Out again. Moving to Brussels

Some have decreed our madness definitively; some told us that we did well; some still thought it was not right or right or prudent to change again. The fact is that we moved again and we arrived in Brussels , after 12h of travel through Poland, Germany and the Netherlands, on July 28th.

It seemed a foregone choice, to leave Krakow and the problems we had had there to come and live in the place we have always dreamed of, the capital of Europe. Brussels.

In reality it was not easy to decide and once again not only the stakes were very high but also the level of precariousness to accept was quite high. We decided to make a choice focusing, this time, not on the immediacy of the solution as on the vision of our life project. We really want to stay&grow in Brussels. We like the city and we feel this could easily become our place.

What did we leave behind? 

Friends , a network of people who represented so much for me and helped me in a difficult time. My work , which I liked and that was beginning to give me satisfaction. A job that meant a lot to me: the redemption from the all the closed doors (right in the face, very bad situation lasted for several months last year)  and the affirmation of my new job choice,the  change I made after choosing to close the chapter of being a researcher in the academy. Neverthless, we decided to leave behind even a long period of separation that has seen us far for almost a year and a half and that was time to conclude. We left behind a nice city and the comfort zone I created for myself and my daughter after months of struggle.

What did we earn?

It is still early to say even if we can already see some beneficial effects of this choice. Living in a place where we perfectly understand the language , in which we have no difficulty explaining and making ourselves understood, in which everything from health, to school, to everyday life is under our control without the need for intermediaries. These are the most obvious advantages of the moving. In Krakow, being completely independent was unfortunately impossible precisely because of the language (and my dear collegues know very well as I was asking for translation at least once a week!)

The feeling of being back in a place that belongs to us. It is difficult to explain but in Krakow we felt out of place, poised, as if we had to leave at any moment, as if in that city we were just tourists and not inhabitants. Yet we have lived it deeply, but we perceived a cultural gap that we have not been able to fill. What we have discovered in Poland is a different Europe, far from our standards of cultural perception and adaptability. We must deal with our own limits and admit to have it’s always useful to discover new sides of themselves. Our limitation was not knowing how to adapt to a country that we did not particularly love. Despite everything, I am grateful to Krakow for having welcomed me as I was, for giving me a job, for having given me some friendships that, I hope deeply, will give proof of strenght over the time.

Now we are ready to face another chapter in the history of the Vattelapesca, a long-awaited chapter built step by step and which will finally see the family reunited. A chapter that we do not know what will reserve us but that, as always, we will face with curiosity and hope.

Au revoir!