Heading Home...

The morning after La Notte Rosa I headed to Rome on the bus with all of the other exchange students from my region here in Italy, Romagna. The bus ride was super long and we were all so tired because those who hadn't been to La Notte Rosa had been busy doing other exciting things as it was the last night in our host home towns. We slept, talked and enjoyed each other's company for the 5-6 hour journey to our camp about an hour outside of the centre of Rome.

Our group was one of the first to arrive at the camp so we got our suitcases (filled with everything we'd accumulated throughout the year) to our rooms which were arranged by our departure times before other groups started arriving. It was so weird to see everyone after a year - and such a life changing year at that! One of my best friends from New Zealand, Lilly, spent the year in Bari and although we'd wanted to meet up during our time in Italy it flew by and we were so busy we never got around to it. It was so unreal to see her after all of that time because in so many ways we shared the same experience, but in even more ways, they were so drastically different.

We only spent one night at this camp and there weren't activities organised like we had had at our previous camps. It was more of a way of having us all together and organised for our departure the following day, than a camp with a full-on programme like we were used to. I think the way they organised it was perfect because every individual person wanted to be with certain people before saying goodbye for who knew how long, and didn't want to be taking part in organised activities with people they didn't know. We had a debrief talk in a big hall and then were free to do what we liked. The debrief was a really special milestone because we all remembered at our first camp back in September '13 the orientation was all in English, as it was the most commonly known language within our group of 500+ students. At that camp we had been told that at our pre-departure camp the following year they would only speak to us in Italian, and sure enough, they did just that! I remember thinking at the time that it would be so weird to actually understand. I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't quite understand how. Then after what felt like a lifetime and a second all at once, there I was sitting in a hall full of students originating from countries all around the world, after spending a year in Italy and I understood 100% of what was being said to me, in a language I once heard as jumbled, meaningless sounds. I felt such a sense of accomplishment, but also like I was dreaming. How did I understand? Why were they now making sense?

That night I didn't sleep; none of us did. We talked and reminisced about our time together - the funny times, the sad times, the unbelievable times. We hugged, we kissed and we said our goodbyes even though no one was ready. Everyone left the camp at different times depending on their flight so at as early as 2AM the following morning I, along with all of the other exchange students - once so very different but now united as a family- bid farewell to people that had changed our lives forever. It was probably one of the most the most intensely, emotional situation I've ever been in. Imagine a group of 500 teenagers who hadn't slept in days, being forced to say goodbye to some of the most important people in their lives. Add to that the hot Roman summer sun, and then times it by 100 and maybe you're starting to understand what it was like. It was pretty sad.

I was in one of the last groups to leave because instead of going back to New Zealand like the other 7 of my now Italian Kiwis, I was part of the Programme Release group. This meant that I had a family member coming to get me from Rome airport and AFS would no longer be responsible for me (P.S If anyone reading this is on exchange with AFS, or a potential AFS exchange student, Programme Releases are not as easy to get as you think! I had been told I would be able to fly to England alone after the exchange no problems, then all of a sudden they told me I had to be picked up by a family member. Apparently it depends on your host country and their rules, but I would recommend trying to get it sorted before you leave for the exchange so that you don't have to worry about it at a later date).

The whole camp was such a blur. So full of emotions - both incredibly sad, and slightly exciting. I can't believe I've now said goodbye to Italy, my host family and my AFS Ohana. I can't believe I won't be waking up to biscuits for breakfast each morning, or going for another 'giro' in the car with my amazing friends. I can't believe I won't be spending another night at Ecmel's house in Ravenna with our special group of international kids, or having secret picnics from Conad with Ida in the park. I can't believe we won't be meeting up all together at Antonio's house in Fano and trying so many new things, or even just speaking Italian on a daily basis. There's so many parts of my life that have become normalities over the past year which I can't imagine continuing this journey without - but that's the thing. My journey will continue whether I like it or not. When I left New Zealand a year ago I knew that one day - although it seemed a long way away - I would be returning, and my AFS experience would have come to an end. It's now up to me to accept that this chapter of my journey is finishing, and a new one is starting. Who knows how I'll write this next one? I just hope I'll take with me my memories, new mindset and above all, my friends and family from this amazing year.

Thanks for reading my blog and if anyone out there is thinking about doing a student exchange, or has an queries please feel free to contact me through mine and Lilly's colab pre-departure blog here :)

La Notte Rosa

La Notte Rosa is a huge party that is held along 110KM of coast from the Lidos of Comacchio to Cattolica at the beginning of July every year. It happened to be the night before we were due to leave for our AFS camp in Rome, and then head home to our own countries but we didn't let that stop us attending! I went along with Ida (Denmark), my host sister Marta and our friend Pavi. It was such an amazing night and although we had to go straight for the bus to Rome the next morning it was totally worth it! There were so many people out at Cesenatico where we went - the whole coast was alive and everyone so happy and excited. Once we were bored of one area, or one type of music we could just move on to the next, it was incredible!

