Blog do Luiz Zicarelli: First year of international Life

As my family and I finish our first vacation of our first year living abroad, It feels proper now to reflect on what have we faced, accomplished and how did we get transformed by the whole experience, as a family and as individuals.

Our first year in Shanghai was quite surprising. I was not creating any expectations rather than embarking in a new professional phase of my life, feeling already transformed by the chance of working and living in another country. But it all turned out to be extremely positive.

First thing, is to call our new apartment home. That was quite difficult in the first few months, as we adapted and tried to find the best way to cope with the changes. My wife and children took a while to start to naturally cal it home, myself as well. But with the help pf many friends, school staff, and of course, Wechat groups and TaoBao we found ourselves very comfortably settled in less time than we thought.

Our routine during this time had many ups and downs, another element in our adaptation that was not so good in the beginning but ended up being extremely positive. Days begun at 5:45am, which was not our regular time back in Brazil, and honestly even me being a morning person found a little harsh in a few moments.

On top of that was the new School, quite different from what our girls had before, becoming motive of some resistance and arguing, discussions about uniforms and shoes, and time for breakfast and taking the bus and other perks that comes with our choices. But even those moments at the end were not so bad, and after finding positive aspects and cherishing the good side of life and good perspectives, we found ourselves laughing and enjoying everything.

Life was after almost 10 months, turned out to be better, and full of great moments.

To complete our family happiness, my oldest son graduated from High School with many accomplishments, recognitions and a place at the University he so much wanted to join, in NY. We love him, his sisters look up to him and I hope he keeps positive as he faces his first adult life challenges. There is so much to discover and live, and I hope that my fatherhood skills pay off and he makes more good decisions than bad but most of all that he owns every one of them.

We end now our first vacation as expats, coming back to our city fully recharged, with great memories stories to share and new ideas to start a great new year. Guangzhou (Thanks Ricardo for hosting us!), Macau, Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Thailand, great places, food, people. I can't say enough how grateful I am for the experiences, the people that I met along the way and how lucky to have a family like mine I am.