Milda Fontanetti comes from Lithuania and studies singing in Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
Milda had a friend living in the UK who invited her to spend the summer and work in South of England, Bournemouth. She found a job as a waitress. She spent several summers working in the USA and UK. “It was just the thing young people and students did while they were in university to gain experience and learn the language and earn some money,” explains Milda. “But eventually I just stayed.”
The start of living in the UK was tough for Milda. “I think I was just in the point where I didn’t know where I was going and why I was there and what I was going to do with my life and I had to make money.” She had several jobs around the country that weren’t that good, made some door-to-door sales and when she came to London, she didn’t have a place to stay. “I hated it here, it was so busy and so expensive, but now I am ok.”
“It has taken me so much to settle here and make a life here, so if I would go back to Lithuania, I would have to find a job and it’s so hard to find a job there,” tells Milda. As she wants to start auditioning for opera pieces, there aren’t many possibilities in Lithuania for her. “There’s just one opera house, so there’s nothing to there for me.”
One thing that Milda really misses from Lithuania, is the water and lakes and the feeling of jumping into refreshing water. “I really miss the cleanness and the green nature. And oh, strawberries and cherries, you can’t have them here like they should be!”
Milda talks about what does “home” mean for her.
