Quarantine… I think there are two ways to explain this and one of them is not the way I would like to prefer. After all, we all know exactly what it means to be quarantined and locked up at home, so it goes without saying more. I prefer to call these 14 days the adaptation process for Orta Nova and my dear housemate, and it doesn’t look boring at all from this side.
Before I talk in detail about the experiences and impressions I have gained from my balcony so far about Orta Nova, which I spent away from my home and country and came with a lot of expectations, I have to say that I am sure that I have already gained 2 kg. Thanks to our hosts and our friends at the association who visit us every day, and sometimes even their mothers, we tried a new food almost every day since we arrived. Although I am not used to consuming a lot of dessert in the mornings in my country, I have to mention that fresh croissants filled with cream and marmalade definitely help a lot in the adaptation process.
As for the subjects other than the food and the weight I gain, I am very excited to come to Italy, where I have an idea through the books I have read and some films I have watched during my education at school for years, and to start a new life here. Although we are at home, I even feel a little accustomed to the people we had the chance to meet on our balcony.
When I stop and think about these lines from the 14th day, I can say that we did not realize that the first week was very much like quarantine.When you come from a place that can be called from the other side of the world for you and you start to share the same house with this person in another country, it is not possible at all. All these differences have opened up many topics that we can share and chat with each other. In general, we made our breakfasts together and tried to prepare recipes similar to the local delicacies we ate for breakfast. In general, our days were spent by completing the daily tasks that the association asked from us for that day, doing sports (staying healthy at home is the first goal of course) and trying to make use of our time efficiently as much as we could. During this time, I had the chance to gain new experiences such as trimming the grasses in the garden and sowing some herbs, which I had not tried before in my own home. As far as I understand and guess, the locals are generally closer to the land and like to cultivate themselves, as they consume fresh food every day.
The thing that most affected the general flow of these two weeks was the tasks that the association set for us on a daily basis. In general, I found it very beneficial for us to both cooperate with each other and speed up our adaptation to activities to be carried out in the association and local projects in the future. Specifically, the title that I enjoy doing the most in these tasks may be “draw the portrait of your housemate”. Although it may seem quite difficult at first, It’s a tangible way to see that the more time we spend together, the more we can record people in our memory with such different details, I hope my housemate will like it as much as I do, we will wait and see.
Now we are on the 14th day and today’s topic is to write an article about our quarantine. I guess with the excitement of being the last day of the quarantine and going to the real part from now on, I cannot remember the 14 days that seemed too long at first, but I think that the days I spent at home definitely added a lot to me. Although I tried to spend these days productively, of course there were some moments when I couldn’t keep my energy high and I got tired of being at home, but I always tried to remind myself that. “Wherever I can communicate with my own inner voice makes me feel like I am at home.” Since I haven’t felt completely detached from my inner voice in these two weeks, I think I’m in the right place. And even during these two weeks, I never saw myself far from listening to my inner voice; on the contrary, I had a nice orientation process thanks to my flatmate who supports me and who I am already accustomed to, and our friends at the association who take care of us in all our problems. I had decided to come here when I listened to my inner voice before, now I am still listening and I feel much more prepared and excited.
