The First Indonesian I Met in Florence

How I met lovely Erna 

I left home early morning, hop on my bike to get to the Questura (Immigration) office. I had an appointment at 9am with Ulrike to get my Permesso di Soggiorno. I got there on time and found her sitting on one of the bench. The Questura was crowded as usual. We talked to kill time, about her dogs, about her house, about her work, about her daughter. She spoke English, very friendly, very talkative and loud. I could feel some eyes turning to us when she was talking. 

This was the 3rd time I had to be here, to find out whether I could get my Permesso di Soggiorno. The 2nd time I was there, my file were still remain untouched as the administration was sick for couple days.   

It was nice to have someone to chat with when you had to wait that long. After a long chat when Ully said, I knew another Indonesian in Florence, two of them, she added. Husband and wife, and they just arrived. You can contact her, she said, and she gave me a contact number. That was how I found out about Erna. 

Later that day, I found out that my Permesso di Soggiorno was still in the process, I had to come back in few days for some finger prints.

Once I walked out the Questura, I text Erna and we decided to meet up somewhere in the center. We met for the first time at Ponte Vecchio that Monday, October 29, 2012. I just realized how I missed to be able to speak in my own language badly.  She was a nice pretty little young lady. We spent our afternoon walked around the Duomo and had some gelato. I was so glad and grateful to finally found another Indonesian in Florence!