Advice for New Expats |
If you are free falling..do just that. Get ready for an adventure and take it as it comes. If you are more of a planner, plan. Write to people currently in your chosen destination, ask a lot of questions. Imagine a day in your life in the new place. What do you need? What do you do? How do you get about? Then make sure you try to get all the answers to these questions or your most important needs sorted out before you leave. Diving into a new culture is alarming for the senses and if you are not the type to adapt easily, prepare yourself mentally for the shock. Know that no matter what, you will arrive being one of various levels of a child and needing help. Sounds odd but it's not. You might be a newborn when you arrive, not able to do anything unaided. You might be a 3 year old, stumbling about and with rudimentary language skills-just the essentials. Or, you might be a 5 year old, capable of some explanation and getting around. At any rate, if you do not know someone there, you will need to meet someone-so keep smiling and be friendly no matter what comes your way because being in awkward or uncomfortable situations only gets worse when YOU develop a bad attitude. You choose where you go and you are like the guest so mind your manners..also, your expectations have little to no bearing on the natives behaviour. Sorry..but it is true. I speak from experience so if you have any questions, please let me know and I will gladly try to help soften your landing in your new place.
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Italy: An American wanting to start a business while EXPAT in Italy:
I am an American citizen married to an Italian citizen. I am a resident in both California and Italy, and I want to start a business online (with stateside registration). I am not sure which state is best suited to my business needs (or tax friendly). I am looking for some advice from a CPA who knows both US and Italian regulations. I would like to manufacture in ITALY and eventually own that piece of the business as well.
Italy: Anyone in or coming to Calabria?:
I am an American in Calabria (near Lamezia and Catanzaro) looking for others. We have so far found four expats here in this area. Just checking if there are more...if so, get in touch! It would be nice to show someone around the interesting places in the area and introduce the others in the area. It can be a bit overwhelming to start but, if you can get in touch with others and learn about some of the good things they have found being here, it is a huge help!
Italy: american carpenter in italy:
Hello from an American in Calabria! We would LOVE to have someone like you in our area. I have never commissioned pieces in the States but here, we paid over 900 Euro per door in our home, then there were the windows, the firepalce, etc...it was a whopping bill. Also, here, no one asks the price first...and no one tells until the end either. You have to know that the power alotment allowed per home is LOW, lower than the states by far. For example, many times, you cannot have the oven, the iron and something else 'on' at the same time or the power goes out. We got an upgrade and have a higher alotment. Be sure you check out that stuff. Falegname (woodworkers) have a hard time finding workers and there are not many of them (you also should know that this stuff is usually a family run business). You might be able to work with one there....but remember, the other workers know nothing else and would feel threatened by you and this could be uncomfy...There are enough expats in the area you are choosing that you might be able to work almost exclusively for them. It would be refreshing to have someone working on your projects who speaks your language and is OK with you asking for an upfront estimate. We have many tools and if someone does refurbish their home, they would normally have tools as well. Just go to the hardware store nearest to you there in Umbria and get some estimates. You can also rent them in the beginning if you find a good harware store or 'Bricco' store. You can go online to check pricing as well. I think wood here in Italy is expensive. We paid 800 euro for two VERY, VERY simple fireplace doors here (my brother could have whipped them out in a few hours or less). It also took MONTHS (9 months) to get some things like the fireplace doors after they brought the mantel. They had no hurry and no problem leaving two gaping holes on the sides of our fireplace. They also had no issue bringing over ill-fitting peices with two different stains on them until I told them that was not OK, then they said it was like 'Arte Povera' in their way and I said no, it was not ok to leave them that way...so then they took them off and fixed them (and this is the place that charges high prices and are known as the best in our area). Shoddy work is quite accepted as whiners are people who do not accept shoddy work. They try to get away with crap under the guise of well, its artisian or Arte Povera..its crap. They will perform better but only if they have to. If they perform well from the get go, you might end up paying masterpeice prices for something you would consider standard. Also, using 'legno massello' or real solid untreated wood is rare...so be careful. In other words, if you come to Umbria, you would have little to no real competition if you work with American work ethics and use honesty and quality materials for your work. Things happen by word of mouth, and even pricing is done that way with Italians. No one tells what they really paid and that leaves it open for the woodworker to make his own price for each client. Check out http://www.subito.it/annunci-umbria/vendita/giardino-fai-da-te/
also check prices on Ebay.it -only from members with excellent high numbers of good feedback. http://shop.ebay.it/items/Bricolage-e-Fai-da-Te___bricolage_W0QQ_catrefZ1QQ_flnZ1QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em282
Good luck!
Italy: Unveiling the Myth of Italy:
So true..until Italians learn what they have needs to be preserved, it is going downhill fast. It seems like a beautiful place turned into a brothel. No one criticizes another and there is no real punishment for ruining things here. No one talks aboutthe ugliness. It is a shame. You are one of the few to actually tell the truth about people looking miserable and being closed and rude as well. It has taken me over 5 years to break through that and my husband is Italian and even with that connection, it was a real battle and emotionally draining trying to figure out how to be on the inside and not on the outside. If you have no use (i.e. nothing to exchange that they need) then you really have no leverage. They have to spend most of their time with family so friends are not the same things really. When friend time is limited, they prefer to have friends who can benefit them in some way usually (be it socially, professionally, social debts, favors, getting into hospital easier and quicker, etc). I never advertize what my husband does to others as they would then befriend me to get use of him. But, the friends I have made are really great as they were the few that was NOT seeking compensation of some form in exchange for friendship. When I tell people that I live in Italy, they are always so happy for me and envious. Little do they know how difficult that is-staking out your own space there. There is such a huge marketing campaign to continue that myth of Italy. But, until that myth is burst, Italy will continue downwards and its people will only wake up when they have totally ruined the treasure they once had. We have a biological (a.k.a. 100%organic) olive orchard and fruiit orchard and our fellow 'biological society' members will publicly boast of how they put chemical fertilizers on their crops as no one is the wiser...not realizing that they are really harming themsleves and even the honest people doing real organic farming as well. They just don't get it. I am there and I try to do my best to educate people that they do have a treasure but treasures can ruin and theirs needs to be preserved. All the crap Americans have already been through (and are getting out of) is coming here in the form of consumerism. GMO foods are even seeping in and so are GMO feritilizers...so their food industry will suffer soon along with the tourism. Now that we have large social networking sites and people readily post photos, Italy's myth could be in touble. The only hope is for the younger generations.
I measure cities here by the love they demonstrate, that is to say, the lack of ruin and graffitti, and how well they are cared for. I think it helps to consider this when travelling or choosing where to go here. If the youths in some area are ruining the place, they are probably being raised by parents who could care less, and who are not seeing anything wonderful in their areas, so why should I go seek something wonderful there? There ARE still unspoilt places. If you come again, I will gladly give you a list of tried and true places to discover that are NOT YET ruined and seem to be much loved.
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