ITA Blog #10- UPDATE: I made a difference....and so can you!!

I made a difference!!

It’s here! This weekend when I got home in Ravenna I found on my desk a special package…

It was my purchase from 4 Ocean!!

The package contained:

·      a postcard with some information on the organization

·      A sticker with the ‘4Ocean’ logo

·      A small card which thanked you for your purchase and for helping the ocean

·      A cute little bag and inside…..the bracelet!

 

 I love it very much…it looks very fashionable and I love the colours…but what I love more is that every time I’m going to look down at my wrist I’ll be thinking about the good action I did helping to clean the ocean…and maybe I’ll pay more attention to how I recycle and to how much trash I consume…it’ll be like a gentle daily reminder!

My sister and I with our new 4ocean bracelets!!

 Today I made a small (yet important) difference in cleaning our oceans and bettering our planet....and so can you!!

Have a great week,

Fennec Fox

ITA Blog #9- 'How can I help?'

Ryan Eggold is Max Goodwin on the series

  ‘How can I help?’.

This is the first thing that Max Goodwin, the new medical director of NewAmsterdam, asks on his first day. And it’s amazing how many lifes he actually changes and improves by listening at the practical suggestions the different doctors have.

 

‘New Amsterdam’ is a new medical drama aired on NBC last autumn (the last episods of season one are actually airing right now). And yeah it’s ANOTHER medical drama. But, this one is different. I’m not saying there is no heartbreaking patient story and miracle doctor action that saves everyone, but what I’m saying is that is not just that.

The main cast of New Amsterdam in their scrubs

First of all this one is inspired by a book: Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital by Eric Manheimer. So there is a precise storyline and deep 360° characters with good and bad sides, just like any human being.

Secondly it has Max. Max is the symbol of hope: he bursts into the hospital and into the life of the doctors there like a tornado, he pushes them to make changes and make them now, he reminds them that their job is to HELP safe the patient’s life, not to have higher paychecks or to get more visibility with a hard case. They are just there to help.

And aren’t we all? Here to help I mean. We have this amazing opportunity of being here on Earth and of sharing our ideas and aspirations with others, connecting with them on so many different levels. Inspire and be inspired. Teach and learn. In an endless cycle.

But we are missing on all of these because we don’t pay attention. We’re too busy, too focused on ‘our lives’, our small and individual everyday experience, that we can’t see others: their problems, their necessities, not even the help they might be trying to give us.

We’re all rushing through life in search of a deeper meaning when, often, this meaning is just in front of us.

Everyone of us should look for its way to help others, to be part of the community, to fill fulfilled in it…this is what happiness is. To be truly happy we should stop thinking about us or our problems all the time, and start asking others….

‘How can I help?’

A simple, straight foward question, that might just change our lives.

Listen to your kid: watch with him Frozen for the 1000th time, help her build the new block castel, read a book together. Listen to your parents: maybe they just need a new pillow or a new grammar program to write their work stuff more easily. Listen to your friends, your relatives, maybe even to strangers….and you will start making a difference (in your life and in that of others).

So if any of you out there is in a bad moment, of even if is not and it’s the best time of your life, or if your life has been a bit busy lately…

‘How can I help?’

Thanks for reading,

I’m always here if you need me

Fennec Fox

P.S.: For anyone of you out there who also feels like making a difference and helping others I will try to put some suggestions at the end of my posts from now on. So how can you help?

BUY a 4ocean BRACELET!!

What is 4Ocean?

The story begins when Alex and Andrew take a surf trip...

to Bali Indonesia that would inevitably change their lives and the fate of the ocean. Devastated by the amount of plastic in the ocean, they set out to find out why no one was doing anything about it. One afternoon they came across an old fishing village where fishermen were literally pushing their boat through piles of plastic that had washed up on shore. The two surfers realized that the proliferation of plastic threatened both the ocean environment and the fishermen's livelihood. Could the fishermen use their nets, they wondered, to pull the plastic from the ocean? This idea stuck with the 2 surfers and they knew it was time to hit the drawing board. 

 

After realizing that the demand for seafood was driving the fishermen to focus on fish instead of plastic, they knew they had to create something that could fund the desired cleanup efforts. This is how the 4ocean Bracelet was born.

Made with recycled materials, every bracelet purchased funds the removal of 1 pound of trash from the ocean and coastlines. In less than 2 years, 4ocean has removed 3.507.216 pounds (and counting) of trash from the ocean and coastlines.

4ocean currently operates out of multiple countries and employs over 150 people worldwide.