We arrived at Cesenatico late in the evening, probably around 10 or 11PM which is when most parties seem to start here in Italy. The bus to take us back to Cesena arrived at about 7AM the next morning, Ida and I then met our host families from there and headed straight to our bus bound for Rome - it was a jam packed evening but so totally worth it! At about 5 or 6 the next morning we found ourselves in a pasticceria having pastries for breakfast looking dazed and tired but with so many new memories to take with us into the future.

Couldn't Stay Away from Sardegna

For my exchange week back in April I went to Sardegna, more specifically the town of Iglesias in the south of Sardegna. I had the most amazing time and would definitely say it's been one of my highlights so far this year. When my Sardinian host family asked if I'd like to return for a week I was so excited! I had wanted to go during term time but AFS being AFS said I had to wait until school had finished so that I didn't miss any. It was so nice to see my host family again and this time we went out lots with their close group of friends; going to the beach, bike riding and even doing an overnight camp on the beach.

The night that we camped on the beach there was rain and lightning so at about 2AM we all went to take shelter in the beach bar with the security guard while he slept. It turned out to be such a funny night that I'll never forget!

One random thing that I don't think I've ever mentioned is that here in Italy when on the beach everyone just wears their togs, if they're planning to swim or not. This is a huge difference for me because in NZ we would generally only wear our togs when swimming or at least when we're going to go/have been swimming, and then cover up with at least a singlet. Here everyone just seems so comfortable in their togs no matter what their shape or size which is actually pretty nice! The sun is probably a big factor in this too though - I haven't been burnt once this year in Italy whereas at home I can get burnt by being in the garden for 10 minutes. It's amazing how our environment influences cultural normalities like this!

Pisa and Florence

Another day trip that I was lucky enough to go on with Ida's host family was to Florence and Pisa. First of all her host Dad told us we would be going to Florence with a possible "sorpresa". Later on we learnt that that "sorpresa" was a stop by in Pisa on the way home! I know this is extremely stereotypical but I'd always dreamt of going to Pisa and taking the typical photo holding up the tower - now I can say that I have!

Florence is such a beautiful city and last time I visited it was love at first sight; this second trip didn't disappoint either! We spent our time roaming the streets and visiting a couple of art galleries including the famous Uffizi Gallery . At school in New Zealand I never studied art history but here in Italy it's one of the subjects I've been studying at school. Art here also seems to be woven into every single subject because it's so important to the Italian culture, because of this I recognised so many of the paintings in the museums from my year at school here in Italy. It made the museum trips have so much more significance to me than they would have done beforehand, because instead of seeing paintings I knew nothing about I'd recognise ones that had come up in class. Inside the Uffizi there were paintings such as Botticelli's La Primavera and The Birth of Venus, which were both amazing to see in real life! We also stumbled across an old photo machine where Laura, Ida and I took some instant black and white snaps which I just know are going to be so special in the future.

The next stop was Pisa! We parked in a supermarket carpark and walked the short distance over to the square where the Leaning Tower is located. When I caught the first glimpse of the tower I felt like I was dreaming. It was similar to the feeling I got the first time I saw the Colosseum in real life back at the beginning of my exchange; overwhelming excitement and in a way, confusion. It was just so strange to think I was there and I kept thinking 'but wait how am I here?!' I'd grown up seeing photos of these places, and seeing them on TV but although I'd dreamt of seeing them in real life one day I think a little part of me still thought it wasn't going to happen but then there I was, standing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa posing for the stereotypical tourist photo of the back of my Danish friend who I'd just spent the last year living in Italy with. I definitely had to blink twice.

Other than the tower, cathedral and baptistry in Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) there were a number of touristy restaurants and shops on the surrounding streets. Outside of that tourist swarm seemed to be a normal residential area with not much else to see but I'd love to go back one day and explore the littler known parts of the city. I'm sure there's some beautiful places that get lost in the excitement everyone has for the tower!

Venezia

Ida's (Denmark) host family invited Fran (Chile) and I along for a day trip to Venice and of course that was an offer we couldn't decline! Although it wasn't my first time visiting the beautiful city we experienced many different things that I hadn't done before. For example we rode in a gondola and visited the inside of St. Marks Basilica.

Riding in a gondola was truly something that I'll never forget. The previous times that I visited Venice I didn't get the opportunity to ride a gondola because the price was so high, this time however due to the generosity of Ida's host Dad the dream became reality and we went for a ride around Venice; from the smallest of small streets, to the huge open spaces. Our gondolier was so lovely and told us so many interesting things about the city!

