memoirs of an Italian expat in Ghent
THAT DARK WEEK
It took me one week to understand where I was living.
Sunday evening, the 2nd of January, I arrived in Ghent, after having driven the whole day. It was late, dark, but at the end I finally managed to reach my destination, following the detailed description of my manager. The key was on the door of apartment 5. This was going to be my house, during the next months. A dark apartment, small but good enough for a short temporary assignment.
Two months earlier I was asked to lead an important project, the creation of Italian digital cartography for a new technology, the navigation systems. I had the right skills and experience to take the lead of the project, couldn’t reject the offer, but there was a condition to fulfill: the project management for all Europe was centralized in the Belgian headquarters. So I had to move to Ghent, two months to pack my stuff. Not forever, just the time to cover all Italian regions with digital maps, in the right format and with all traffic information.