  

Why buy a bracelet?

 Pull the next pound!! 

Each bracelet puerchase will remove one pound of trash from the ocean and costlines.

Buying one you'll be helping improve the environment and preserve our beutiful Earth...plus they are sooooo cute!! I bought one for me and my sister and I'll post pictures when they get shipped home!!

They have new special bracelets each month, for different endangered species, and many other items you can purchase to help the cause (SHOP: https://4ocean.com/collections/all-products)

The OCEAN needs us…let’s go!!

For more information visit: 4ocean STORY 4ocean WEBSITE

Thank you so much for making it this far in the post, I’m so excited for what we can all do tegether if we start changing the world around us one step at the time.

Love you all <3

ITA Blog #8- What do you want for your Birthday?

'What do you want for your birthday? What present do you want? What can I get you?'

'Could you get me a new book?' this was my answer for every birthday/Christmas/end of school/religious holiday... I wanted more stories...I wanted to visit and discover new places, I wanted to make new friends and follow them in crazy adventures, I wanted to understand and be understood, I wanted to stay up all night because what we were doing was too important to stop (I mean... between sleeping and saving the world...definitely saving the world!)....
I was hungry of knowledge and of learning and books were the best way to do it...my escape from reality without ever leaving the room, my safe place.

'Could you get me a new book?'. After a while they got bored of getting me books. 'You don't need a new one, you already have a lot of them!" Pointless to say that I had already read them ALL, so I did need a new one...they would never understand. And so by the end of Middle School I starting receiving 'cool' clothes, bracelets and even a phone (which I didn't use until the first year of High School, 'cause I didn't need it)...all things that I dind't really like or use. They were just sitting in my wardrobe looking useless.

'Could you get me this thing I really need?' or 'Thanks, but I don't really need anything. You can make me something with your hands (diary, photo things, gift card, cake) and just show up at my party, this is going to be the best gift!"
When I got old enough to be consinderd worth of listening I decided that things had to CHANGE. What is the point of getting me things I don't need or I won't use? You waste money and I waste space...it's even disrespectful for those who can't afford to buy those things and would die to have them (this is why I ended up donating most of my 'unwanted' gifts). So this became my new answer: if I needed something I would ask for that specific thing. Otherwise, I would just ask people to show up at my birthday party with maybe a cake or a gift card.

'If you really want to give me a gift you could give some money to a charity or use them to do something that will make you happy'
By the end of high school I got to the point in which I really didn't need anything for my birthday, so I started to use 'my gift' to better the life of other people, which is our aim in life. We are here to life the fullest life possible, sharing what we have we others, trying to understand the other, to accpet him...this our purpose. When we have everything we could ask for in life and even more, we have a 'duty' to give what we can to others less fortunate.
The gift I was most proud of was my 18th birthday:  I was able to raise 100 euros (I know it's not a lot, but all of my friends were still high schoolers, so that' s all they had) for a local association 'Impronte di vita', which works is strict relationship with an association in Columbia to better the life of refugee there (there was a really bad civil war so many people had to leave their homes). I felt that I was actually making a difference in the world with my actions.

Saturday will be my 20th birthday...'wow it's a big date! you're fully an adult now! It's the first 2 decades...feeling ols yet (very much ahaah)?! You have to do a huge party! What are you getting? You should ask for a pretty big present'

Well, this past year has been a huge mess. I have lost many people that I thought were friend, I saw them and my family (especially the adults in my family) for what they really are, humans, with all their flaws, so I learned I can't pretend them to understand everything.
I lost my balance. The one for which I fought very hard, the one for which I travelled to the other side of the world to find. I lost 'control' over my life. I almost lost 'control' over my own mind.
So, nah... I don't really feel like thowing a big party. I feel like having a nice, quite, simple day with people that really care about me. I feel like doing something that makes me feel good.

And nope, I don't need a huge present either. But yes, I want something for this birthday. 

'What can I get you for your birthday?'
You could listen more to people. Don't judge, suggest, find a solution. Just LISTEN.
Try to understand what they NEED. Not what you would need in that situation or what you think they need. Don't try to understand what they're going through. You probably CAN'T. Try to accept them. As they are. With their flaws and their problems.

 Just LISTEN. All they need is not to fell ALONE. Is to feel loved, no matter how meesd up they are, no matter how bad they screw up. They need to feel you are there for them. They don't need you to tell them, they need you to show them.

Just LISTEN. You might save a life.

Thanks for reading,

Love you all

 

Fennec Fox

ITA Blog #7- Some family time!

