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7 Lessons I Learned From Hiring My 1st Assistant in a Foreign Country
I stood in front of the Santo Spirito neighborhood cafe in majestic Florence, Italy one morning in 2016. Where two Italians stood behind me to yell their coffee orders first. Their orders vibrated in the air through my soul to the worker behind the bar. He made their coffees first, then turned his body, sans eyes to me as I whimpered my espresso order in English in Florence, Italy.
That was the day I decided to learn Italian so I wouldn’t be run over by the locals. The second reinforcement to learn the language was after the fifteenth taxi gave me a different price on the same route. From my apartment to the Peretola airport. Every. Single. Time.
It was 2016 and my first time living abroad. Which was night and day from my yearly Italian vacations where I had the ‘fun and go,’ attitude and mentality. It took me eight months of complete immersion and weekly tandem language exchanges to confidently order my food and coffees in Italian. I also demanded the prezzi per i residenti, perche sono residente; the price for residents because I am a resident. And you know what? I got them.
It’s normal for tourists and foreigners to receive quotes twice or three times higher than the local prices. I’ve been cheated and taken advantage of around the world in my travels and have heard story…
