Hi, I’m Eleonora.
On this blog I talk about expat life, travel and Japan and personal growth.
I have been an expat since January 2017, when I left Italy for England, more precisely Leeds, in windy Yorkshire, to attend a master. It was the time when all those who left were all over the place about how wonderful expat life was. I remember one evening I was talking about this with a friend and I thought I didn’t want to be the one she said was fine abroad, but she stayed in Italy complaining about not being able to leave. I arrived in Leeds in the midst of post Brexit vote chaos. I stayed there for a year and a half: one year studying for my master and six months applying to jobs and understand that maybe it wasn’t for me to stay longer. And so I went back to Italy: I was sad, depressed and I had put on a lot of weight.
I decided it was time to get things going, as it seemed they had no intention of doing it themselves. And where to go in such a situation? In my dear good old Tokyo. After a search for schools and share houses, I said goodbye absolutely in tears (I still don’t know why) to my mom in Malpensa and embarked on a new adventure.
Three months in Tokyo gave me a decent knowledge of Japanese, lots of new friends that I’m still in contact today, a collaboration, a couple of business contacts and a little more self-confidence. Back home (sigh), within a couple of months I decided to stop looking for a job here and there, to focus on the ultimate goal, the one I had been studying for all these years. I applied for my dream job, but still got no answer after two months. So I enrolled in a post masters course in Belgium.
I was ready to go, I had found a home, checked the courses. And one afternoon, while I was exercising to maintain the coveted ideal weight, the phone rang. I almost didn’t pick up, but something must have pushed me. Despite the poor reception of my parents’ home, I realized that they were offering me an interview for the job above. And just a few days later, they called me again to tell me I had gotten the job. I had a scarce two weeks to submit documents, pack my suitcase, say bye to friends, do everything I needed to do in a month. And tell the university that I was giving it up.
In August 2019 I left for Darmstadt, Germany, for the job I had always dreamed of and to which everyone told me I would never get there (tiè).
Meanwhile, I write on this blog and tell the ups and downs of expat life, the trips I have done and will do, and I speak of Japan and Tokyo, which is basically the next long step. I am embracing slow living and trying to find out if my personal growth path can be useful to someone. I would like to be the person I wanted to have by my side when I was twenty. If I can help just one person, it will be worth it.
Why Elle Of A Kind?
I searched far and wide for a name that I felt was mine and that I wouldn’t have bothered to keep over time. It is a play on words. I asked the people who know me best and for the longest time to describe me, and the adjective that always came up was gentile, which translates to ‘kind’ in English. I also wanted there to be somehow my name or a diminutive, along with the concept of being a ‘very particular’ person. So, I took advantage of the English saying ‘one hell of a’, which can have a lot of meanings depending on the tone of the sentence, and here is the name of the blog.
Here, I seem to have given a picture of who I am and what I intend to communicate, so what are you waiting for? Join me on this journey between Italy and abroad!
