Monday, May 28, 2012

5

MELBOURNE (DAY 1194)

I've been told I've got relationship issues.
Well, my longest relationship's been...drum rolls...3 months!
Maybe they're right...or maybe they're just jealous of my single status and my freedom. (who am I kidding!?!)
Well, I just broke up with one of my longest relationships ever: Sydney. 3 years and 3 months have passed since the day I fell in love with this awesome city and its ocean.
A change, a new job, an unexpected step forward in my career (and a crazy salary, too, I've gotta admit) made me immediately say YES to my new life: I'm flying to Melbourne on Wednesday, ready to start my new job on Thursday.
New life, new house, new flatmate, new friends, everything will be new.
Sydney's been amazing, and let's be honest, it only takes 90 minutes to fly back here. And actually, I will look forward to those Fridays when I'll be superexcited because I'm flying to Sydney or one of my friends' gonna visit me in Victoria.
But you all know I love to let my emotions out in the air: and whilst I am ready for this big next step, I wanna remember what Sydney meant to me.
Lots of friends; lots of friends who mean the world to me; a great flatmate I'm gonna miss heaps; so many parties I can't even remember; the ocean; Surry Hills and Coogee; my first flatmates, two Finnish girls and that crazy Scottish guy; the Italian crew; the European Society; my first job hunting; my trips to the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Byron Bay, New Zealand, Hunter Valley; that weekend at the Blue Mountains; a great boss, an awesome friend; the warehouse parties; that amazing period where our house was actually a hostel; the crazy biatch (pardon my French), the crazy girl from Queensland, the bunch of MILFs,  the Chinese girl who snored incessantly, the German girl and the two emails to my best friend...before and after, the Spanish girls, the news, the following news I am gonna be her best man :) the million of playstation matches we played, the sunburns, the beaches, the crazy social media campaign...and so many other things that I now forget but will always be part of THIS.
Three and (almost) a half years: who would have said that I'd still be here, after such a long time? Not me! And not my mum, of course.
By the way, she and my dad FINALLY came and visit me here in Australia: the craziest 20 days of my Aussie experience...by far!
My company closed down, I lost my job, I temporarily lost my Visa and was ready to go back to Italy (just for a while!), we had to cancel our trip to Queensland and to the Great Barrier Reef, and yep, my mum also had to go to the hospital (She scared the shit out of me!).
But they finally got to see MY Sydney, and they fell in love with it, with my friends, with my place in Coogee, with my flatmate, with Cafè Sicilia in Surry Hills, with the Hunter Valley and..most of all...with the Blue Mountains.
And yep, as I said, my company closed down, meaning that I had to cancel my residency application. It sucked big time...well it still sucks...
I had interviews with companies I'd never thought I was gonna be able to get in their offices (and trust me, some of them are actually a bunch of ****), I had my days where I woke up at midday and spent my afternoons watching TV series avoiding the job hunting, and I also had my days where I was thinking that , well...my Aussie experience was getting closer and closer to an end.
But now, here I am, thanks to the ones who supported me during that tough period, I am ready to start a new chapter of my life in Melbourne.
A new city. A new experience. Which I am very much looking forward to.
I'm gonna face this city as a new Alberto: stronger, obviously, and with a heart full of good memories. Love, Albe