Saturday, October 10, 2009

Riccardo

One of the aspects of the expats' life is the strong sense of solidarity that exists among expats. Sharing the same kind of challenges, expats tend to fraternize and support each other - more than it would happen in other circumstances. The expat community is usually extremely open and welcoming towards the newly arrived, and, in a sort of positive ‘nonnismo’ (‘caporalisme’ in French - sorry, I don’t know how to translate this word in English) the veterans take care of and mentor the newcomers, who, in their turn, will take care of and mentor the new newcomers once they become veterans…

So Riccardo, JPO at UNIDO, got to know about my arrival from an email that circulated in the past days among the young expats to introduce me. Riccardo, who is about to finish his second year in Delhi and therefore can be considered a veteran in all respects, is currently on vacation in Italy. However, as soon as he received the message, he immediately contacted me: “Where are you staying? Hey, I am out of town for a couple of weeks, but do call my maid, ask her my keys, and feel free to stay at my place…”

And so I moved to Riccardo’s over the week end, and have to say that staying in a home is much better than staying in a hotel. Having not met Riccardo yet, I have been trying to imagine how he could look like: have looked for a picture of him at home, but could not find any. So I googled his name, and (surprise surprise) I found him on Facebook - but remained half amused and half disappointed when I saw his profile picture (above). I’ll have then to wait two weeks more before meeting personally Riccardo…

8 comments:

  1. ask for his friendship on FB, so you can peep his photos...
    ciao matty!
    ky

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  2. Nice guy! I like the expats community and say thank you to Riccardo for me, I like the idea that you can stay at a nice place for the next few days/weeks. Take care!

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  3. oramai chi non trovi in FB?????...

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  4. Did you finally meet Riccardo? I am curious to meet your new friends (he loves vegetables... good guy!)

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  5. Soon a picture of Riccardo (la bestia!)

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  6. come fa ad avere tutti quei muscoli mangiando solo verdurine? cosa gli metteva kusuum dentro l'insalata????

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  7. qui tutta roba organica... vedrete quando torno io!

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