Some background...

If you're reading this blog, you probably already know a bit about my present situation. However, just in case, this first post is to give you just enough background to enjoy the rest of the blog.

My name is Angela Vannucci. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and went to Georgetown University to study languages. Ever since I was 14 and went to Italy with my family, I have had somewhat of an obsession with Italy and its culture. I think it was my study abroad experience in Spain after my senior year in high school that inspired me to dedicate my college education to language and explore foreign (especially European) cultures. Junior year was the first time I actually lived in Italy, in Florence. I loved it so much, and felt so at home that I moved back within a month of college graduation.

The five and a half years that I lived and worked in Italy proved to be challenging, rewarding, eye-opening, life-altering and overall, a time of immense happiness. My decision to return to the States was almost entirely career motivated. That said, the last year of my life has been spent trying to accept this decision. Finally, I'm here, back in the U.S., unemployed, experiencing culture shock and VERY cold (it's December and I'm in Cleveland at my parents' house.)

I think only now will I realize all of the things I've learned in the past five and a half years, will appreciate all that I had, will discover all that I've missed in the U.S., will be frustrated or even tickled by all of the idiosyncrasies between the two cultures and will try somehow to find the right balance between the two cultures and my two realities. I'm already suffering the sometimes-quaint, other times nauseating effects of culture shock.... I'm a foreigner in my own country! And this blog is dedicated to my re-assimilation into the American culture and reflection on everything that I've become in my "Italian years".