A Week in the Life

Buona Pasqua, everyone! That is how you say Happy Easter in Italian :-)

It is Sunday. It is Easter. It is April Fool’s Day. And today marks 1 full MONTH that I have been gone from the United States. I know for some folks that may seem like nothing at all, but to me that feels incredible, encouraging, and perspective-altering.

Incredible in its own right- I can now say I spent a month of my life, 1/12th of a year, 31 consecutive days in another country, by myself. That is something I can now say and look back on and declare as an activity in my life.

Encouraging because I am 1/6th of the way done. I have made it more than 16% of the way through my time away from the people I love most in the world. I am already 1/6th of the way to coming back to the house we just bought and making it our real home. I am 1 month down and less than 3 short months until I see Matt again in June. Time is going quickly.

Perspective-altering because… well… time is going quickly. I am in my FIFTH weekend in Europe and only have 21 left. 21! And I have at least 50 places I wish I could see while over here, so there is a small feeling of “Oh crap, this is going to go by so quickly, and I really can’t waste any time.”

I have already said this, but I am not afraid to repeat it- I am really proud of myself for what I am doing. Again, for some people, an adventure like this may be no big deal. I know so many wonderfully courageous and extroverted people that would be owning this experience without any fear or hesitation. I consider myself an extrovert and to have a generally adventurous spirit, but this is tough for me. I am being faced head on with some of my anxiety and self-esteem issues I have held onto for so many years, even in the last few years where I have been happier than I ever imagined being. My time here has already been so valuable, and I know without a doubt it will change me in the best of ways. I already see small mental shifts as I approach my day and my outfits and my health and my relationships and my LIFE. It is so, so difficult to be away from Matt and my friends and to be in SUCH a different timezone from my family etc., but I am starting to feel the reflection and the challenges overcome having their anticipated and desired effect. What a beautiful opportunity I am being given here, and I am so grateful.

Comunque (Anyway), this week was focused on finding friendships at the office, largely with the young Process group here. My boss still never found work for me besides helping him with a few tasks here and there, so I spent the majority of my days working on my Italian and planning trips. According to Duolingo I got up to 56% fluent in Italian… but I don’t quite believe it since I still can’t string together a conversation. Regardless, it was nice to relax and get paid for it, but I was also suuuppper bored. I am getting incredibly antsy.

So Monday after getting home, I made and ate dinner, and I ran out for groceries. I remembered to grab a basket BEFORE going through the turnstile this time. I looked again for shaving cream and really thought I had found it, but when I got home found out it was wax. Sigh. I also recognized when the cashier was asking if I needed a bag. She then said something else that I did not understand and my face must have clearly said “what in the world…” because she just shook her head and gave up. Hope it wasn’t important… After that I spent the rest of my evening writing about Florence :-)

Tuesday was sunny and beautiful, so I went with two girls over lunch to a nearby small park to sit on benches and eat. It was lovely and made me feel good to be included. One girl is planning a trip with the group to Sicily (where she is from) and the other wants to plan a weekend hiking in the mountains. Both sound amazing, and I think I may actually get invited!

Tuesday evening I had to do some laundry, so I wised up a bit this time. I brought home my backpack from work and used my vacuum bags that I used when I flew over here to transport my laundry without having to carry a huge bag of dirty clothes down a busy Milan street. I was out of cash (see Florence post) and was pretty sure the automatic laundromat did not take credit card. So, I stopped at an ATM and got some money out. It only gave me 50’s though, which I was also pretty sure it did not accept (though now after looking again I am pretty sure it does), so I just HAD to stop and get some gelato to break my 50 ;-) I then still continued to screw up and put a 20 into the machine. The pro was that it gave me change… the con was that it gave me CHANGE. One load of wash is about 6 Euros. The machine does not give bills in return, only coins (1 and 2 dollar euros are coins not bills)... And it didn’t even have enough 1 and 2 euro coins to cover it. So in the end I think the machine gave me my 14 euros of change in about 25 coins. Thank god I didn’t put the 50 in….

On Wednesday evening I had a coworker invite me to a dinner which serves traditional southern Italian food like where he is from- the Apulia region. It was a little awkward because no one else was able to come with and he is a bit older than me, but it turned out to be a really nice evening. He told me about the area where he grew up and where his family still lives. He talked about the food and the wine and the relaxed lifestyle that southern italians live. He clearly is not a huge fan of Milan and the “north,” but there is more work up here and it is just what makes sense right now. It was really interesting to hear him describe the difference in cultures between the north and south as it sounded so similar to some of the differences between the north and south in the US. People in the south are apparently more carefree, more hospitable, kinder, and generally more worried about going to the beach and getting into the sea than they are with finding air conditioning in the summer. On top of learning a lot about Apulia and getting to discuss travel and culture, I had some great food and some knockout wine. The wine actually wasn’t too high in alcohol percentage but it tasted like it was. Apparently some areas in the north used to blend this Negroamaro with their wines to make them taste better, but now have adopted it as its own product here as it has been for many years in the south. Fun stuff.

Thursday after work I was invited to an aperitivo with a whole crowd of young folks (again, mostly the Process group) to say goodbye to Stefanie the intern who is leaving Italy today to head back to Germany to finish her master’s thesis. I had a couple of delicious beers, we all shared meat plates, and I had my first exposure to gnocco fritto which is essentially delicious fried dough. Awesome. Overall had a great time bonding with the group and doing some more cultural comparisons haha.

(Somehow this is the only picture I took this week... Woops)

Friday we all went to lunch at a local bistro type place called Arteteca where the food is amazing and one of the owners has been wearing a Michael Jordan sweatshirt both times I have been. Friday night I stayed in and was very excited about it. I ate dinner, lounged, watched Netflix, and talked to Matt. Lovely night in my mind :-)

And that, ladies and gentlemen, signore e signori, is a very vanilla standard week in the life in Milan. No crazy new experiences. No beautiful and wonderful travel. Just experiencing a world other than my own as if it were my own.

More news coming in the next post, but I don’t want to ruin the absurd surprise :-)

See you soon!