After hemming and hawing for weeks about going overseas for my externship, I have completed the paperwork to go to overseas for six weeks. When I first started school overseas externships were explained. Had to have a passport, (got one, check) had to have a 3.5 GPA, (got a 3.92, check) and had to arrange transportation. My first thought was France. What other place would you go if you're enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu. Then a classmate said he wanted to go to Italy. That sounded more fun. So I was talking to one of the chefs about that when another chef said that they were opening up externships for New Zealand. Whoa!! Travel to a place where English is the first language, maybe stay as long as 4 months, maybe move there, maybe, maybe, maybe. Then I wrote my cover letter and explained my situation, accomplishments, age, dreams, etc, etc. That age thing killed it. Seems you can't be older than 55 to gain a student or work visa in New Zealand. Hey, I wish we kept our immigration rules for coming into the USA as tough as NZ does.
So where am I going? Casperia, Italy. It's a school called Italian Country Cooking and it is located in a small village about 1 hour east of Rome. In the dead of winter, I'll be learning all about using local ingredients, living in a 200 square foot apt and butchering the Italian language. And hopefully some Italian meats.
I may have said this before, but this just keeps getting better and better!
Tom, we are friends of Bill Baccus and would like to invite you to visit us in Spoleto when you are in Italy. We have a little, welcoming apartment and love guests. Maybe you could put what you learned, thus far, into practice on us. We can butcher Italian together. We are only a short train ride away. www.haerr.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteA presto, Denise & Steve