We do not have the power to predict the future, nor do we know what will be the implications of the increasingly constant presence of the Arab countries on the international market. The fact is that in recent years they have seen an exponential growth, channeling about them attention from the many who no longer have the American dream, but Asian.
Although this phenomenon is still developing, it happens increasingly often that young Europeans are opening with curiosity in this world that seems to be far from ours.

This is the story of Lisa Patricelli, 26 years old, originally from a provincial town on the Adriatic coast. After a scientific course of study, Lisa has attended the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Pescara. “My passport is Italian, but I’ve always felt a citizen of the world” says Lisa.

How did you come to mature the idea of relocating in East to work?

Lisa: You do not decide in one day to change continent. You can move in a European capital and adapt to change. You can do it for money, for research, for career or other reasons, but you can do it because you know that your home is around the corner. Moving to Asia is an instinct, is love at first sight from when you’re a child, for some reason deep and strong. In this case, the work is just an opportunity that allowed me to live the dream.

Before this one, did you make experiences abroad?

I have taken every opportunity of training to be ready to move to Asia, alone and easily. Starting from 2012, winning a scholarship to Brussels, Belgium. Workshops and cultural exchanges have helped me to discover cultural differences with our neighbors, the Europeans. A confirmation has been the great job opportunities in Bahrain in 2013. Then I lived in Turkey for two months, where I got to learn customs and traditions of a country-bridge of the old continent.
The Eastern Countries have a culture very different from ours. Tell us how you found with cultural differences.

The Asian countries, well, you can love them or hate them. In the first case the cultural differences do not exist. Here there are the rules dictated by traditions other than our own, and then, you just follow them. In the second case, it can only be a tourist who lands in a foreign land, unaware of being affected by globalization. They spend money on souvenirs and they come home after two weeks with a suitcase full just of myths about cultural differences.

What have you learned to love of the country where you are and what really cannot adapt?

Come back in UAE after two years, I felt invaded by the scent Arabic, strong and mixed. Among myrrh and frankincense, the heady scent is something that I loved from the start and I will always miss it once left the Middle East.
The most unpleasant thing of all is that here the weekend begins Thursday evening and ends on Saturday, of course. Here they don’t follow the Christian holidays and so Sunday we have to work.

What is the target language in your work? Did you have to learn another language?

You never stop learning. I learn something every day. The language is one of the things that I learn, remembering that it remains a communication vehicle. Most people with whom I deal on a daily basis are not native English speakers. Yet it we communicate. There are no scholastic tests. The time of the votes for class assignments is finished. Sometimes you find someone who can correct you and then you learn even more.

How do you think this experience will help you for the future work, it is worth moving so far to gain experience?

As I said, if you plan to constantly change just for one extra item on your CV, then you might as well stay in Europe where life is simpler and eventually earn more (taking into account the cost of flights to return to his homeland, for a good plate of homemade pasta). One moves in Asia just for passion, otherwise you cannot resist.
What are your plans for the future? Are you planning another overseas experience like this or would you like to go back to Italy?

The future is to be written. We will see.
Are there other Italians or foreigners in the place where you work? Why would you recommend or not recommend to your colleague to do the same experience?

There is great demand for cheap labor from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan. I cannot recommend to someone to change his life so drastically, because a lot depends on personal motivation even before than working position or the destination country.

Finally, tell us the weirdest experience that happened to you since you are there.

The rich collect the most unusual things. I saw some collections of wealthy families and found that they gave importance to classic cars, Persian rugs and everything that serves to highlight the status of the family name. The families of the desert, far from the chaos of the metropolis, instead collect wild animals. Sometimes you can see monkeys, tigers, lions walking around the city or transported in the car. In Europe it never happened!