Thursday
Jul152010
The city I live in
July 15, 2010 * * * * * Posted by: Petra 
When I moved to this town where I live in now – 11 years ago - I didn’t think much of it. We moved to live closer to my husbands work, otherwise we would have never thought of moving over here. We still think that it is only temporary and we will be moving away from here when the time is right.
I am doing fine over here. My mum once gave me a poster of a kitten sleeping in a plant trough, along with the saying: ‘When you are at peace with yourself any place is home’, and I find that saying is true, at least I like to try to live that way. Furthermore I moved only a 1,5 hours drive away from where I used to live, so no big deal. Maybe to Americans that is not a lot, but over here it feels like a lot (Paris is only a 5 hours drive away)
Ever since we moved here, my life has changed quite a bit. I took a sabbatical leave of a very busy job and got interested in all the things I never had time for: Art, photography, gardening (this only lasted a short while ;-) ), cooking, nature. I liked it so much, I never went back to my job. Added to that I found time for a dog, something I had longed for for so long.
But lately I am beginning to like this town more and more. More than I ever thought I would. And the reason for that is all the activity that is buzzing in this town. There is always something to do over here, some festival to go to. For instance once a year, in July, this town hosts the biggest moving fair in Europe. For 10 days the city centre is changed into a giant - what to compare it with? Not Disney, more like Knott’s berry farm. I googled that and now I see it is called a - theme park including roller coasters and giant (Falkirk?) wheel.
Architecturally this is not a very interesting town, it is a workman’s town, in the past known for the textile factories that used to be here.
This is a town with a university and some other interesting educations, which make the town a place with a lot of youth. The school that makes this town so attractive to me is the Art-school, with all its faculties, like: the dance-academy, the circus-academy, the rock-academy, and drama-academy, academy of music, academy of art, academy of architecture. It not only attracts very creative people and people from all over the world, but they all have performances once every while and especially at the end of the schoolyear, which is right about now. I visited the 3rd year circus performance, the 2nd year circusperformance and this picture was taken at the ‘Dansnacht’ (dance-night) an 8pm till 2am lasting variety of dance performances in and outdoor. You can imagine that I had a great time. Now I am investigating what music events to go to and in October art-school will have their end-exhibition. So, never a dull moment :-)
Reader Comments (9)
Sounds like just the kind of town that I'd love to live with. Filled with all sorts of creative people and life..I'd probably find a way to keep myself happily busy and occupied. And yes - if we are at peace with ourselves..we will always be at home. Such a wise quote for a mother to pass on to her daughter.
Love the colors in this image. Looks like such fun!!!!
I love that the color green matches Marcie's avatar. Will it match mine, too, I wonder (can't remember what mine looks like)? How fun. And guess what, Petra? Astrid came home from work the other day and said to me, "Do you want to go to the Fair in Tilburg next Monday? It's Pink Monday!" Not hard to guess what THAT is, is it. :) Don't know if we'll have a chance to bump into you but we will leave after Astrid gets home from work, and should get there around 5:30. We'll stay for the evening and then go back home. We really want to see Europe's biggest moving fair! And to think it's in YOUR city. I wonder how they chose that location?? I bet you get a lot of vistors from Belgium, so maybe that's why. I'm so glad you're at peace with yourself. :) You have a lot at your fingertips.
Sounds like great fun, I can see why you are falling in love with it... that is my favorite color green! Things, and places, they grow on you, don't they?
Places and towns do grow on you. When we first came to this area where I now live I hated it! We wanted the mountains, but we got the desert of Washington. But after a while I came to see the beauty of the area. Your town sounds like a fabulous place with tons of things to keep you busy.
That looks like a truly interesting dance performance. It's wonderful to see creative and imaginative projects in this sort of environment, no wonder you're coming to like it more and more. My home town is Belfast and for a long time we had other types of activities going on, but now it's very vibrant and has that kind of creative buzz :)
I so feel the same way! If I knew I'd be here for so long I perhaps would have made different decisions about my house, my work etc. But then again, my life wouldn't be what it is now!
what a funny sight...women in green running around with wheelbarrows, hard not to laugh :). rather envy your love of your town; we haven't really settled yet - plus the only big enough place near to us isn't really that nice. i start to think how nice it would be to put down some roots, bed in as such...start enjoying all the things around you.
I am so glad you like it. I was totally fed up with it, hate the self-centered attitude of the people living there, hate the dialect (sounds like frogs trying to speak) and hate the ugly buildings due to an over-destructive former major who had everything worth keeping for generations to come replaced by ultra modern ugly skyscrapers. No I do not like the city you live in at all. I have lived there for 30 years, and the only good thing that has happened during that period is that I met my husband.
On the arts part I must say you are right. The city is always buzzing with all kinds of arts. Thank god Galway is the same!!!
I live in a sleepy small town and I'm quite pleased with it. Grew up in a big town though and sometimes I dream of moving back there :-) It seems like a nice town that you live in.