I must either be real gullible, forgetful, or stupid. Just to let you know, multi-government agencies are not hugely efficient. It was now time the process of acquiring our official passports and Italian visas. Having done this before, we were somewhat familiar with the procedure, and the school system had an office that was dedicated to helping in this process. However, again, things do not always go as imagined. If you have ever had the pleasure, you know it is hard enough trying to get an official passport through our own government – two separate federal departments (Defense and State) have to coordinate and sign off. As for the visa – which will actually play into a few of the following obstacles (or opportunities to grow) – this not only has to be coordinated through the bureaucracies of two of our own departments, but it also has to be approved and provided by a foreign government. (Side note – I would point out that many other nations have not been overly impressed with some of the politics in our country as of late, and many of these governments face pressures from their people at home so coordination can be a bit slow.) And this may come as a shock, but an elementary school teacher on her way to teach at a small base in western Italy doesn’t rank very high on the priority list.
Also, not everyone thinks that everything needs to be done “right now”, it is kind of an American thing. We were told to expect the process to take 6-8 weeks – since we were starting in early June, 6 weeks made the end of July and 8 weeks early August, so even though we were going to be out of our house – we hadn’t worked the collecting of our stuff yet, that was a part of the process working in stereo, where we were hoping the melody and harmony flowed – we figured we could travel a bit and still be in Italy to enjoy some summer before my wife hit the classroom. So, we filled out the paperwork, got down to a pharmacy to have our passport pictures taken, and put the paperwork into the pre-paid envelope on its way back to DC.
If at first….
The first problem was when we called the passport coordinator in the middle of the next week asking about the progress, and we were told it had never arrived – tracking showed it had left our location and made it into the central processing facility, and then never left. We were told to wait a couple more days, and then if still nothing, we would start again (resetting the 6-8 week clock). The following Monday, we re-signed the paperwork, went back to the pharmacy for new photos, and sent the new package, with the new mailing label, to DC. This time it arrived, by Thursday (2 weeks from the initial mailing), and the coordination process (for the passports) began. Long story short, and another lesson in misplaced optimism, the initial portion of the process, obtaining official passports from our own government, took all of the 6-8 weeks that we had thought the entire process would take. By the time the passports were issued at the end of July, we had packed out our house, spent time in Colorado, and were trying to figure out what we were going to do next, since we couldn’t make any travel arrangements until the Italian government issued us work visas. We weren’t going to make it to Italy in time for my wife to start teaching.
The somewhat silver lining was that my parents still live in rural Minnesota, on a lake with many acres, which meant that for the few hours during the day when my wife was awake and not utterly exhausted from teaching all night, she was able to get outside and walk or kayak – good practice for our, hopefully soon to come, Italian sun and sand adventure. Nothing to worry about though – from the school’s and DOD’s perspective – with technology and the template from COVID, my wife was reassigned to Italy and was told she would teach remote – an inverted version, with the students in the classroom being monitored by a substitute and my wife teaching from the US. We had sold our house so were limited in options for where to live and “work” and my wife was “transferred” to Europe, which meant she no longer had US support to make travel arrangements once the visas did come through, and her pay was cut since overseas they provide a housing allowance to offset the decrease in pay, but as she wasn’t physically in Europe, the allowance was zero. So we called my parents and asked if we could move in with them – now this wasn’t at all how we had envisioned our adventure to Europe, moving into my parents’ basement at 60 years old with my wife getting up to teach from 11:30 PM until 8:00 AM. I was really not a hero for selling my wife on my great idea for one more experience abroad.
Finally…………
As can probably be surmised, the visas took a while – we didn’t receive anything until early October. They had been sent out only to be returned by the Italian Consulate, requiring resubmission. This did allow us to travel to Florida, from Minneapolis, for our daughter’s wedding, for which we already had roundtrip tickets from Rome – thankfully most airlines were still allowing travel plan changes, although we were left with quite a few funds to use within a year. It also allowed us to now start booking travel – but with no one supporting us from the US, and no house to live and work from in eastern NC, we made our own reservations and were finally set to be on our way. We were traveling over in mid-October, one quarter of the way through the school year, with our shorts, sun hats, and golf clubs. Our time under the Tuscan sun, living on the coast of the Mediterranean near a beach and golf resort, and immersing ourselves into the Italian cuisine and culture was about to commence, two and a half months late and with several unexpected obstacles and lessons learned (or relearned.)
Gullible, forgetful, or stupid – I am still not sure. I do know we were a little optimistic in our planning – this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as you remember the end goal and that “this too shall pass.” There were several plan adjustments, and friends and family were critical to helping us get through some of the setbacks – either by providing a place to stay or helping with watching stuff and getting us to where we needed to be. Quick side story, we had our suitcases, golf clubs, and carry-on bags ready and needed to catch the train in DC. A friend offered to take our car (we planned to leave it in the States so we could use it if we came back for any extended periods) and help drop us off. We drove into DC with our Kia Forte (the one that shouldn’t carry a hitch platform) looking like the Beverly Hillbillies truck. Our friend had to take public transport and walk to the train station – there was no room in the car for him to ride (even on a lap). We passed him the keys on one of the laps around the circle. I think the car is still fine – he hasn’t said anything, and I haven’t asked.
Overall, no adventure is ever without hiccups – as an ancient Chinese curse goes, “May you lead an interesting life”, and our time trying to get out of the States, to live and work abroad during a Later Gap stage in life, was interesting. Even though we had made it to where we had planned to reside, and were finally living and working outside the borders of the US, our arrival and acclimation continued to offer opportunities to learn and adapt to new challenges, not just with the life and language of our new host country, but with the disparity between the theory of what we would be provided and could expect and what we were eventually able to procure. After one more “what did we learn and how could we have done this better” story about our overly optimistic outlook and expectations, I will move on to focus on what we learn and how we try to cope in everyday life as we acclimate into the Tuscan countryside. I hope you are enjoying some of the stories of how we got here (versus how we thought we would get here) and have learned something to help you in your quest to experience the opportunity to live and travel abroad in whatever stage of life you find yourself in. My advice -take it or leave it (or run the other way as fast as you can) is that if you are considering a Later Gap (or any) adventure, when you think it is time, go ahead and jump, but always expect the unexpected – things won’t be as easy as theory predicts and reality is not insurmountable.