OHANA means FAMILY....

and FAMILY means no one gets left behind or forgotten..

Lilo &Stich

Hey people! 

How are you? I know it's been a while since my last post, I'm sorry...I've just been crazy busy with life, you know. 

I had an exam session in the middle of March and then it was Easter, with all the family things to do, and then classes started again (yeeey...) so, yeah, no much free time lately. 

Anyway, after a very loooong winter, it seems like spring is actually arriving! I really hope so, because I love seeing the nature starting to grow again: all the green little leaves, all the amazing and colorful flowers...They kind of grow everywere, so it looks a bit like your town is been taken over by nature...and that's great! 

So, other than enjoying the weather, I've also really enjoyed celebrating Easter this year. 

In Italy every festivity is not only a religious or a 'national' festivity, it's also an excuse to spend some time with your family. Indeed, even if you're not very religious (as my family and I), there are still a lot of traditions that the family follows every year during the festivity. 

We all meet for lunch. And whith all, I mean EVERYONE: my close family (mom, dad, my sister and I), my cousins' family (my aunt, my uncle, my consins), my other cousin's family (my aunt, my uncle, if he's not working, and my little cousin), my aunt Anna and my grandparents (all four of them). Then, sometimes, there are also my cousins's grandmother and other relatives. So yeah, a big family reunion. (and we don't even have such a big family, some people, especially in the South of Italy, have much bigger families because they keep in touch with all the cousins and relatives they have).

My FAMILY!!

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, the luch. Ok, so forget any possible idea you can have of lunch (if you're not italian of course), and try to imagine this: we arrive at the place of the lunch (usually held in the biggest house, in my case, my cousins's house) at about noon, bringing a dish that we cooked the day before (or in the morning), but not any dish, the dish that we agreed we would make. I

explain my self better, this lunches are pretty important, so they require a lot of organization and usually the different courses are so many that the 'cooking work' as to be divided among the different relatives (even if my aunt Anna and my grandma usually do more than the others, they just really love cooking).

So we get there with our dish and we start chatting with everyone (we haven't seen each other in a while, especially me, since I stay in Venice most of the time now) and at the same time we help whoever needs help ahah. And then,  finally, it's lunch time!! 

We sit down at the huge table at the centre of the room  (it's probably 1.00 or 1.30 p.m. by now) and we start the lunch. In my family we usually don't have appetizers, but we have a couple of first course (different types of pasta, like lasagne, ravioli,ect.), then the second course, for Easter usually lamb and vegetables, and then deserts and fruits, after this for the adults there is cofee and grappa. 

Ravioli: some with butter and some with meatsauce (ragù)

Lasagne

Lamb (second course)

Vegetables: peppers, eggplants, zucchini

Deserts! Tiramisù, pastiera (Easter cake) and others

 

 The thing is, between one course and the other a lot of time goes by, so that we can chat, take family pictures,....start digesting the food ahaha. So, yeah it usually lasts until 4.00/4.30 pm, then the granparents and the little cousins usually go home (they are pretty tired by now) and the rest starts cleaning and putting things back into place. Then we go for a walk or we watch a movie together. 

Giulia (cousin), Eleonora (sister), me, Marco (cousin) at the beach for a walk, after the Easter lunch

 It's a really magical day that you get to spend with your family. And this year, I can say that I felt all the magic. It had been a while since I had last seen most of my relatives and I didn't realize just how much I missed them. It was great seeing all of them and getting to spend some time with them too. So, yeah, it truly was a very good day, one of those that I will remember looking back and I'll never be grateful enough for the amazing family that I have: they are always so supportive and ready to help. 

Remeber they are the ones that will always be there for you, no matter what, so be nice with them, even if you don't always get along, because they all love you.

This was a bit different than my usual post, but I just wanted to share this with you,

hope you liked it,

Thanks for reading,

Love, Fennec Fox

ITA Blog #6- Who are you?

'Who are you?' When I was little it was pretty easy to answer this question when the adults asked. “Sono Arianna Bassi che mangia i sassi” (I’m Arianna Bassi, and I eat stones. In Italian my surname, Bassi, and the word stones, sassi, rime. It’s a game we play in kindergarten to help the kids to remember their family name).

But as I grew up things got complicated.

In Middle school I became a teenager and everything got sooo complicated. I lost any type of self-confidence I might have had before. So, not only I no longer knew who I was, but I didn’t even know what I liked. And after those three crazy years you even have to choose an high school (in Italy we have different types of high school, that have slightly different curricula that concentrates on different aspects, like languages, history, science, art, etc.). 

