A little over a week into 2018 and I’m kind of back on my feet after feeling really lost for some time. Here we go again, ready to rumble!
The daily structure of language classes has started again. It’s just two of us in our language class right now, which leaves my classmate and me with more attention than we wish for. Every little mistake gets noticed and there’s nowhere to hide when you didn’t do your homework. However, we do have the sweetest teacher in the world, who’s super patient with all of our struggles and funny non-existing words and pronunciations. And we laugh. We laugh so much! The other day we were talking about things we fear. We all contributed our personal fears, which led to this list:
- Ragni (spiders)
- Buio (the dark)
- Uomini italiano (Italian men)
It may not sound very funny like this, but every time we mention this list we crack up again. It’s the little things that pull you through hard lessons or tough days and this little list definitely helps.
One thing that should be added to that list, according to me, is italian bureaucracy of which I’ve had my first taste in the past few days. Don’t you just love it when you get sent from desk to desk and office to office?! That’s more or less what my life has looked like over the last few days, trying to figure out what kind of lease agreement I needed to sign for my new apartment.
It started with a accidental encounter with a british lawyer who’s been living and working in Florence for a couple of years. I mentioned my new apartment and that I wanted to get residency as soon as I had settled in there. That got a conversation started about different types of contracts being needed to obtain residency and from there it basically went downhill….. The story is way too long to share, but it consisted of multiple calls, visits to different offices, multiple contracts, two apperol spritz with the lawyer in piazza Santo Spirito and finally tonight: A SIGNED CONTRACT!
A few lessons learned:
- never panic, it will be alright
- Italians share a common enemy: the state and government
- did I mention never panic?
- agreeing on something half a day before it needs to be signed, is still in time
- NE VER PA NIC
- do not ask multiple people for advice on these kinds of matters. Nobody knows. Neither do the officials.
And so I find myself packing boxes again. My new place is just a five minute walk from my current home, which is super convenient. It’s beautiful, modern, bright and it actually has windows. The cat and I will be delighted to be living there!
No better start for the new year than a new place. Working on future plans (world domination is one of them. Or actually that’s the cat’s.), my Italian and fully enjoying this beautiful city and all of the amazing people that surround me here again. Back on track!
