Making It Work: A Good Attitude Is a Must!

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”  Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

This #expat life, and maybe life in general, is not easy sometimes, but facing problems with a good attitude will help you keep your sanity!  Packing all your belongings and flying half-way around the world to a strange city, one where you are unable to communicate and where things don't work the way expect them to, it's stressful to say the least.  On top of everything you are carrying with you the emotional toll of having said goodbye to family and friends.  If you've done it, you know exactly what I mean...

In spite of it all, having a good #attitude can make or break your experience as an expat.  On the flip side, traveling to a new country, learning a new language, experiencing life from a different perspective could be lots of fun and very rewarding!  So there is a good side to every situation: right?

I am currently living in #Rome, and just thinking about how many people save for a long time to visit Italy for a few days (a recurrent point in bucket lists), makes me feel very fortunate for having a longer stay here.   However, there are some bad days in paradise, too.

I live right next to a school.  Going into or out of my dead-end street during drop-off and pick-up times is just a nightmare.  There is no such thing as a Kiss and Ride lane.  People double and triple park and sometimes they simply park on the middle of the street.  As long as they have their hazard lights on, they are OK.  I try to avoid at all costs the times when I know this craziness will happen, but one day I came back home at school release time and as I was trying to get into my street as the entire universe was trying to come out of it.  I fought like a mad woman, trying to gain space on the road, it took me an eternity to park and I was furious!

That same week I came back home at the wrong time again and I decided not to go into my street, but to continue and drive straight to the #Gelato place.  I double parked (hey, when in Rome...) put my hazard lights on, ordered a Frutti di Bosco and Chocolate gelato, and enjoyed heaven in a cone.  Then, feeling very zen, I drove back home to an empty street with plenty of parking.  This has become my new routine when timing is wrong.

"Il Pelicano" my neighborhood gelato place...

Yes, having a good day is a decision you make every morning, and for those days when things prove to be a bit more difficult, there is always gelato (or wine, why not).

• Come Il Latte: Via Silvio Spaventa, 24 26 Roma.  They fill their cones with chocolate before serving the gelato, soooo good!  www.comeillatte.it
• Giolitti: Via Uffici del Vicario 40, 00186, Roma.  Serving gelato since 1,900.  www.giolitti.it
• Grom: Several locations around Italy.  Organic ingredients.  www.grom.it
• Frigidarium: Via del Governo Vecchio 112, Roma. www.frigidarium-gelateria.com

Arrivederci,