How it all began

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When I was 20, my Uncle Gene greatly facilitated my taking a trip to Europe for a couple months over the summer.

As long as I can remember, I have dreamed of living overseas--first it was Russia, then it was India. In my first years of college I must have given some thought to Italy because I had taken one Italian class before I went over that summer. When I saw Europe, I was overcome. I thought it was the most beautiful and culturally rich place I had ever seen. That's when I really decided that living there was something I wanted. So, basically for the last 8 years, I've been talking and dreaming about this.

After I graduated from college, I moved to Hawaii to live with my dad rent free and save money for the move...but I was making so little money (only $15,000 year) and still learning how to manage it that I left two years later in debt. Things got better in North Carolina, but still not great.

I got hit in a car accident which allowed me to pay off my debts and start a small savings. But, really, I had accepted that I probably would never make my dream really happen. But then I met Ryan and it turned out that we had the same dreams, and together we decided to pursue them once more.

It took us three years to save for this without compromising our retirement and during all of this time I was reading and researching and trying figure as much out before I got here as possible. Pretty much everything from then on was just plain luck. I asked Gene (obvious choice since he lived over seas) if he knew anyone at all that I could talk to. He didn't until about 9 months ago when a friend of his decided to move near Milan to be with her boyfriend.

She and I began talking over email and she just sort of took me under her wing. She is an incredibly generous person and has been responsible almost single handedly for everything that has happened for me here. She pulled me into this project she was working on since it turned out to be so much work, but she had no idea at the time what a technical writer was or that it was pretty much the same as the job they needed me to do.

My specialty is really more hi-tech user's manuals, but I started in regulatory submissions and dabbled briefly in Biotech and Pharmaceuticals with a brief stint in EPA studies submissions. So, the broad base of my background makes some of this stuff I'm doing now familiar--but I have never had to do this as blindly as I am now. Even with the regulatory submissions I did initially, there was someone from the FAA holding my hand through the process until i became used to it.

Anyway, back to the Italy move--so, the move has been imminent for years. It was always 6 months from whatever point we were at in time and then it would get closer and we'd push it off again. Finally, we just sat down and said "We've got to just do it." and we set a date for me to leave and look for work while Ryan held down the financial fort.

I bought a ticket, began telling people, and started packing and mailing, packing and mailing. 3 days before I left, Charlotte emailed me in a happy panic telling me that her boss was going to be my boss if I was game and that she thought a furnished apt. was opening up in her building...

So far so good with the professor. He is trying to get the documentation I need together for my visa application and is confident that whatever happens with this grant, there is plenty of work for us. I work as a freelance at home and only part time so there is a great deal of flexibility for me in setting up. The apartment came open and Alberto's family (Alberto is charlotte's boyfriend--everybody lives in this building, moms dads aunts uncles cousins, friends, everyone) somehow talked the realestate agent and the owners of the place into renting it to me for only 6 months, which is virtually unheard of here. They have helped me get my documentation and set up my utilities. It's incredible.

So, my plan is to stay in the smaller quieter town of Monza where people are nice to strangers, and in the secure arms of la famiglia. Then after Ry and I have more of a pattern set up and a sense of the area, then make the year commitment somewhere in Milan.

So, Ry is arriving in about 10 days and I am very eager. It isn't nearly as fun doing this stuff when you want to be sharing it all with someone you love.

I am currently waiting on someone to bring me a phone that I bought from telecom italia and after that will go for cappuccino with Charlotte in the pretty downtown of Monza.

You know, life just doesn't feel that different here. When I touched down in '90 i thought that even the birds sang different songs. I thought the sun shined differently and wind had different effects on the trees. But this time it feels the same. It feels like normal life. Maybe because it's not beautiful. Maybe because I came expecting too much. I don't know. It's ok, but I sometimes don't feel like I'm in Italy. Except everyone speaks Italian.

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