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Some people are born travellers, explorers, adventurers. Some are not.
In moments of reflection I can see that I’ve holidayed for sure, but I have a sense that I’ve never really travelled. It’s not that I feel huge regret about this, but I’m sure if I’d travelled more I’d have been better prepared to embark on my biggest, most daunting adventure yet – moving lock, stock and barrel from all that was comfortable, reassuring and familiar, to a new country where I’m a stranger to everyone and everything is strange to me.
This is what I’ve learnt so far:
The Challenges
Change is exciting but deeply discomforting
Leaving family and friends behind is ridiculously hard
Facetime, WhatsApp and texting are no substitutes for in-person chats
Learning a new language in your 50s is not quite the same thing as learning in your 20s!
Some days homesickness is utterly overwhelming
Negotiating new, completely foreign and often totally perplexing ways of doing things – things that I did without thinking in my old life – can be utterly exhausting
The heat – the unrelenting, impossible to escape, summer temperatures in Sicily
And Italian butter doesn’t come close to *Kerrygold!
The Rewards
Change is discomforting but hugely exciting
Slowly but surely new friendships are emerging – friends from all over the world who are also new to Sicily; friends who are Sicilian and couldn’t be more welcoming and kind
Life is rich with things that are new – experiences, people, places, things to do
There are moments of ‘wow, look at me’ when I manage to communicate in Italian and be understood
A home and garden – and the lifestyle they’ll bring – that we could never have had in Ireland
Sicilian food – need I say more!
Life lived outdoors, on the beach, in the garden, on the terrace
Blue skies
Warm seas
The joyful anticipation of a trip home or a visitor from Dublin or Rome
***
So, in the balance-sheet of challenges and rewards how does this change fare?
Overall, the rewards win out, of course they do… Sicily is where I want to be
Now if only everyone I know and love would decide to up sticks and move to Sicily too! (And bring Kerrygold with them!)
*For those of you who aren’t Irish the reference to Kerrygold may be lost. It’s the rich and creamy, golden, salty butter of Ireland. Sicilians may do olive oil beyond compare but their butter doesn’t come close to ours…
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