Canada: More Than Just a Pretty Face

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I came back in the Europe in the hopes to "regain" my sense of adoration, after having been dragged away unwilling when my Camino Trip (2011) ended. I knew without a doubt that I had to return to the continent that had taught me so much in such a short time. Whether it was the people, the food, the culture.. or a combination of all these things, I can't quite be sure. But regardless, when I started dreaming of taking off again, this was the place my heart was calling me. Italy arose as a yet discovered wonderland. A place where I could start a new adventure, and potentially a new life depending on how things went. Well, it has only taken me six weeks to discover that sometimes the place from which we came, is truly the place to be appreciated.

This isn't meant to come across in a negative way at all. In fact I still will be the first to suggest that everyone takes some time out of their lives to visit Italy, the birthplace of art, vino and the good life. But I cannot in any way lie when people ask we whether I am prefering life here, or whether or not I miss home. It's not really that I am homesick, it is just that for once in my life I am really beginning to appreciate what it is we so much take for granted. As you can obviously tell, it has been several days hiatus for me from blog writing. This wasn't intentional in any way, I have just been busy exploring and discovery new things along the way. Venice has been quite an adventure for me to say the least. I now have had the oppurtunity to see a few amazing sights that for many months I dreamt about. Gallerie dell'Accademia for example, a world famous museum which houses some of the first true samples of creative genius. Tintoretto was my personal favorite, as he is for many other thousands of tourists who behold his masterpieces each day. My jaw literally stopped at the sight of a painting, completed almost 600 years ago, which to me looked so much more real than many photos I have seen through the years. They say practice makes perfect, and yes to some degree I believe that, but there are also a select few people out there who have been given a certain talent far beyond the capacities of average people. How it is possible for someone that many centuries ago to paint a setting so precise in symmetry, perspective and true likeness is beyond me. It is a truly humbling sight to say the least.

But without a doubt, my favorite thing I have experienced here in Venice, and perhaps in all of my travels, was a tour of the "Gheto Vecchio" here in Venice. Literally, the world's first ghetto, the beginning of it all. The word "Gheto" (pronounced 'jet-oh) is actually a Venetian word meaning 'foundry', because the first ghetto was build on the site of an old scrap yard. The Jews however has their own way of calling their new home, and so the word "ghetto" was born. As has always been the case, they were not given the best living conditions, nor were they even given the space they needed to house their vast population. So the true ingenuity of these people can first be seen, in that the buildings which would normally hold only 5-6 stories, were actually built with lower ceilings and therefore could hold 8-9 stories. They are now lovingly referred to as, the "Venetian skyscrapers" because they tower above many of the regular buildings around Venice. The highlight of this excursion for me, was actually being given the oppurtunity to enter three of the ancient synagogues in this area. I have always been fascinated by religion in general, but through personal relations and desires, I have grown a special love and interest for the Jewish faith and culture itself. I am constantly in total admiration of these people, who have most often been provided with so little, but ALWAYS have made the best of their sitation. The ghetto here in Venezia, is of course no different. As was the brilliance of making their floors smaller, the original Jewish population to Venice also came up with amazing ways in which to build their synagogues. As the Jewish faith dictates, the synagogue must be built with nothing above it, so at that to be as close to their God as possible. Therefore in a time where space was limited, the genius idea arose to build their synagogues on the top floor of their own housing developments. Absolute genius to me. Another thing that struck me as, "beautiful" was that in each synagogue there was created a thought-out reminder of imperfection. Some tiny flaw or detail in the gorgeous detailing that acts as reminder to everyone: only God is perfect. In the Levatine (Jews of Spanish origin) Synagogue, you could clearly see in the intricate floor tiling, a small 'imperfection' in the pattern of the black & white tiles. One so obvious black tile was purposely laid so as to, as I said, remind those entering that they themselves did not hold the true perfection that was their God. This literally put a smile on my face, to think: it is not seen as a negative, but simply a truth, humans beings are not perfect creatures. I for one, felt such a strong sense of.. love? I know that may seem a strange word to use, and maybe it isn't exactly the best fitted. But it gave me this true sense of realization, that is was OK not to be perfect. I wasn't expected to be. My favorite part about this "intentional" reminder, was that of course as Venice is a city built entirely on wooden poles driven in to mud, over the years things have shifted and moved at a constant rate. Because of this, it actually turns out that there are many 'imperfections' in each of these synagogues.

