Life so far

Time for good ol’ update.   I’ve been in Italy almost 10 months now, and the city of Lecce 4 months.  It’s a lovely, delicious little city and I have to say, that this is the highest standard of living I’ve ever experienced.  From the perfect Leccese Baroque architecture and the pureness of the two seas, to the red soil, dark green olive trees and outstanding, simple, natural, beautiful food, I have to say I’m living pretty well.  All thanks to my good friend Alessandra who brought me here (visit her at AVANZI, by the way, to see her beautiful artistic creations.)

I also have Pino at BelTango to thank for trusting me with his students and “sponsoring” me as a teacher here.  There are several tango schools here in Lecce, and while I don’t know them very well I can at least say, from my point of view as someone who lived in Buenos Aires and danced with the best milongueros,  that Pino teaches a high-quality social tango that works for everyone.  His students love him – he seems to attract really nice people naturally.  So it’s been a joy to have them as my students too.  Very respectful, enthusiastic, ready to try new things.  My didactic is different than Pino’s but they were all very open and I think that he and I can compliment each other well.

I am dying to travel (you know me).  I’ll go back to Palermo, Sicily again in a week’s time, and then I’m off to Napoli (Naples in English) to see my best friend Kirsten who will be stopping there with her new husband while they are on their honeymoon.  I’m sure I will fit some tango in there too.

I’m dying to go back to Buenos Aires.  I really need it, for my dancing and for my soul.  Buenos Aires will always be my home and I miss it so much.  I may be able to in December for a while, let’s keep our fingers crossed.  I love that as “continuing education” for my “profession” I “have” to go to Buenos Aires.   Business expense!  Ha.

It would be nice to get back to Seattle as well.  I miss my friends there a lot.  So much.  There are a lot of things here that I wish I could share with them.  I also miss how included and a part of things I feel with my Seattle friends.  Being a new girl in Lecce has it’s ups and its downs.  I have a social life here and I have people that I can count on, but since I haven’t been here long enough, I don’t have a solid, permanent circle of friends.  That’s the life of a gypsy soul, however.

The translations are slowing down for the summer and I’m glad.  Between giving the tango courses, DJing and having giant translations projects on top of everything, my head is spinning.  I just got a Trados 2009 license (thanks  mom!) and will be able to use the summer getting used to the software so I can be more productive than ever when summer is over.

It’s been a tough couple of years.  Despite all the beauty (living in Buenos Aires, having great friends there and in Seattle, moving to beautiful Italy), it’s been rough.  Things I’ll never write about here.  This year was very healing for me and I think I might be done clawing my way up the hill.  I have a feeling things are taking a turn now and all the work will have paid off.  If you follow astrology, you know that Saturn is about to leave my sign (Virgo) until the year 2036 and I say, Ciao!  Saturn has been the planet of hard-learned lessons, and I have learned and would like to move on now, thanks.

In any event, when things don’t go my way, I just hop over to Natale, get a cone of gelato, and eat it while staring at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Piazza Sant’Oronzo.  I can only do that here.