California or Basilicata?

California or Basilicata?
this is the first time I have attempted to put someone else s article on my blog but if it works its
well worth reading. Its a little sad but not hopeless . I feel a kind of loyalty to basilicata because apart from all the other people who already lived here, WE DISCOVERED IT.
It was like one of the programmes on tv where a couple just pack up and leave home to move to somewhere they have never been before, dont speak the language and dont have jobs and you watch as they struggle to make their new life work, and cause they are on tv then it generally does. ( it would be too embarrassing not to I imagine)
That was just like us and we would never have made it this far, (without the help of a tv prog,) if the people who live here were not so overwhelmingly kind and helpful.
Its more than 6 years now and I still love being here.
I would not have been painting if i had lived in scotland as I would not have been able to afford to without having another job and I dont know if I would have been so determined to carry on if I was not actually really needing to paint to earn.
There are few jobs here so I have not had many options. Teaching english privately doesnt seem to happen and I am frankly too scared to stand in front of a class of italian children. (I have tried)
So I paint and keep on painting and gradually I am getting better and I get to call myself an artist, and be in art exhibitions, and have a studio, sell paintings at markets and paint peoples portraits. sometimes I think , what an odd way to earn a living , by twiddling away with a paint brush( and its not much of a living) but its an adventure I would like to keep going.
I will need to diversify and get better at marketing and perhaps take some risks but somehow here it all seems possible .
when the sun shines and people greet us in the street, when I scooter up in the morning and wave to people I ve never met but see in passing, when the next unexpected thing happens , when wine costs less than 5 euros for 5 litres.
so maybe writing this blog and having people read it is my way of making sure I succeed here. who knows?
I would like this area to succeed too. (We discovered it after all!)