I read this great piece on things that Texas and Italy have in common, over at Bleeding Espresso as part of Michelle’s Gita Italiana.  It got me thinking of how well I was able to live in Seattle – even if it was more expensive than here – while maintaining the Italian lifestyle I love so much.  If you dream of being an expat in Italy, but have just not arrived at that moment yet, it’s well worth it (and healthy) to explore your own city and try to find ways to bring Italy to you.  Here are some ways to do so in Seattle.

The Market Culture. Anybody who has been to Seattle has been to the Pike Place Market.  There are plenty of farmers markets all over the city, but Pike Place is an icon of Seattle and is teeming with stalls selling fresh fish (and by the way, the pacific northwest has some amazing salmon), fruits and vegetables, flowers, local wines.  The area around the market is full of small, hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants, cafes, an Italian Grocer, wine shops.  When I would pine for Europe while living in Seattle, this is where I would go. A café au lait and a croissant at Le Panier while watching the market wake up in the morning?  Priceless.  When I lived in the First Hill neighborhood, almost downtown, I would walk to the market and get my produce there.

The Café Culture. Another thing Europeans commonly say about America is that our coffee is no good.  That’s because they have not been to Seattle!  And no, I am not talking about Starbucks.  I’m talking about smaller local businesses such as Caffe Vita, Caffe Umbria, Vivace and many more. These folks roast their own beans, and with Italian machinery, Seattle’s baristi (at cafes such as Senso Unico) will serve up some of the best espresso on that side of the pond.  The difference between Seattle cafes and Italian bars, however, is that in Seattle you are most likely to enjoy your coffee drink seated in a big cushy armchair as you work on your laptop (almost all Seattle cafes have wi-fi).

The Foodie Culture. We Seattlites love to eat.  And we love to cook.  And we cook well.  A lot of people have gardens and are able to get their ingredients right in the backyard.  Someone is always having friends over for dinner, and there is always creative use of local ingredients (such as our seafood).  We have a wine culture too (yes, our state has its own Wine Country, and you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted one of our floral merlots).  One great thing about Seattle being a port city, is how international it is.  You can find cuisine from all over the world – France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Vietnam, Argentina, Ethiopia and the list goes on.  Being an Italian food lover, I found it very easy to recreate my favorite recipes using the ingredients available to me in Seattle.  It’s a good life!

What does your hometown have in common with your adopted country?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net. Not only can you read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers, it’s a great place to look for cheap phone cards.  Yes, I know, with the internet it’s easy to keep in touch.  But we expats also like a regular phone call every now and then!

La Citta’ del Tempo, the association in Lecce that hosts the milonga where I’ve been DJing once in a while, Milonga Presidencial (named so as it takes place in Hotel President), hosted its annual Notti Bianche del Tango.  Traditionally, a notte bianca (white night) of any sort means a night of activities that don’t end until morning.  In this case, it was three nights of tango, all night, with six different DJs.  I was one of them.  Yes, yes, yes.  We danced from 10pm to 6am for three nights.  To someone who does not dance tango, this sounds absurd.  But if you dance tango, I know you understand (and have probably done it yourself).  We who dance tango, particularly when we are having a great time, don’t realize what time it is, ever.  We place ourselves at the mercy of the DJ and dance and dance until he or she calls “last tanda!” and then we realize the night is over.  That’s just how it is.

Anyway, it was a splendid occasion and my DJing went over really well with everyone (we had people from all over Italy).  I was able to make a lot of contacts around Italy so that I can travel with my tango.  What’s funny is that even though I was complaining a bit at the very end that I was finally so tired, by the next day, after the three nights were over, I was sad that there wasn’t a fourth.  Ah, tango.  The things it does to us.  And to enjoy the sunrise while in a warm tango embrace?  Priceless.

Ah, and if you hop over to my tango lessons page (in Italian, sorry) you’ll see that I’m even in the paper.

Below: me after DJing the second night.  Not bad for 6 o’clock in the morning!

As you may or may not kn0w, my friend Michelle over at Bleeding Espresso is on a little blog trip around Italy.  She’s actually in Calabria, and I know I really ought to make it over the “arch” to go visit her in the “toe”.  In the meantime, I am excited to be part of her “gita Italiana”.

See my piece on the Salento here!

(Buenos Aires, March 2009)

I’ve had a lot of people question my lifestyle – how can I stand to be away from family? How do I manage to keep all my belongings down to two suitcases?  Why have I moved so much?  Well, I suppose it’s just part of my personality, I am a traveler, an explorer, a discoverer.   It’s hard for me to sit still.  I follow my heart, I follow my work, and sometimes I feel like I follow my destiny.

In my case it could very well be a habit from childhood – having grown up with divorced parents, I have been traveling by plane since I can remember.  The school year here, the summer there, etc.  Perhaps for this reason I have no problem changing locations.

