you can travel so easily or meet people online. And we don't know, we can't know all of them. We don't even talk to all of them. But to the people we actually talk to we have to do it in the nicest way possible. 'Cause we never know what they are going through. And they might turn out to be the best friends you have ever had or the love of your life or just a stranger who took a photo of you. But however it might go you are still a part of their life.

How crazy is that? I met some of my best friends at parties or cultural events, what if I hadn’t gone there? What if they hadn’t? What it I hadn’t set at that table or asked for that water bottle? And it’s even crazier if you consider your trips abroad. What if you choose a different hotel or hostel or host family? What if you decided not to go? What if that person hadn’t been there in that day when you thought you weren’t good enough? What if…? 

Our entire life is full of what ifs and that's scary and exciting at the same time, and that's ok. In the end everything in our life is scary and exciting at the same time, because we never know how it's going to end, what is going to happen, what is on the other side... and I think this is the beauty of it. 

*The book is called "Miss you" and it was written by Kate Eberlen. 

Thanks for reading, that's all for today,

Fennec Fox

ITA Blog #2- Goodbyes and Hellos

 Se sei così coraggioso da dire addio, 

la vita ti ricompenserà con un nuovo ciao

P. Coelho

Hey everyone! I know...I know...I told you I was going to write more often but I was just very busy and then I wanted to enjoy my free time and holidays, I admit. Anyway a lot has happened since the last time I wrote so I'll try to be as brief as possible 'cose I don't want to bore you.

GOODBYE HIGH SCHOOL...

Class of 2017!!

On the 4th of July 2017, after my oral test (the last part of my Finals), I officially finished high school! Here is something I wrote the next day...









5/07/'17

Dear beloved High School,

I really don't know when to start...so I'll just start from the beginning: I clearly remember the fisrt day I entered your huge halls and classrooms. I was so scared! I set near people I knew from Middle School or even Primary School. And the teacher all seemed very nice but also very demanding: they weren't treating us like kids anymore. 

Then it got all fun and messy as the years went by, the anxious moments before the tests, the interesting lessons, the amizing jockes, the trips, the classmates that became a second family. Those years were great: I changed so much and so much happened but it wouldn't have been the same without you or with a different High School. 

So thank you so much for always being there. 

I'll miss you. Yeah I said it. I will. Even if only yesterday I was flying happily at home after finishing my last exam. I alredy feel nostalgic. Because I know that from now on it will never be the same. Now a new chapter of my life will start. University is going to be great, but it will never be you. 

Lots of love,

Ari

Me and my classmates: 5^A!!

Last day of school!!

Yoshi, me and Giulia

Me after my oral exam in front of the school!

Me and my classmates saying goodabye to the teachers

HELLO UMBRIA!

Lago Trasimeno from the tower of Castiglione del Lago

From the 12th to the 19th of July I then went with my family in Umbria to spend some quality time together. We went camping on the Trasimeno Lake. At the beginning I was really scheptical and I didn't want to go. But then I relized it was probably our last holidays together because from next year I'll be in college and I'll go on vacastion with my friends.
So I put on a smile and said "yes" to all the opportunities that arrived....we had a great time! We visited the Isola Maggiore, the main island of the lake, then we went into a cavern under one of the historical cities around the lake, we also went to a festival and we found many great spots near the sea where sit or bath.
This trip reminded me that family will always be there, no matter what, so it's important to try to keep good relationship with everyone.

The view of the camp from our bungalow

My sister and I

Read to go underground!!

Some meditation...

My beautiful parents

Our family and the Roman theater of Gubbio

Sunset at Passignano

My family and the sunset

My sister and I in Passignano

HELLO LONDON....GOODBYE FRIENDS

London by night

I then attended an intenational summer program in Greenwich (London, UK). It was a two weeks summer school with lessons in the morning and visits in the afternoons, it also had some special Journalism Workshop. It was a great experience: I got to meet so many new people and I to see some pretty cool places.
Yesterday it was the last day, though, and today I had my flight home...so, as usual, I got this weird feeling: on one side I don't want to live, 'cose I need more time to spend with the friends I made there and to discover new secret spots of the city; on the other side I miss my family and my friends back home and I can't wait to see them again and to tell them all about my trip! So after hugging everyone and  crying a little bit, especially when I had to say goodbye to my roommates Valentina and Giorgia, I got on the plane home.

Shopping street in London

On the top of the Tate Modern Gallery

On the London Eye

Me, Giorgia and Valentina at West Minster

Southbank

During the "London Street Art Tour"

Valentina, Me and Emanuele (photo bomb)

London Eye at night

Me and Valentina in an open market

Cambridge river adventure

Buckingham Palace

Julija, me, Valentina and Giorgia at Covent Garden

My roommate and I with the Royal Family (Madame Tussauds Museum)

George Clooney, Valentina, me and Giorgia

"E.T. call home"

Just like the Beatles..

Last day of school

Harry potter studios: on the Hogwarts Express

THERE'S A NEW STAR IN THE SKY...

So yeah, there's still one more goodbye that I need to mention...while I was away our family dog, Nuvola (Cloud), died.
She had some problems in her lungs when she was two years old and she had surgery to remuve part of them. Since then she often has trouble breathink and stuff like that. This past weeks in Italy have been the hottest in years, so there we go. The thing is that it happened a few days ago but they told me only today. I don't know exactly how I felt when they told me.



I knew she wasn't feeling too good when I left and I knew about her lungs problem. So I wasn't totally shocked. But at the same time, as we got closer to home, I relized what this actually meant....

...she won't be greeting us every time we open the door, she won't be trying to get on the sofa while we are watching the TV, she won't look at me with her "puppy face" while I'm eating, she won't be here anymore. And tonight the house felt somehow empty. And I know she was "only" a dog and it's better that was she that died and not someone else but still....she wasn't just a dog. She was family. And I'll miss her. We all will. So yeah, as gradma says now she's running in the heaven of dogs 'cose she was a good dog. And if we look at the stars we'll see a new bright star that looks after us from above.
Bye sweety. Love you. <3

First time we so her...a cute little puppy...

Nuvola and her brothers and sister before we took her home

My mom, me and my grandma with a three month old Nuvola

Would you pet me? Please!!

Playing with a plastic bone in what we called the "Sphinx position"

After the surgery when she was two years old

the last hug...I'll miss you sweety....

 I don't really feel like writing a cheesy or cliché ending so I'll just wrap up,

That's all for today,


 

  

Fennec Fox