Kristen Suzanne

My First Visit to an Italian Hair Salon

April 18, 2019 By Kristen Suzanne

I haven’t had my hair done professionally in about 3 years. I’ve cut it myself a few times which I learned was a big mistake. I’ve sprouted some gray and in between trying to embrace aging, frugality, and traveling, I haven’t had my hair properly done.

But, dammit, it’s fucking time.

My hair is long and unruly, always in a bun.

I’m tweezing gray hairs, which is no different of an attitude than coloring them I now realize. I mean, if I want to embrace them, then let them be. The fact that I’m tweezing them means I don’t want them, and I’m not ready to get intimate with aging.

I started dreaming about getting my hair done.

As I walked around town, I noted salons and contemplated options.

I started getting more excited about the idea. There’s the whole la bella figura thing in Italy – first impressions being molto importante (very important). I find myself wearing makeup way more often here, and I’m rethinking my style and clothes. I bought pants that actually fit the other day – as in, you can see my butt in them because they’re not baggy or have an elastic waistband.

It made sense to do something about my hair.

Which salon do I go to?

Referrals are the answer when it comes to hair salons. Naturally, I asked our rock star law team (ICA) in Rovigo for a salon recommendation. They confidently answered, Jean Louis David.

It was time to get a proper style. I’m in Italy after all. They know a thing or two about that stuff.

Knowing they didn’t take appointments, I ventured over there today. They didn’t speak English, but with Google translate and my flexibility on what they did to my hair (nothing lasts forever, right?), I was comfortable that I was in good hands.

Dual Citizenship Application in Italy

April 9, 2019 By Kristen Suzanne

Dual Citizenship in Italy?

In all of my blogging about travel, there’s one BIG item I haven’t talked about much, because it was too soon. Here it is: We’re trying to get US/Italian dual citizenship. After bouncing around Europe for a year, we’re now in Italy, working on that.

Why?

As readers of this blog know, we decided to sell it all to be digital nomads, for a minimum of “a few years,” maybe more.

Apart from the excitement of travel and adventure for our family, we desire to learn other languages and cultures. We wanted to show Kamea that there is a great big world out there. We want her to bi- (or tri-) lingual to help her future. We want her to learn how other cultures live. Not everything is “supersized” and SUV in the world.

Travel Visas

As we started planning our new life, we had to consider tourist visas to determine how long we could stay in any given country. Most countries impose a limit on how long you can stay.

Europe presented a special situation, in that we could only stay in the “Schengen Area” (26 EU countries with unrestricted travel between them) for a max of only 90 days out of every 180 days. Meaning, at 90 days, you must leave the area for 3 months before you can return.

But that doesn’t mean you have to leave Europe. There are a handful of European countries that are not in the Schengen Area… notably the UK, Ireland, and a few eastern European countries.

How to Live in Europe Year Round

We could have applied for a long-term visa, but that didn’t fit our situation very well. Another way to live in Europe year-round is to transit in and out of the Schengen Area every 90 days. (So, 90 days in and 90 days out. Rinse and repeat. For many people, that means staying in the popular countries like France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, etc. — and then heading to Eastern Europe or the UK for the other 90 days.)

That’s great and it can be done, but it requires a lot of moving around, which is disruptive and can be expensive.

But then, I guess as the “nomad” moniker implies constant movement. Frequent disruption comes with the territory.

But sometimes you just want to stay put for a while. Staying longer means better deals when renting apartments, creating meaningful relationships with locals, and deeper immersion for learning languages.

Were there other options?

Yes.

Things got interesting when Italian dual citizenship came on our radar.

Denmark to Housesit – Our Digital Nomad Family’s Next Stop

March 4, 2019 By Kristen Suzanne

My digital nomad family is headed to our next adventure. Housesitting in Denmark!

We’re wrapping up our time in Split, Croatia, this week. It’s been two months. This location has been amazing for the proximity to the Adriatic Sea, the depth of history right next door to our apartment, the (mostly) decent weather (especially for winter), and the frugal opportunity to stay in Europe.

Cafes for drinking coffee and hanging with friends.

If you’re a digital nomad family (or solo) there are plenty of cafes for working, but the main thing I’ve noticed … cafes are for socializing with friends and not working here! Croatians take their coffee and cafes seriously, and they’re filled with people actually making eye contact and talking – not working or looking at phones.

So, though we worked in cafes, alerting everyone that we are obviously not locals, it was not the norm here. I appreciate that part of the culture – love it, but as nomads, we love and need a place to work that’s not always our apartment.

Split Croatia for My Digital Nomad Family

January 20, 2019 By Kristen Suzanne

Bakery in Split, Croatia with my co-pilot.

My digital nomad family is living in Split, Croatia.

After we left Porto, Portugal, we went to housesit for a family in Denmark. It was a repeat housesit as we first housesat for them in March when we launched our world travels. (If you’d like to learn more about housesitting as a great way to travel on a budget, check out my book How to Win At Housesitting.)

Then we traveled to Split, Croatia.

A lot of non-GoT fans might ask, “Why Croatia?”

I’m Going to Write Fiction (Part 3): Update

January 16, 2019 By Kristen Suzanne

My ambition for writing got the better of me.

I suppose that’s kind of cool (tons of ambition), but I had to put the brakes on my writing schedule.

I don’t have the bandwidth to pursue this like I thought.

Something (or someone) suffers.

As most of you know, we’re traveling the world as a family – a digital nomad family. That means we’re homeschooling and worldschooling our daughter, too. The short of it is that when I “work” my daughter doesn’t get a patient mom.

Homeschooling is a lot of effort, and my former process of managing it (versus being a more active participant) doesn’t feel right in my gut.

My intuition is telling me to slow the fuck down.

I’m Going to Write Fiction (Part 2): Here’s My Writing Schedule

December 15, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

True to my word last week, I’m deep in my process of writing fiction.

More specifically, I’m following the little plan I set for myself. That means I’m reading two kinds of books, simultaneously, and doing a little writing also. Read more here, where I told all of you about my ambitious plan to write fiction.

I’m reading both novels and “how to write” non-fiction books.

It’s been interesting to read the both side-by-side. As I learn more on the “how to” side, I’m noticing things while reading fiction! Learning the language of how to write helps me see these very aspects in others’ writing. I have many “Oh, I see that thing I just learned about!” or “The author did a great example of ‘showing’ and not telling.” etc.

Your Brain When Writing

In one of the books I mentioned I’d be reading, The Writer’s Process, the author did a great job showing how we use our brains when writing. She also gives advice on how to optimize that. In other words, she details how we have a scribe and a muse in our brain. Plus she teaches the best way to get into flow so you can use both at the same time.

Make a Schedule

The author also talked about the importance of having a schedule for writing – and she backs it up with science along with a clever way of comparing it to baking bread, in which I have excellent experience (learn my process for how to make sourdough bread here!).

She writes, “Schedules give us strength.”

That brings me to today’s update for you.

Inspired, I created a schedule, and I want to share it with you for three reasons.

My First Visit to an Italian Hair Salon