It’s always refreshing to find nomads who simply just love exploring new lands and being ‘perpetual expats’.  These are folks who intentionally plan their stay in a new country to last a few years, and they satisfiedly and excitedly move on to the next, appreciating all they have learned,  eager for the next culture/language/visa stamp.  I see a little bit of myself in them as well.

It’s a lifestyle that satisfies me, and sometimes frustrates me.  I find that once I do decide to settle in one spot, everything around me comes to a halt and I am pushed to keep on moving.  Case in point: while I was living in Buenos Aires, I decided I wanted to immigrate there and make it my home forever.  As soon as I told myself that, work fell apart, my home literally fell apart, as did everything else in my life.  But a door opened: the door to Italy (a free ticket thanks to my stepmother, and a shiny new Italian passport).  Maybe not everyone would have gone for it and taken that clear path, but I did, naturally.  It’s not to say I won’t be in Buenos Aires again , but it’s an example of what happens sometimes.

I don’t think the nomadic lifestyle is for everyone, but if you feel that itching, burning instinct to just go, if you can, I think you should.  It never hurts to take those first steps forward to see what’s on the other side.

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, your first stop for affordable phone cards so you can stay in touch with loved ones living in Italy. You can also click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

You breathe the music.

Now that tickled me pink!

“Oh Tina, you silly girl,” everybody at the table says, laughing, “that’s so cute that you think it doesn’t matter if you go outside right after you eat.  Chuckle chuckle, ha ha ha ha ha.  Everybody knows that if you go outside after a meal you get la congestione!”*

Six months later…. I’m on an air-conditioned shuttle bus, covering myself with a shawl, with a tummy ache, and frantically text-messaging a friend, “I ate lunch and then walked and then sat next to the air conditioning!  I think I have la congestione!”

*La congestione: an Italian phenomenon that takes place if you don’t allow for digestion to fully take place after you eat and go be where it’s cold, or go swimming, go where you might sweat from heat and make yourself cold, or really any sort of environment that has anything to do with being cold.  Apparently, it messes everything up as when you digest all your blood is concentrated on your digestive system.  When you go into a cold environment the blood distributes to the rest of your body to keep you warm and digestion is blocked.  Which is why you should always wear a scarf!  (…and you thought it was just for fashion didn’t you!)  As a bonus, you could also get the influenza (not to be confused with the common flu), which is an Italian flu-like phenomenon that lasts exactly two days.  Remember, cold is evil!

1. Do your homework. I know your local university has had an exchange program with the Italian university for so many years, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to help you once you get to Italy.  Perhaps you’ve been offered a job, but it may not be wise to assume your employer actually plans on getting you a visa.  Even if they do, and even if your university does help its students, you would be wise to take the responsibility of doing as much research as you can.  One great place to start is Expats in Italy.

2.  Learn the difference between a visa and a permesso di soggiorno. It is very important to keep in mind that a visa simply gets you into the country.  To actually stay, you need to get your permesso di soggiorno, or stay permit.  The visa is important to have because it is sort of a springboard to get you started in the bureaucratic process of applying for your stay permit.  But that’s all it is.  When you have your visa in hand, remember that this is Italy and the paperwork is never done.  To get started on applying for your permesso, you can ask for help at your university or from your employer, or go to the post office where they have the application packages.  This is something that needs to be done within 8 days of entering Italy.  Again, the people on the forum at Expats in Italy are very helpful if you need to know more.  My friend Georgette at Insiders Abroad just posted a link to this very informative blog post dealing with just this sort of thing.

3. The magic number is 90. When you arrive as a tourist, you are allowed to stay 90 days.  But don’t assume that you can just hop the border every 90 days and keep staying.  It used to be so, but now you actually have to leave for 90 days as well.  That’s right – 90 days in and 90 days out.  And not just Italy.  You have to leave the entire Schengen area (which includes most of Europe) for 90 days.  Be very careful about abusing this rule.  I personally know people who have been caught overstaying their allotted 90 days and it was not pretty.  You could risk being banned from the entire zone for five years.

I don’t like to sound negative or discouraging, but it really perplexes me when people don’t do their research before coming over here.  Maybe I’m just obsessive-compulsive, but I would never move to another country, legally or not, without trying to learn as much as I can about how everything works.  It is completely your choice if and how you want to come to Italy, but no matter what path you choose, you will find that so many doors open for you if you just do your research before you move.  It’s worth it!

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net.  Do you have loved ones living in Italy?  You might want to click here to learn about cheap phone cards for keeping in touch. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

I also have Pino at BelTango to thank for trusting me with his students and “sponsoring” me as a teacher here.  There are several tango schools here in Lecce, and while I don’t know them very well I can at least say, from my point of view as someone who lived in Buenos Aires and danced with the best milongueros,  that Pino teaches a high-quality social tango that works for everyone.  His students love him – he seems to attract really nice people naturally.  So it’s been a joy to have them as my students too.  Very respectful, enthusiastic, ready to try new things.  My didactic is different than Pino’s but they were all very open and I think that he and I can compliment each other well.

