Is scary, I am not going to lie, you are leaving everything behind, literally EVERYTHING, you arrive to a strange country, with a different language, different food, with zero friends and all of your family is back home. It doesn’t sound so good, right? However, if I am completely honest with you, it is very exciting! Why? Just imagine that your life becomes a white canvas, nobody knows the old you… you can be whoever you want and do whatever you want, the perfect way of learning about yourself and finding wherever you were searching.
So here I was, my first day in Milan, waiting for the train (that was something new for me). I started with the basic stuff: getting a transport card and a sim-card (I suggest ILIAD, the others will charge you more), tasks that were a little bit challenging because I was trying to make coherent Italian phrases from what I remembered from my Italian classes. Then, I went for food: I ate my first “real Italian Pizza” and my first delicious “gelato”. Finally, I took a Hop-on Hop-off bus (that was a goodbye gift from my boss) and went on a tour to know the city, I found it very instructive; most of all I loved the Duomo, the Vittorio Emanuele gallery, the Sforza castle and the Gae Aulenti square.
On my way, I have discovered that here they eat enormous quantity of pizza (a personal portion is a whole pizza). That “aperitivo” is a cocktail with all the food you can eat. That one croissant and a coffee makes a breakfast (that you must eat standing up). Moreover, that the birthday person is the one who brings cake for everyone (that one doesn’t convince me yet).
But living in Milan is not only about knowing the Italian culture, since it is a very international city; I have made new friends from different countries, and I have experienced and learnt about other cultures. I have attended to the Iranian New Year (Nowruz), ate Indian food with my hands with Indian friends, learned how to toast in Hungarian and went to a Greek birthday. It is incredible how being open to new experiences can teach you, the acceptance that there are different cultures outside there, different types of view and even different inclinations, makes you a completely different person, more respectful and more aware. I have grown a lot in these three years living abroad, as I’ve been opening my comfort zone I’ve been also learning a lot about myself and I am immensely grateful for that.
After some weeks, you will miss your family and friends, yes, but you can still talk to them; eventually, they will come to visit, and it will be even more exciting to show them all the things that you have learnt, the new food that makes you crazy and the little cozy libraries that you enjoy. So, if I can give you a last little advice: enjoy as much as you can and never stop traveling, because we only live once and this world is too big to explore.
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IMPORTANT ADITIONAL TIPS IF YOU ARE PLANING TO LIVE IN ITALY:
- Try not to mention, to an Italian, your culinary experiments with the Italian food (they are so picky when it comes to their food) don’t say that you put chicken or ketchup into pasta and please never say that you love pineapple on pizza.
- If you are a huge Halloween fan, this is not the right place to go, is not a major celebration here, people not even use costumes at all. However, if you still want to wear a costume, you can wait until February, put on a mask and a Victorian dress and go to Venice.
- Searching house is difficult and the rent is expensive; so I suggest you to begin the research as soon as possible; but, do not wire money to anybody, wait until you are here and you can actually see the house.
Pao's Journey 