End of Stay AFS Camp

AFS camps are one of my favourite parts of exchange student life. We get to meet up and spend days with just exchange students and volunteers (many of whom are returnees themselves) doing activities; talking about our experiences on exchange and our lives in our home countries; making new friends; and deepening our understanding of the Italian culture. As I'm sitting here writing this post so many fond memories spring to mind from our first one back in October '13, to our last now in June '14 - some of my favourite memories will always remain at these camps.

One AFS tradition is to do a talent show at the end of each camp. At this camp my group consisting of Poom (Thailand), Ida (Denmark), Chang (China), Ecmel (Turkey) and Steph (Australia) did a random dance to a mix of Italian songs that were important to us all in some way after this year. That evening there was one of the World Cup soccer games on and we all stayed up to watch it in the bar of our hotel with heaps of local Italians who came by for the game. It's amazing how passionate people are for soccer here! I love the enthusiasm, it's so funny!

Coming to an End

Now that it's coming to the end of my exchange here in Italy it's time for end of year dinners and parties to farewell all of the amazing people I've had the pleasure of knowing this year. This week I had dinners for both my community Italian language class, and my class from school - 3As, as well as a gelato trip with my gymnastics class. We also recently had an AFS Intercultura farewell party where we got together with everyone from Cesena, Forli and Ravenna.

The Italian classes which I've been attending twice a week since soon after arriving here in Italy have helped immensely with my language - especially grammatically - as well as given me so many fond memories. These classes were free and a great chance to meet other immigrants who come from a range of different backgrounds. If you're on exchange in Italy, or have moved there and don't know the language google 'corsi d'italiano per stranieri' in your town and maybe you'll have the same opportunity! For the end of year dinner we went to a piadina house which our teacher, Monica had been telling us about the whole year because they did mini piadina balls filled with nutella which my mouth can't help watering thinking about now. Uhh they were good. There were students from Egypt, Belarus and Serbia to name a few, all countries I'd never met anyone from so as you can imagine it had been an amazing year learning Italian with such a mix of people from different backgrounds. After the dinner Madi and I had to bike home in the dark and we'd eaten so much it was honestly such  a struggle hahaaha

The end of year dinner for my school class was in Cesenatico which is a seaside town near Cesena. They brought us out platters of different bits and bobs like pizza and chips and we all just picked and chose what we wanted. This is something I hadn't done in Italy before, it always seemed more classy and sophisticated the other times I'd eaten out so it was nice to have a relaxed dinner with such a big group. After the dinner the class split up and I went with some of the girls for a walk around Cesenatico and to the beach before my host Mum and Nonna came to pick me up. It was a good way to say goodbye to my class, although I don't have 'fond' memories of school here in Italy my class was always so lovely to me and we've shared some great times together.

The AFS farewell party was definitely the most emotional of them all. The people I'll be saddest to leave at the end of this experience are definitely my exchange friends family that I've met this year. I wouldn't have done half of the amazing things that I've been lucky enough to do without them, and I wouldn't have achieved everything that I have. As part of the party we had to read out letters that we'd written to our host families and thank them for hosting us this year. It was amazing to think that at our welcome party I had trouble saying "mi chiamo Emily, vengo dalla Nuova Zelanda" and now I'm writing and reading a whole letter and explaining my feelings in Italian. Although my language skills are far from perfect I'm happy with the progress I've made this year. Before Italian I'd only ever known English and I had no idea what it would be like knowing another one, and I feel like knowing another language opens up so many doors - not just opportunity wise in the world, but within my own mind; how I perceive and understand even the smallest of things.

Last Day of School

Saturday the 7th of June was my last day of not only just Italian school, but school in general as I finished in New Zealand before coming to Italy. Although I'd been looking forward to this day from the beginning of my experience of Italian high school, it was sad to be saying goodbye as it also signifies that I'm nearing the end of my exchange year.

A couple of days before the actual last day we had a school party which was held at the school in the evening. I couldn't stay for long because I was meeting my host sister and some friends to go for a walk afterwards but for the short time I stayed I really enjoyed myself. It was held in the courtyard between my school (classic and human sciences) and the school next-door (geometry/architectural). They had music playing, food and drinks and in general everyone was just in such a good mood because school was finally coming to an end for the year and summer was beginning! On the last day my class had a shared lunch and we borrowed one of the school's CD players (yup no speakers, internet access or even computers in this classroom!) to play some music, creating a mini class party. It was really nice because throughout the year I never got much chance to just 'hangout' with my class as a whole as they were always so fixed on studying; it's just a pity it had to be the last day!