I am dying to travel (you know me).  I’ll go back to Palermo, Sicily again in a week’s time, and then I’m off to Napoli (Naples in English) to see my best friend Kirsten who will be stopping there with her new husband while they are on their honeymoon.  I’m sure I will fit some tango in there too.

I’m dying to go back to Buenos Aires.  I really need it, for my dancing and for my soul.  Buenos Aires will always be my home and I miss it so much.  I may be able to in December for a while, let’s keep our fingers crossed.  I love that as “continuing education” for my “profession” I “have” to go to Buenos Aires.   Business expense!  Ha.

It would be nice to get back to Seattle as well.  I miss my friends there a lot.  So much.  There are a lot of things here that I wish I could share with them.  I also miss how included and a part of things I feel with my Seattle friends.  Being a new girl in Lecce has it’s ups and its downs.  I have a social life here and I have people that I can count on, but since I haven’t been here long enough, I don’t have a solid, permanent circle of friends.  That’s the life of a gypsy soul, however.

The translations are slowing down for the summer and I’m glad.  Between giving the tango courses, DJing and having giant translations projects on top of everything, my head is spinning.  I just got a Trados 2009 license (thanks  mom!) and will be able to use the summer getting used to the software so I can be more productive than ever when summer is over.

It’s been a tough couple of years.  Despite all the beauty (living in Buenos Aires, having great friends there and in Seattle, moving to beautiful Italy), it’s been rough.  Things I’ll never write about here.  This year was very healing for me and I think I might be done clawing my way up the hill.  I have a feeling things are taking a turn now and all the work will have paid off.  If you follow astrology, you know that Saturn is about to leave my sign (Virgo) until the year 2036 and I say, Ciao!  Saturn has been the planet of hard-learned lessons, and I have learned and would like to move on now, thanks.

In any event, when things don’t go my way, I just hop over to Natale, get a cone of gelato, and eat it while staring at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Piazza Sant’Oronzo.  I can only do that here.

I’ve been very proud of myself lately, in terms of making sure the dance floor is full and the energy is up.  If you’ve been to Cachirulo in Buenos Aires, then you know what kind of music I like to play – I’m a total Carlos Rey groupie and wish I could go back there right now to continue to observe.   And that kind of music works really well here.  I love this music so much and I like to think that it’s reflected on the dance floor.

When I play music or dance or teach or anything to do with Tango, it’s not just an empty action.  I do these things with all my heart, with everything inside of me that remains from my life in Buenos Aires.  My love for that city is tremendous (and my love for tango is tremendous) and I seek to share that.  I’ve had some great comments from students about my passion, and I’m glad it comes through.

But there’s always a partypooper in the mix.  I received some comments this past week on my musical choices that really had me down. Now, I am open to requests for particular orchestras, suggestions from respected, experienced DJs, requests for different eras of music, requests to turn the volume up or down.  But in this case, I’m talking about  criticism over my personal style and my music selections.  Or maybe I just perceive it that way.  I take everything to heart, you see.  And I lost sleep over this.  That’s how vulnerable I am.

On a defensive note, I couldn’t really understand – if my music is so bad, then why is the dance floor so full and vibrant when I DJ?  Hey, the last time I DJ’d we went almost an hour past closing time because it was so much fun.

But that horrible Voice of Doom (described here by Sally) took over and all I could do, before setting up the equipment last night, was imagine people rolling their eyes and saying “Oh, not this again” with each tanda.

So I started the milonga keeping in mind what those partypoopers had suggested, veering away from what I usually do, to see what would happen.  And you know what?  For the first 40 minutes, hardly anyone danced.  It was sad and I was embarrassed.  I knew I had to get back to my own stuff, and the organizer of the milonga came up to me and said, “Put on the music they know – they need cheering up.”   So did I.  And he was right – I had to play the music they know, and especially the music they know to come from me.  Surprises aren’t always a good idea.  So I threw the other comments out the window, told the Voice of Doom to take a hike and I threw on a great rhythmic Troilo tanda.

With that, the floor filled up and the energy in the room stayed high and positive all night – these people know how to have a good time.

Luckily, the majority of people whose opinions really matter (as well as some people from outside of Lecce) came after that long 40 minutes.  I received a very nice compliment from a visitor who said she had recently been to Buenos Aires and she missed it, and my music completely took her back.  THAT, my friends, trumps anything that some cranky sourpuss who can’t appreciate my tango might ever say to me.  Do I want to listen to my instinct and see that the dancefloor is full and moving beautifully? Or do I want to listen to the complaints of about 5 people who really don’t know me or tango very well?

And so, the lesson has been learned: I can, and must, only be myself.  When I want input on my music, I will ask my trusted DJ friends that I look up to, as always.  Never make compromises.  Never do anything that doesn’t come totally from the heart as a reflection of ME.  I know what works and I will continue to do what works.

So there.