Ling-Chih Kao (2011-2014)
It’s been a year since I left MIT and moved to San Diego for my husband’s new job. The first few months were tough as we tried to get our bearings and figure out a new routine. Though this is my fourth big move in the US, I found it more difficult emotionally because I developed a stronger tie in Boston than in any other cities I lived before. I missed my friends terribly - the afternoon strolls at ICA, the evening chats by the Kendall Square, the weekend hikes in the New England woods. I tried different things to keep myself busy in my new city, but it’s quite a challenge when there is only one car between my husband and me. As I was about to settle down, we had a major life event again - we bought a house. The entire process was a thrill ride as there was overwhelmingly large amount of things to learn. At the same time, I was trying to find a job. After many stressful months, we finally moved into our not-quite-finished-but-habitable new home. I also started a new position at UC San Diego, managing English language programs. It seems that I’m now back to square one, learning a new neighborhood, trying new routines, plus getting used to all kinds of sounds our house makes at night. Somehow I feel less restless and more grounded among many still unpacked boxes. I cannot predict whether I'll have another big move in the future, but at least we’re calling San Diego home for the next few years. Welcome to visit me and check out the famous California weather!
Angela Mazzonetto (2013-2014)
I lived in Cambridge for 2 years during my husband postdoc at LIDS, and I loved our time there. I have always been career oriented, and with the help of the Career Connect project I could get an inside view on the US work environment and easily find a job in my field (I am an Italian law graduate expert in the field of privacy compliance).
While in Cambridge, my daughter Emma Bianca joined our family, and she is the energy and strength of all three of us!
In January 2015 we moved to Zürich, Switzerland, and I can’t stress enough how much we love this place! My husband likes his new research group, I am back to work, full time, and my daughter enjoys the daycare: she has started to speak a bit of Italian, a bit of English, and a bit of German! It’s incredible how fast they learn a language. She will soon speak better than I do, in all three languages!
What I miss from Boston are the friends I met there. I am still in touch with them, and a couple of them have already came to visit us! I will always be grateful to Jennifer for the help that she gave to me during the Career Connect events (what I learnt there lead me through the 5 hour interview that I had for my current job), and to the midwives of MIT Medical for helping me during the pregnancy and the delivery at Mount Auburn, they were a blessing to us!
Even though we am really happy with our choice to move to Switzerland, every time I think about Cambridge I start planning our next trip there. It will always be the place where we took some of the most important decisions of our lives, where our daughter was born, and where we realized that, eventually, we were grownups.
