Gypsy: 3 years, 4 countries, 17 apartments...

I started making a mental list of how many times I moved in and out, how many houses and how many countries over the past 3 years. It was kind of an adventure, so I decided to write it down so as not to forget it....

October 2008-November 2009: New Zealand

-For the first two weeks a colleague let me sleep in the guest room, until I find a place I feel like living in for one year.

-Chester Street East: I immediately fall in love with this two storey house in a quiet corner of Christchurch, and my two flatmates Linda and Joe are lovely. We live together until March, then Joe buys a house on his own and Linda takes off for a one year long trip across Asia and Europe....

-I move in with Joe in his new apartment. We are in a less amenable area, but the house is great and Joe is the best flatmate ever. And we've got a heat pump, so we're good to go for the winter!

November 2009-January 2010 : Italy

-I barely have the time to feel back home and to enjoy my family and friends after one year of absence, and I'm already setting things up for the next country... Very strange and tense moment of transition. I wish I had more time at home, but at I'm also looking forward to moving to Germany...

January 2010 - March 2010 : Germany

-Here is when the dance begins. As soon as I arrive in Germany I spend sometime in the youth hostel. A sad crappy place, so as soon as I can I run away.

-I find a room in an apartment shared with an Arab guy. He is really lovely and kind. But then I meet his former girlfriend, who is not really aware of the fact of being an ex... Obviously she's not okay with it, and even less with the fact of me living with her (ex)boyfriend. Useless to stress that I just want a roof over my head and any romantic interaction is not among my priorities. As I try to solve the problem with my flatmate, I discover that the lovely woman is actually married with 2 children and her husband in jail for the fifth time for drug dealing....For a moment I consider the possibility of being on a candid camera... After three weeks of tension and grotesque nightmares I move out.

-I find a place in a quiet house up the hill. My landlady is a lovely woman who loves to cook and to speak Italian. During one of our conversations in the kitchen, I discover that she is a psychologist specialized in sexual deviations. "After four marriages I thought I've seen them all," she tells me while sipping a glass of red wine, "but then when I listen to some of my clients...."
Here I resolve that I'm doomed not to find ordinary people on my way, which I'm not sure is a bad thing, though....

March 2010-May 2010: Israel

-I live in the dorms. The apartment is shared with other four girls: one from LA, one from Germany, one is Georgian, and another Israeli. The accommodation is gross and old; wild cats enter the house during the night through the bathroom window, to go and sleep on the sofa (Israel crawls with cats). My room is basically a cell, but considering that I'm working 12 hours a day, it's not a such big problem...

May 2010 - July 2010: Germany

-Back to the house uphill with the psychology lady. We're actually becoming good friends and she makes me feel part of the family.

July 2010 -February 2011: Israel

-I move to an apartment which is at the first floor, facing a busy road. At every hour of day and night there are honking horns, shouting people,cars running and skidding through the streets with loud folklore music. It takes me one week to start sleeping properly.... The flatmates, two Israelis, are ok. Not the best nor the worst I've lived with.

-In September my flatmates move out and the daughter of the landlady moves in with her boyfriend. They are cool and we actually have a good time, even though I start feeling tired of living out of my luggage with a continuous feeling of precariousness.

-In December my contract expires, but since I'm forced to extend my stay in Israel, I have to find a new place. I move in with a weird Canadian girl who has lived in Israel for 5 years. In normal conditions I would never stay in this place or with such a flatmate, but I don't have much choice. She's a crazy cosher OCD, moody, rough and scrutinizing every single move I make...but when she's in a good mood, she's genuinely caring and has a good heart. In someway we manage to find a balance in our dysfunctional daily routine, and we arrange for me to come back to her house when I come back, since it's so hard to find short term accommodation in this country...

February 2011: Germany

-I move in the coolest place ever!!! In this WG I live with other 3 people. Two girls and a guy. They are lovely and so caring! The apartment is right in the city centre, an old house; on the wall outside apparently, according to the tourist guides, "Goethe once puked" ... such an honor -.-'
The wooden floors are an up and down of crick-cracks, and walking through the rooms is every time a concert. But still as I cross the door I feel like at home and suddenly I feel like I could live here for a while... .

March 2011 -June 2011: Israel

-Again living with the Canadian girl.... At least this time I'm working crazy hours and we don't meet very often, that might be the reason why we get on so well this time.

June 2011 -July 2011: Germany

-Back to the apartment of my dreams. I'm feeling stronger and stronger about the idea of living in this town for a longer time.

August 2011: Israel

-last month in Israel: I can't say I'm sad about that. Back with the weird girl, after a bumpy start things start going better, until an invasion of cockroaches in the apartment turns me into a paranoid-sleepless desperate creature. The day I leave the country I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown and as I land in Germany I hardly resist the impulse of hugging every person I meet.

September 2011-Now: Germany

-As I come back I receive a welcome back party and since then I feel I have a second family. I finally have the prospect of settling down and stop living out of my luggage.
I have a bed and a sofa (of my own!!!) and projects and a busy long term schedule and pictures on the wall! The sight of a suitcase still gives me the creeps, but I'm confident that soon I'll be ready to take off to some trips here and there. Until I'm ready for the next big adventure ;)