I was completely lost, but I knew that writing made me feel better, so I choose the Classical high school, in which you concentrate on the study of 'humanities' (Italian Literature, philosophy, history, Greek, Latin, etc.). 

But as I was walking towards the huge wooden door on the first day of school I kept asking myself: “Did I make the right choice? Is this really ‘me’?”

And, luckily, I did.

 In high school I found an amazing group of friends. When I was with them I didn’t have to think about everything I was going to say, I could just say it- I knew they were not going to judge. 

I never had something like this. 

For the first time I could really be myself, no filters, no masks, just me...and that's how I learned who I really was. I was a passionate and carying young women who really loved the planet on which we live and all the creatures in it (yes, even the human being). I was sensitive and generous, but at the same time I would stand up for myself. And not only for me. I would fight any type of injustice and violence, because it’s just wrong. Of course I knew I couldn’t change the world, but I could at least change my neighborhood.

So yeas, I finally kind of knew who I was, thanks to eight crazy people with witch I played board games on the weekend…life really is weird and unexpected.

Then I decided I wanted to discover more. 

This renewed confidence gave me the strenght to really follow my dream: I wanted to know  better this amazing world we live in and to see cultures different from mine. So during my third year of high school I applied to AFS-Intercultura to spend the forth year abroad. 

Spoiler alert: I was accepted. 

So on august 2015 I was on a plane flying above the Atlantic ocean. 

And again…

'who are you?' 'Ehm…. I’m Arianna, an exchange student from Italy.' And that was it. 

I had a “new” identity, a fitted in a new category. I was no longer the passionate and nerd school girl, but I was 'just' an italian girl. And I liked it. I liked representing my country aborad. Because this is what I was doing. I had the opportunity to tell people things about Italy. I could answer all those annoying questions to show them that we (italians) are more than the stereotypes. 

And I felt so blessed to have that priviledge.

A year went by so fast and it was already time for me to go back. I went back to my old life but I didn’t just “took my identity back”. 

Now I had a bigger view of what was out there, I had pieces of the world in my heart, forever. I had friends everywhere…and it was crazy to think about it. So I was both the same confident and selfless girl that I was before, but now I was also more aware of the world outside: I was a richer person.

This new prospectives helped me, after my last year of high school (we have 5 in italy, crazy, isn’t it?!), to choose my college: I wanted to do international relations to be able to represent my country and who we really are abroad and at the same time to understand other cultures (as I did with the American one). 

And I was off to college. Everything new, different, strange.

Who are you? Ehm…

Where are you from? I’m actually from Italy, but I spent a year in the USA, and I’m really connected to that country so…

Where’s your home?! Really?! Are you trying to make it harder and harder with every question? Anyway…I don’t know…my home is where the people I love are, I guess…

After people kept telling me...I starting really thinking about it, so I could answer them the next time they asked....

Where’s your home? Everywhere and nowhere. My home is where I decide it to be. And I am, who I am, but I’m constantly changing, open to new ideas and views. The world it’s huge, and the universe it’s even bigger…and we are so small. We have to realize how small we, and all our porblems, are and just live life to the fullest always carrying with us a big smile. 

So who am I? Just somebody very curios who loves the world and thinks we should all love each other and cooperate together to solve the problems that we created. Just somebody who wants to learn. Just somebody who wants to discover more.

 Fennec Fox

P.S.: You are probably wondering why did I tell you all this? Well I just wanted to make it easier for you to understand what happened to me in the last months... Ready?! Here we go…

In december I finished my first semester and I went home…I went back to Ravenna, my hometown where my family lives…I spent some very good days with them: we decoreted the Crhistmas tree, we went over to my grandparents house for luch, we played board games…it was a lot of fun…

And then my parents gave me the biggest present ever…. Tickets to go back to the USA for winter break!! So the 22nd of December I was on a plane heading…home!! I was so happy to see my host family again! All the family friends and my school friends. I spent there Christmans and New Year’s Eve…it was like nothing had changed…we still all loved each other and it was great. The best part was that my boyfriend was able to come with me! It was really important for me that he got to see also this part of my life: my other family, my other friends…it was great! 

However time flies by so fast and we had to go back to italy again. And then a week ago I started the second semester…so I’m back in Venice in my little home here! I’m so glad I’m here again with my amazing rommates and my college friends.

So there we go...

a lot of 'homes' as you can see... and they all have a special and different meaning to me, but they all made me who I am and I will not change a thing. Even if this means never really being home. 

That's all for today, thanks for reading.

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