So it has come to this. We already had the idea of starting a blog like this back in 2020, when it was becoming clear that getting married for us would have been an ordeal, but we didn’t consider it interesting or complicated enough back in the time (obviously we were wrong).
We again came back to the idea when our daughter Penelope was born in 2021, and we had to do the whole procedure for double nationality, family reunification visa for Switzerland, etc. But we were so exhausted by life that this blog thing quickly slipped to the bottom of our priority list.
This time we won’t make the same mistake. Our second child, Serse, was born in december 2022 and SO FAR IT HAS BEEN A FUCKING RIDE. OH YES, SO MUCH FUN.
If you are confused, be aware that we are more than you. Read first the about section of this blog. Then here is a quick recap of what happened before, we might consider expanding this in a series of blog posts in the future but most likely not because IL PASSATO È AFFLOSCIATO.
I am Mario Fantasia. Back in 2017 I moved to Switzerland for work. In 2018 during a trip to Japan I met Mei-Lin, who was then finishing her MsC studies in Kyoto. “It’s OK” we thought. “Ahead of us is one, maybe two years of long-distance relationship, but we are quite flexible with travel so it’s not gonna be a big deal, then we’ll see how it goes and eventually find a way to stay together. See, it worked in 2019, we visited each other quite often, this is not so bad”.
Welcome 2020 and global pandemic. AYFKM.
Japan completely shut off from international travel. Mei-Lin literally STRANDED IN FUCKING JAPAN, because if she had left to visit me, or even her family in Taiwan, she would have not been allowed back in the country despite being a resident foreign student. It was hard times.
Finally, somewhere summer 2020, stars align, and together with them a delicate combination of progressive easening of travel rules, border opening, vacation and university summer break. Mei-Lin manages to flee Japan and comes to Zerneve, Switzerland, where I had recently moved, in order to spend the summer together. Thanks to a series of carefully planned tricks she even managed to (legally) skip hard quarantine even when we went to Spelunca, Italy, to visit my family.
At the end of summer she flew back to Japan and resumed her studies. After not even two days, we found out she was pregnant.
I won’t detail here the ordeal we had to go through in order for Mei-Lin to complete her studies, leave Japan in time for the flight companies to allow her to fly in advanced pregnancy state and go back to Taileng, Taiwan, with her family, and for me to break the draconian Taiwanese travel ban barrier in a legal way, enter Taiwan and get married in Taileng. The non-ironic summary is that: an Italian guy resident in Switzerland marrying a Taiwanese citizen in Taiwan NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, and they had to come up with an ad-hoc procedure for us. AYFKM.
Our sweet Penelope was born in Taileng mid-2021. Again, I will not detail here the quest we had to undertake in order for us to be able to register Penelope’s passport(s), leave Taiwan, and get settled down together in Zerneve. It was not fun.
Most importantly, all of the above was exceedingly COMPLICATED AND EXPENSIVE. Sometimes I think: OK, we are in a particular situation, but I have a PhD, my wife has a MsC, and between the both of us we speak fluently 4-5 languages AND STILL IT’S RIDICULOUSLY COMPLICATED. How do the “99%” people do?
So, anyway, this is the background of our story. Mei-Lin, Penelope and I were enjoying our new family life in Zerneve, and then our second baby Serse arrived.
And this is how the story of this blog begins.
Are You Fucking Kidding Me 