That day was very special to me. And felt like a day away from the hectic life that also seems to have followed me here. You see, no matter where you go and what you do, life is always full of complications. There is simply no hiding from this fact. For me as a diabetic, sometimes I feel an overwhelming sense of frustrations at the constant reminders of this. It is almost 7 weeks now since I arrived to Italy and I am some how STILL dealing simply with getting my Health Scheme (Italian Health Care) sorted out. This was actually all a big part of why I chose to become an au pair, and come to Italy in particular. This country may be as a majority, highly disorganized, but like Canada the one thing they do have going for them is free health care. That being said, in a country with a population twice that of Canada, where budgets for health care are most likely about a quarter of our own, this means huge wait times, being shuffled around from place to place to accomplish one task. And most often, simply being told NO, because someone doesn't seem to have the time to properly look in to the problems you are trying to solve. I have become a very patience person here in Italy. The first week was majority extreme frustration. The second week was desperation. And now, I simply laugh when I arrive somewhere with an appointment time, because I know it only means I was pre-scheduled to do alot of waiting. As I said, I am not trying to come across as negative. If you were to ask any Italian on the street how they themselves feel about these issues, you would have a LOT longer response, filled with about 45 suggestive hand gestures (haha, I wish I could show you all some of these!). But that is the reality of life here in Italy.

That being said, people are (sadly) used to this sort of daily frustration and disorganization here. And I now can say I have a whole new appreciation for Italians their IMMENSE sense of patience. I have never before felt more truly blessed in my life to have been born in a country such as Canada. Yes we may not have the history, yes our architecture may not be nearly as awe-inspiring, but when it really comes down to it.. we have it SO DAMN GOOD! We make our own vino that I have to say, may be more expensive, but an Okanagan Pinot could rival a Veneto Ripasso any day! We may not have the world's best Italian cuisine, but I would say we come pretty close. And we also happen to have sushi, Vietnamese, Pad Thai, Chinese food, croissants, bagels, bacon and the best damn kebab I myself have ever come across. Sometimes when you are born and raised in a place, you are so used to your daily surroundings and way of life, stuck in a routine, that you forget to appreciate how good you really have it. As a diabetic, I have never really questioned the fact that our amazing health care system will look after me all the days of my life (as long as I am a person participating in tax payment of course, hah). But this has been a huge eye opener for me. Yes I have now after 7 weeks fiiiiinally managed to weasle my way in to the Italian Health Scheme, but over the course of these weeks I have probably spent more time in and out of hospitals and health offices than I have in almost the entire course of my diabetic care in Canada.

So in summary, I would like to officially say: I AM PROUD TO BE CANADIAN. Not just because we have hilarious beer commercials, not because we invented the telephone, insulin and basketball. Ok wait, for all of those reasons.. but also for about 5 million MORE reasons. Dear Canadians, tomorrow morning when you wake up, please look around you and remember, we truly have it as good as it can get. And if you can't quite bring yourself to this realization, remember that in almost all big cities, you can get yourself a round trip ticket to Mexico for a measly $400 to remind yourself of the fact! And to take a break from the rat race of daily routine & repetativeness. I can say now, without any doubt in my mind, that Canada will always be the country I call home. This of course does not mean I will ever stop dreaming of travelling the globe. And hopefully, if all goes according to plan, some how my Canadian health care can follow my little broken pancreas wherever the wind blows me!

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