Roma main business street takes 10 minutes to walk up and down. Unless you jump into The One Irish bar (not “one of the” Irish bars). Mind you, in total there are 5 places to go out. I have visited more than half of them. In one night.
People in Roma do not do “fantastic”, but “not too bad” instead. And the question is “How’r’ you going?”, not “How are you?”
Jogging clothes are replaced by blue collar overalls with reflectors on them. Not in bars though. In the bars it’s country folks’ clothes. I’m looking around and I see rednecks. And I feel narrow minded. I feel like this is not my kind of crowd. I’d like to be more open minded…but if yet again “I’m from Estonia” is greeted with a blank face, I feel a bit hopeless. Some ask flat out “Where is that?”, others disguise behind “You are long way from home!”. Or a degree closer, but for personal reasons annoying: “It was/is part of Russia?”
When I got to Melbourne I felt it’s a bit like a candy shop full of gorgeous men. Now, yesterday I was out in the Irish pub after work for a drink or two, glanced over the country folk and pondered over my selective mind. There was one man in the right age group and less folky look (turned out to be from Melbourne). In fact he was pretty good looking actually, but then came the usual blank face in response to “Estonia”. He is a soil digger in the mines or sth like that. Additionally, he was a three-sentences-in-a-minute type of chatter. When I asked how he likes living in Roma, he responded in the next minute: “Every forth week, that I have off, I feel like shooting myself in the head.”
15 seconds later “I feel like blowing my head off. This is how much I hate Roma”.
It wasn’t said in a funny way neither or it was humor beyond my grasp. When I insinuated that in this amount of time he should have been able to save enough money and move away, he got offended and stopped talking altogether – a relief for me as I had a much deeper and more interesting relation with the glass of whiskey in front of me.
What else can I say about Roma? There is a swimming pool and a library. Fresh subscription of magazines is only for Sports. National Geographic runs until 2009. The Economist or anything similar is not available even in the main shopping centre.
All this said, I’d like to add something positive. I’d like to emphasize that I do not feel like shooting myself in the head. I like the restaurant work. People that pass through there look interesting, working environment is good and it pays well. I’m happy to have my own room, a routine, read a book and get out every now and then. There are interesting people around here as well, I’m certain of it, just need to give it a bit of time.
People in Roma do not do “fantastic”, but “not too bad” instead. And the question is “How’r’ you going?”, not “How are you?”
Jogging clothes are replaced by blue collar overalls with reflectors on them. Not in bars though. In the bars it’s country folks’ clothes. I’m looking around and I see rednecks. And I feel narrow minded. I feel like this is not my kind of crowd. I’d like to be more open minded…but if yet again “I’m from Estonia” is greeted with a blank face, I feel a bit hopeless. Some ask flat out “Where is that?”, others disguise behind “You are long way from home!”. Or a degree closer, but for personal reasons annoying: “It was/is part of Russia?”
When I got to Melbourne I felt it’s a bit like a candy shop full of gorgeous men. Now, yesterday I was out in the Irish pub after work for a drink or two, glanced over the country folk and pondered over my selective mind. There was one man in the right age group and less folky look (turned out to be from Melbourne). In fact he was pretty good looking actually, but then came the usual blank face in response to “Estonia”. He is a soil digger in the mines or sth like that. Additionally, he was a three-sentences-in-a-minute type of chatter. When I asked how he likes living in Roma, he responded in the next minute: “Every forth week, that I have off, I feel like shooting myself in the head.”
15 seconds later “I feel like blowing my head off. This is how much I hate Roma”.
It wasn’t said in a funny way neither or it was humor beyond my grasp. When I insinuated that in this amount of time he should have been able to save enough money and move away, he got offended and stopped talking altogether – a relief for me as I had a much deeper and more interesting relation with the glass of whiskey in front of me.
What else can I say about Roma? There is a swimming pool and a library. Fresh subscription of magazines is only for Sports. National Geographic runs until 2009. The Economist or anything similar is not available even in the main shopping centre.
All this said, I’d like to add something positive. I’d like to emphasize that I do not feel like shooting myself in the head. I like the restaurant work. People that pass through there look interesting, working environment is good and it pays well. I’m happy to have my own room, a routine, read a book and get out every now and then. There are interesting people around here as well, I’m certain of it, just need to give it a bit of time.
Veidi melanhoolses toonis jutustus, aga hea meel näha, et sa ikka ütled, et sa tuled Eestist:)
ReplyDelete(analoogia siit väiksest "konnatiigist" - kui lähen kuhugi - Eestis - ning satun kellegagi vestlema, kes küsib, kust ma pärit olen, tekivad ikka segatud tunded, olles viimased 1/3 oma elust mujal elanud, kui eelnevalt. mul tulebki tavaliselt instinktiivselt see teine koht)