Sofia

Sofia and Davide are from Italy. Their international adventure started in Cambridge, U.K before they moved in California. “When Davide got the position at Caltech it was a good opportunity and a good surprise for us; but it was also a shock for me because I realized I had to quit everything. I hadn't finished my PhD in Cambridge (UK), but I thought I it was a great opportunity for both of us after all. So in August 2016 we packed and arrived in Pasadena in September... It was a cultural shock compared to what we knew in Europe, but that was very interesting. I loved the idea of freedom for work. I mean in the U.S if you want to start your own business it is very easy compared to Europe. There is less paperwork to do.”

“Following him was a great gift, it was enriching personally. We met people from everywhere, not only from the U.S. This is something that gives a lot of material for thought... It teaches you a lot, about people, about the world. It gives you a deeper understanding of the country where you live and the country where you come from. So this is something very enriching not only for yourself but for your family too, because all the experiences you live in a foreign country, you bring them back with you once you go back home.”

Sofia talks about some negative sides of her new experience too, but she keeps seeing the good part of life however : “It's a great experience but it's very challenging, and it changed me a lot. Sometimes I am confronted to people who don't understand the choice I made. They judge me as just a spouse who silently follows my partner... almost like someone without goal in life. This can be very frustrating. They don't imagine we made the decision to live abroad together. It was a long process... But I think everything we do in life is full of purpose. Every time we discover a new place, we meet new people, we learn something. It opens our mind and makes us curious about something else.”

“Of course I miss my family and time difference between California and Italy doesn't help sometimes. So our relationship with my family has changed too, we became more mature in our conversation on Skype. At some point I realized I started to talk with my parents about things I didn't talked about before... Like politics, or things like that. We share more important things than before. Our relationship is more adult now... This is kind of weird (Laughs). More than anything, distance make you realize how important your family is.”

Moving in California was an obvious choice for them, and she describes it as this, especially after living in Cambridge. “In the U.K we had no car, so I had to walk a lot to go somewhere... And you know the weather in U.K... I told Davide when he was looking for some place for his post doc, he had to find a place with sun. I was tired of the rain and the cold. So moving to Pasadena was a great idea! (laughs) Food was a real shock for us when we arrived in the U.S. You have to understand, I am Italian, we love good food there. So at the beginning, I thought people tried to kill us with the food (laughs). It was a terrible experience. But after some time we discovered the cuisine from other countries, like Chinese restaurants, Hawaiian restaurants, Japanese restaurants... We have those of course in Europe, but they are different here. I think people in the US feel free to reinvent cuisine and other things by themselves. This is something good, we like it. Food is sometimes reinvented in the U.S.”

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Christophe Marcade
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Christophe Marcade

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