With april approaching, I've been here in Trento for almost seven months now.
To be honest it does not feel like seven months at all. Over half a year sounds like so much time, especially when I think about how I'll be leaving Italy in less than four months.It's crazy to think about how fast the time after christmas went by.
Probably everyone remembers march 2020, the start of the global pandemic and now exactly one year later, I'm going through my first real lockdown.
Trento is stuck in the red zone and while the situation certainly isn't the best to experience, I think I can be really glad that it's just three weeks.
Germany has been in a lockdown since the middle of December and the volunteers in Bolzano have been in the red zone since November so compared to that Trento seems like a good place to be at during a pandemic.
When I heard we would be in the red zone until the 6th of april, my first thought was to go back to Germany, mostly because I have to start looking into applications for University and also because I miss my family and instruments back at home.
Especially in a time like this, where I can't do much else than be on the internet for hours or cook or bake something (If Italy has taught me one thing, it's that I really should not be left alone with a baking recipe but at least it doesn't get boring that way I guess), I think about all the pieces I want to learn and play on my Cello once I'm back.
The three months I still have here in Italy sound like a long but at the same time like a very short time, considering how fast the past months have gone by. These days I'm realising that I'm looking forward to june with very mixed feelings.
On one hand I'm obviously glad to go home again so soon but I also have so much more stuff I want to do here and that I'm really excited about like going to the lakes with the other people here or if I'm lucky, going to tuscany after my project finished.
Compared to September/October I'm much more happier with the desicion to come here and even though we weren't able to do a lot things since Trento got Orange in mid February, I have had a lot of good moments.
Personally I think I can consider myself very priviliged to be here in Italy, in the middle of a pandemic while there are people struggling with their entire existence and losing loved ones to the virus while my biggest problems right now are a modly room and a mouse in the flat.
Looking at all the terrible expiriences people had during the past year, I feel nothing but grateful that I'm so uneffected by the whole sitation and I think if me staying home and not being able to do huge picknics in one of the parcs or going to parties, might help to save a life, my personal entertainment is a very small sacrifice.
All I can hope for is that the people in Trento start realising how bad our situation is and decide to do the most they can so we can safely (and rightfully) go back into the yellow zone soon.
There are two more weeks until the schools open again and I can go back to work but I still have some recipes to try out and fail at and some home workout routines to finish that I think I'll be able to survive the time.
-Julia Smolla
