It’s been 9 months. Nobody really prepares you for when you are about to leave. I have almost built my habits in this place. I even felt so easy and cozy when I returned after a holiday. And it will soon go away. 

I would wake up kinda late, have a ‘cafe lungo in vetro’ at 10:30, lunch at 13:30, leave work at 16:30 to run to the station to catch the train to Caldonazzo to swim a kilometer....return, make dinner and meet at Christina’s balcony to listen to music and chill. (this is for my future self to read...to see what my most days looked like)

The trip around Europe was intense. Mushroom hunting in Austria and feeling poor in Geneva. And Marseille bebe… it made such an amazing impression on me...by simply being Marseille. Marseille felt honest, no filters, no lies. The symphony in Verona Arena was lukewarm (I was too poor for good seats), Rome was too grand for my liking (I did take awesome photos), Vatican’s Museums were impressive and Napoli was just messy enough for me to feel calm in it. 

I reiterate, Italy is the best country for a traveller.

I am in a misty mood. A bit foggy. Like I slept 20 minutes too little. And when I think of happy thoughts, I am reminded of the books Betty gifted me in Marseille, Arthur’s tiny balcony after a long nap and a bit of wine I drank in the middle of Caldonazzo. 

I wanna go for a run. Or a swim. It’s too cold for a swim. Maybe I’ll go run. 

-Sagar Ghimire

The 7th month has begun! I am officially, undoubtedly and irrefutably past my half volunteering period. I am scared of returning home! 

Scared, not in a metaphorical sense or even in a poetic melancholic way. I don’t know what my life would be like when I return back home. A lot hangs on my experience here. I have to make the next 5 months count, both for my memories (life is but a dream) and my career (a year in Europe means a lot to my job and education perspectives). 

I have therefore, discussed with my coordinator about what I’d like to know before I depart. I want to carry some substantial competence from Italy that would be difficult to find in Nepal. I want to learn how to properly run a youth organization that has volunteering as a main focus. I feel, Inco, through its ups and downs can inadvertently teach me what to do and also what not to do. Most of it depends upon me, what questions to ask and to whom. 

Sono Contento! I am content.  Italy has made me happier.

 

The contentedness comes from so many places; 

1. Books and reflection: I finished Anna Karenina (took me 2 months, felt like 7), The Metamorphosis and The Death of Ivan Ilych. I feel more intense and observant purely due to the books I’ve read. The Death of Ivan Ilych shook me. Death is omnipresent. 

2. Friendship and illusions: I feel loved quindi I can love more. I feel seen quindi I can see. The duality of Māyā माया: love and illusion is omnipresent. 

3. Lakes and cities: The other volunteers will share my passion for chilling on the lake and travelling to other nearby cities. You know it too! <3 

4. Work: We wrote a lovely youth project ‘Polar Positives’! It was pretty stressful, but worth the work. The Deegeays project is now in full-fledge and we are even looking for flights to see if we can have a proper meeting here in Trento for the team (please don’t quote me on this). 

5. Coffee! 

I need to find, however, a method/tool to retain this happiness when I return back home. I am proving this through growing my competence. 

Vediamo!

-Sagar Ghimire

 Preface: I haven’t finished Anna Karenina yet. I am disappointed and a little bit ashamed. Now, back to the blog! 

Since the last time you read my blog (or you didn’t), I have done around 50 km of running (during the process where I saw the limitations of my knees), gone back to learning guitar (during which I found out I can sing only ONE SONG), napped in the middle of a working-day  (I don’t regret this) and eaten way too much tortellini (but somehow I’m still losing weight). AND celebrated Nepali new year and if you didn’t know; spring is officially here! 

Nepal just celebrated their new year; 2078. No, that’s not a typo; it is year Two Thousand and seventy eight in Nepal. Around 57 years ahead of the AD calendar. The month in Nepal is not April, but Baisakh and the weird thing is we don’t even celebrate it. We just go; meh...it’s just another day. 

But in Trento, we did celebrate it because we needed an excuse to meet and make fun of each other. We cooked samosas with chutney and ate 3 different desserts. The girls i.e. Reme, Laura and Julia were very kind to bring two different types of awesome cake/muffin-like-dessert thingy!

Also, I went, randomly during my hike, to the bear conservation area. I was kinda scared! >.< 

And I saw a waterfall, broke my hiking-stick, slipped on the snow, gave up my hike and did a total of 1100meters elevation and covered 15 kilometers in total distance.

 

And in the same place, I saw this. This was funny and very weird. I was so amused by this! Aren’t you? Why would someone forget their cup in the bear sanctuary? And why would someone carry a fancy tiny cup there?

