Ciao, Milan.

I made that decision recently as I scrambled to throw in other candidates over the past few months, like Reykjavik, Paris, Madrid, Dublin, Geneva, and Lisbon. 

But regardless of where I decided to go after a five month hiatus from international WFH Nomading, I knew Europe was the next move. In the 4 years that I have been working from home, I’ve worked outside the Americas for a total of two days, and I really wanted to try working in Europe. This experience will be an introduction to the 2pm-11pm working hours.

The last time I was outside of the US was when I spent 6 months in Brazil – which obviously turned out to have exceed my expectations from all angles – and I came back home to take the covid vaccine in April 2021. I originally had the expectation that I would be traveling internationally again in June 2021.

Instead, it took me until September 5th to finally leave the US.

Being Home Longer Than Expected was Value Added

I delayed my international WFH Nomading due to a variety of reasons. Firstly, I helped my mother make her transition to stay in Taiwan for the rest of the year because she had not gone back to see family since pre-covid. I also spent a considerable amount of time with my father and with my sister that I found to be very valuable in the thick of my career. Seriously, gotta love WFH.

Lastly, I had the opportunity to catch up with friends who I haven’t seen in years from all around the country – from New York to San Francisco. During these 5 months, I learned that I need to put in a better effort to maintain strong relationships with my close friends and professional connections. This should never stop just because I’m abroad, and I have promised myself to be better in this area moving forward.

That makes sense. Now what?

I’m thrilled to be able to say that Milan, Italy will be home for the next 30+ days.

I came alone. I booked a private Airbnb. I speak zero Italian. And no, I do not know anybody in this city.

I truly love doing this. Today, I discovered that you don’t put the basket on the conveyer belt at grocery stores in Italy the way you do in the US. HA. I learned that “Ciao” not only means “goodbye”, it also means “hello”. These are two simple examples of very many that I will learn about Italy, and I’m super excited to embark on this journey.

This has been a recurring theme through my adventures around the world. The advantage of solo traveling has clearly been that there is a much stronger incentive to meet people and make new friends. There’s no better feeling than to build an entire network from scratch and to foster relationships with people from around the world.

Like my other previous choices (Guadalajara and Brazil), choosing Milan was quite random… except that it wasn’t at all. 

Everybody talks about the glorious hustle of London. The appeal of Paris. The charm of Madrid. But nobody really talks about the underrated cities in Europe like the Berlin’s, the Budapest’s, and the Milan’s.

And so what drew me to Milan?

Milan is the fashion capital of the world. Expensive. Very luscious yet classy.

Anybody who knows me understands that “fashion” and “Wilson” typically do not associate. We usually think “jet setter”, or maybe “friendly guy who gets along easily with people of different backgrounds”. But “guy who has style”? LOL.

But look. We may just have a Wilson leaving Milan in a month with a Gucci watch while wearing a Canali jacket. (Somewhere somehow… I hear my friends Neomi and Fernando laughing at this.)

The point is this: I love going to “foreign” places where I find creative ways of fitting in. In the same way that the Asian-American who thrived in Guadalajara and the adventurous yet soft gringo who left Brazil more latino-macho for the better, I have the chance to grow in a city that boasts incredible fashion, art, and food.

In short, I may have doubts about certain things, but I have a strong feeling about one.

The Experience in Milan will be for me.