Family gatherings – I love it

Dear diary,

Here we are, face to face you and me. I know, it was time to wake up from this lethargy I was in for such a long period. My so-called life at the end was not that bad, maybe a bit boring but not that much, as I thought. The fact is that usually people, in this case me (I shouldn't speak for others), tend to be less productive when they don't feel well. As I mentioned few times, I really like writing, putting a part of myself on white paper (now on pc screen J ), that keeps me alive! But, due to the state of mind I was in, I forgot that incredible feeling. Important is that I realized that it was a huge mistake (you may sue me for abandoning you J ) and that I'm back in business again.

This summer has begun in such a nice way, we move into the new flat as I already said in previous post, and it was just the beginning of our new life, different and from some points of view, even better. The zone where our new apartment is located is really nice, calm, surrounded by parks and mountains, although a bit isolated from the city centre where we used to live before. Our neighbors seem to be quite pleasant and polite, although I sometimes (rarely though) feel the nostalgia for our former Brazilian, quite noisy, neighbors who were making parties almost every night. Living abroad is a bit different from living in your own State. In my building in Serbia, where I have lived for sixteen years (at the age of four we moved there and I was twenty when we came to Trento) I knew all my neighbors quite well, or almost, but people here are bit different. I won't say that they are cold (although I live in the north of Italy) because it's not nice speaking in that way of native citizens of your new (sort of) hometown, but I would rather say that they don't trust to the foreigners (even if for foreigner might be taken a native Italian from the south part of the country). Once you manage to gain their confidence, you may say that you have been accepted by the local community. However, we are still new in this zone, although we have some friends living nearby, and it will probably take time for making new friendships. In the meantime, we can rely on the old ones and on our relatives.

Speaking about relatives, this summer was signed by some family gatherings in our lovely Trento. Now, you may be confused, knowing that I am coming from Serbia and that all my relatives live there! Yes, that's quite true, there is no doubt about that. But, I have to disappoint you. I have even relatives here in Italy! I've known that my dad had a cousin here in Italy, who lives with his family in a small town called Capriano , which is near Brescia, but we met with them for the first time only this spring. My dad and my uncle lost contact years ago, and when my dad arrived to Italy in 2001, was not able to get in contact with him because the phone number he had was not in function anymore. Luckily, as often happens in lifetime, they got in touch again so, in May, we went to visit them. In that occasion I also met for the first time my cousins Andrea, the older one, and twins Nicola and Annamaria, and they paid us visit in summer. I was so glad to see them, although Andrea was missing because she had to work. I had so much fun that day, specially with Annamaria. Our families also had great time together and it was the day I will always remember.

In September we had guests from Serbia for the first time. My dad went there for a holiday and brought us my mum's sister Jela, my dear aunt, who stayed in for a week. It was really so nice having her around. Mum was on holiday too and was really happy because of her sister's visit. We all went a bit around Trento, in the mountains where our friend Gino has a restaurant, but also went out of town. We spent such a lovely day at the Garda lake, and we also did some shopping in Verona. Pity that my aunt had to go back that soon but we all hope that she would come to visit us again, maybe with my cousins. Luckily, I also saw my uncle who came with a friend to pick up my aunt who really doesn't like to travel alone.

It was really such a nice summer. I am only a bit sad because I had to stay at home because of my health problems, but a life is made of that: good and bad vibrations. Hopefully, the good-ones win the battle. Always, or almost always. And I will remember this summer not for the negative aspects of it, but mostly because of these two family gatherings that I love. God bless friends and family without whom our lives would have really no sense.