Anyway, I could write a thesis about the red-zone and how I wanted to get away from all that, but I won’t. I enjoyed my last week way too much to bother myself with the nitty-gritty of the lock-down. 

And to all those reading, happy new year!

That’s Juliette, not me!

You will be fine! 

Sagar, from the future (year 2078)

 First of all Namaste! 

My third month is about to complete and oh boy do I have a lot to share with you all! 

Okay! In my last blog I forgot to mention that I was quarantining in a lovely lovely place in the hills with a dog as a friend. She was my best friend there and I feel like the love for dogs has followed me to Trento. I watched snowfall there... and as it should, it made me contemplate my whole life and how beautiful and conflicting it was that I was in Italy during the period where people are recommended not to visit even their closest friends. 

Now that I am in Trento, let me tell you how I feel about the place. Not to steal Reme’s words, 

‘Trento is a BIG circular town’. If you are lost (that is more or less me most of the time) you are very likely to find the street that is familiar to you after 25 minutes...and you can follow that street and you will end up in your destination. I promise! So, that’s the main city.

What about the surrounding area? 

Trento, I am so happy to say, is one of the best destinations if you like to walk and hike. We have big and small hiking trails, a whole river to walk alongside, we have a ‘cable car’ that takes you to a tall hill, Sardagna (sometimes for free?!what?!) and you are never too far away to conquer a new hill or a mountain. And sometimes if you want to go to see a waterfall, you end up climbing a mountain, never see the forsaken waterfall and be happy that the universe had some other plans with you! 

Reme, our guiding star, who is always making sure that we stay a group and go for lively adventures somehow always finds places to go. They always turn out to be the best thing ever! If you ever see Reme in the wild, do give her a high five! Or bow to her...she likes that. 

In short, my weekend adventures have never been better… My phone says that I am walking around 8000 steps everyday and that during the weekend it’s around 15000 steps! 

Work! Yes, I am doing that too… 

The new strategic partnership project called Deegeays  (pronounced DJs) has officially kicked off and we e-met the partners! Globers is creating podcasts and other lovely content. And Empath4Youth...it’s complicated. Suffices to say that that when I am not dreaming about having Olga’s crepes, Juliette’s chocolates, Reme’s adventures, Christina’s wisdom, Laura’s brownies, Julia’s fluffy cakes* and Ellie’s misadventures; I am working with Globers volunteers to make beautiful content and workshops, with Anya to realize the potential of the projects and with Reme to create creative video ideas. 

Books! Yes, they need their own paragraph…

Thanks for reading this far...I really appreciate it. I love you for sticking by. 

Okay, books…Since my time in Italy, I have finished 2666- Roberto Bolano, The five people you meet in Heaven, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Half read- 100 years of Solitude and my ultimate book of the year so far...Brothers Karamazov by Mr. Dostoevsky himself. During these readings, I felt like the writers’ thoughts coincided with mine and that we were in a gossip about our experiences. That we were in deep conversation about me. I had to sometimes, after having read a sentence, put the book down...widen my eyes, breathe out and agree/disagree deliberately to what they said about how they felt. 

I have now started another big undertaking. Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy. As of this writing, I am on page 210 and have put down the book at least 5-6 times feeling ashamed, disagreeing, rolling my eyes, nodding with exasperated agreement and laughing nervously at the decisions made. I am living more than one life. 

If you finished reading all of what I had to say, I am so very happy you did. 

Namaste! 

- Sagar Ghimire

I am in Italy for already a month, but due to the quarantine and lockdown, I have been out in the city only a week. So all that I know about Trento, Italy is mostly from the inside. The rooms are nice and warm, the bed is springy and the dogs that people walk are breeds that I have never seen before. I am in Italy! 

After the first few meetings, with the administrator, coordinator and the social media manager; I now am working on 3 projects. Each better than the previous one! Globers, the project that brought me here is almost halfway through, EMpath4YOUth a new calming project about emotional intelligence and Social Emotional Learning is going to be awesome and I feel is absolutely something we should bring to our day-to-day language; and the last project DEEGeays (we call it DJs) is an ambitious project trying to bring the Non-formal education into the online space. I just cannot wait for them all to begin in full-fledge. 

I did make friends. Thank all the 300million gods. Reme (who dislikes being called by her full name), Julia (the youngest of the group) and Juliette (Oui!) are so full of life! And in my hostel I will have around 10 hostel mates all from various parts of Italy. I don’t think I’m going to miss home. 

I am Sagar, and I am in Trento! 

Arrivederci!

- Sagar Ghimire