New Friends

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March 28, 2008 · Filed Under Me

A little before Christmas I was contacted by an American couple who were seriously considering consummating their love affair with Italy by having a serious go at setting up house and home here.

So it was that Chris Bright and his wife Jessica Spiegel came over to test the waters.

Chris, who comes from a media relations background, is having a go at sorting himself out a similar position in Italy. After networking like crazy, things are starting to look promising for him and, between you and me, he has even started searching for an appartment here in Milan.

When I found out about his media relations experience, I could not resist asking him if he would be interested in giving a talk to the Media Relations master students at the business school where I run English courses. I’m very pleased to say that he accepted, so I got him in touch with the course co-ordinator and the rest, as they say, is history. He did a great job, holding two talks, in English, which gave the master participants a very interesting insight into how the media relations industry does its thing in the USA. The master students found his talks fascinating. And, to their slight surprise, the students, who are attending English courses I’m running at the moment, found that they could understand and follow him. Good stuff!

Many thanks to Chris for having helped me fulfil a minor ambition of mine, which was to increase my students exposure to ‘real’ English through the introduction of guest speakers. I do hope Chris becomes a regular guest speaker at the business school.

While her hubby was busy, Jessica was not exactly kicking her heels. Jessica (scroll down the page a little) is, amongst other things, a travel writer who works with the BootsnAll travel network, and during her stay here she was dashing here, there, and everywhere. The results of all this dashing can be seen on Italylogue I’m sure you’ll find her perspectives interesting. Jessica also runs a personal blog - Andiamo! - and this will give you an interesting ‘behind the scenes’ view of her life.

I met up with Chris at the 442 last night for a ‘farewell’ pint as he’s off back to the States on Sunday. Jessica has already headed back Stateside, incidentally.

It was great to have met such a charming couple, thanks to this blog, and I really hope they stick at trying to fulfil their ambition of coming to live in Italy. They’d make great neighbours.

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Tags: 442 Milano, Chris Bright, Italy, Jessica Spiegel, Milan, People

Comments

2 Responses to “New Friends”

Jessica, Italy Logue on March 28th, 2008 10:59 pm

Aww, thanks, Alex! Believe me, we’re hoping it works out to move there, too. This adventure only cemented for us how great it would be to live in Italy, so the desire hasn’t diminished. In fact, thanks to meeting up with so many great people in Milan (including yourself!), we’re even more excited about the prospect now than we were before. Fingers are definitely crossed…
AlexR on March 29th, 2008 12:08 am

No worries Jessica - it was a pleasure meeting you guys, and it really would be great if you do manage to end up over here.

My fingers are also crossed on your behalf!

All the best and hope to see both of you again soon!

Have a great weekend,

Alex