Welcome to Adulthood

I recently realized that it was time in my life for me to start a new blog. And so, without further ado, here is my story: I am a recent college graduate, living in Italy, and trying to discover how to appreciate, and sometimes just cope with the differences in American and Italian culture.

 I had previously planned to move to Italy after graduation, in order to be closer to my boyfriend, whom I met while studying abroad, and to teach English until I could speak enough Italian to get a job in the business field. As seems to happen so often, my plans were thwarted, and instead I moved here for the second half of my pregnancy. So basically, I’m taking a year off of working. I will live here until January (baby comes December 1), then I will go back to Alabama for about 6 months to stay with my family while Paolo goes to study in San Francisco. After that, it’s anyone’s guess. My goal is to spend the next year figuring out what I want to do, as the closer and closer I got to graduation, the more I struggled with career goals. There are so many opportunities for entrepreneurship, it’s just knowing when and where to start.

 So, that is my basic story, and I thought that the blog would be a great way to chronicle my experiences. I think to some people it sounds super glamorous to come to live in Italy, to have an Italian baby, blah, blah, blah, but to me, the verdict is still out on that one. It’s a very stressful time of life to be moving to a new culture, learning a new language, etc. Not to mention dealing with all the bureaucracy of the health care system, and obtaining a permit to stay. Both of which were achieved, by the way. In fact, since I’m the mother of an Italian citizen, apparently I have a permit to stay for 5 years, and it can be renewed indefinitely. So I’m practically an Italian citizen, right? Haha, yeah right. Most of my initial experiences here were comparable with my experiences in France. As in, certain things are so difficult and ridiculous here that it only makes me mad. Maybe it’s like that wherever you go, I don’t know. For example, I went to the doctor here before I had all the health insurance stuff figured out. They said they would take care of it, they filled out some forms for me, did the exam and an ultrasound; everything seemed to easy. When I went to the hospital to have bloodwork done the next day, they told me the forms that had been filled out were only for illegal aliens, and since I was American, I was legal, and so they couldn’t see me. What?? Basically, if I had been illegal, it would have been easier for me to see the doctor than by being legal. (This is only true for pregnancy insurance, by the way) But I can really understand why the Italian economic system is in so much turmoil. They give health insurance to just anyone apparently! Not to mention that Berlusconi is continually being elected to public office, but that’s another issue.

 I finally got all the paperwork straightened out, and have my insurance and permit to stay, so from that perspective, hopefully the worst is over. I am still struggling with certain things, and there seems to be a new thing pop up every day. Initially, it was the trash. We have three different trash cans; one for paper, one for recyclables, and one for everything else. However, paper towels and kleenex don’t count as paper. In what universe??? But these are the things I deal with. Now we’re at the beach for a month, which also sounds glamorous, but once again, has hidden difficulties. In America, I’ve always gone swimming during the hot part of the day. It makes sense; it’s refreshing. But here the pool is closed from 12-4, aka the hottest part of the day. I can’t really understand why. There’s no life guard on duty, I don’t see why it should ever be closed. According to Paolo, during the hot part of the day, you’re just supposed to eat and sleep, which is why all shops and apparently pools, are closed. Whatever.

As for learning Italian, I’m trying, but it’s difficult to me. I don’t really have the gift of being great at learning languages. Paolo’s parents can’t understand why I’m not completely fluent yet, but they seem to forget I’ve been here less than a month, and I did have a fairly busy life prior to coming here. I spent my first two weeks here mostly listening to people; you can learn a lot by listening. Only in the past week have I started trying to speak, but it’s slow going. Some days, it seems easier than others. Other days, like yesterday, I couldn’t understand anything, and couldn’t remember anything. I’m going to blame that on pregnancy, not stupidity. Maybe the nicest thing about pregnancy is that everything can be blamed on it, because there are infinite symptoms. Your gums are bleeding? Probably pregnancy. Mood swings? I can’t help it, I’m pregnant, you should be more considerate.

Anyways, sorry for the long entry, I probably should have started the blog sooner, because I apparently have a lot to say! If you made it this far, thank you for reading! Ciao for now, Kathleen