As my Italian school experience has now come to an end (I honestly feel like I'll never complain about anything ever again haha) I thought I'd share with you some differences, or things that have surprised me throughout my year at an Italian high school. I did this after my first couple of days here and if you want to read that you can do here. I think after attending school here for the whole year I now understand, or have a different opinion on,  some of the differences that hit me right at the beginning. So here goes...

1. The hierarchy within the school here is extremely obvious - Principal, then Teachers, then Students. For example when speaking to teachers students must use the formal way of saying 'you/tu' which is 'lei'. This shows respect to the teachers but the amount of disrespect I've seen from some of the teachers towards students is ridiculous (some teachers didn't even seem to bother learning students' names which you could say is just a cultural thing, but even my classmates told me that they would appreciate being called by their names), I still don't understand how they can expect it.

2. School on Saturdays! My school did a survey to see if students would prefer to do an extra hour of school each day Monday-Friday and then have Saturdays off. This would mean six hours, instead of five which is what we do in New Zealand. When I talked to my classmates about this I was so surprised that most of them would prefer to keep Saturday as a school day because "what about lunch?!" I love how typically Italian that is!

3. There's near to no technology in schools here (or at least in my school). Each class had a blackboard and that was it, all of the students used textbooks and visits to the presentation room (with one very old computer and a projector) were very rare. I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing, I honestly don't know. There's benefits of learning with technology, and benefits of learning the old fashioned way. I suppose it really depends on the person and what subject you're studying but this still really surprised me at the beginning, especially coming from a school where almost everything bar maths is done on the computer.

4. They were serving alcohol at the school party where the youngest students were about twelve! I know this doesn't really seem like a big thing and it's more of a cultural difference, but thinking back to my school in NZ where even at the school ball there's no way they would have been allowed to serve alcohol it seems extreme.

5. Here the individual teachers make, and mark the tests and verbal exam questions throughout the year. Although it must save the school a lot of time and therefore money, it allows room for so much bias and informality. It also means that your grades depend a lot on which teacher you have for the year, as it depends how tough they are on marking, and what level their questions are at. I've also heard a lot of stories about terrible teachers who no one has the courage to complain about because they can't risk being given bad grades as a result (consciously or subconsciously) which in my opinion puts students in a terrible situation.

6. Here you choose your school and not your subjects. In my opinion this is actually quite a good thing because for example if you want to be an architect you go to that particular school and do all of the subjects necessary, whereas in New Zealand you might choose the wrong subjects when not given the right guidance, and ruin your chances of getting into your desired course after finishing school. Although at 13 years old it is very young to be expected to know what you want to do when you finish school.

7. This is more of a cultural difference rather than a difference only within the school system but there seems to be an extreme lack of freedom in terms of the students' actual learning. For example, at not one point throughout the year were we given a task to do over more than one lesson; something that would teach time management and planning skills in addition to the subject at hand; something that you would have the freedom to do in your own time, adding your own spin and showing your own individual perspective to the task. There always seemed to be a right, and a wrong answer which doesn't allow any 'outside of the box' thinking. Anyone can tell you for example how to spell the word 'innovation' but not everyone can be innovative, think laterally and solve real word problems where there isn't just one right, and one wrong answer.

8. I think the main difference - and something that a lot of these previous things add up to - is the fact that the Italian school system hasn't changed for such a long time. It's what you would imagine a school to have been like back in your parents' or even grandparents' day. It's extremely basic and aimed at one learning style alone. If you're one of those people who learns by listening and reading then you'd probably do really well at an Italian school, but if you learn from getting physical and learning through experiences then you're pretty much stuffed to be honest... ( as an example - we studied chemistry for the whole year and never even did one experiment or anything whatsoever. It was all learning from textbooks which for some people just wouldn't ever work no matter how long they studied, and for some people would work better than anything physical)

These things here, along with the ones that I listed after my first two weeks in Italy, are what I found from my experience of one Italian school, and one Italian class. I'm not saying this is what it's like in every school in Italy because I really have no idea. I also just wanted to say that although I may sound negative when talking about the school that's mostly because I personally find it hard to learn just from listening and reading in an environment such as this, however everyone is different and maybe the fact that their school system has remained unchanged for such a long period of time is only a testament to it itself.

Just Over a Month to Go

Time has gone by so fast and it's so strange for me to be saying that I have only a month left here in Italy, my new home. Quite a lot has happened since my last post but I also just wanted to give a general update on everything and try and explain how it feels to have been here for what is now quite a substantial amount of time.

As I said in my last blog post I was away on a school trip on my actual birthday so I didn't get to see my closest friends who I'd made here in Italy which I was quite sad about to be honest, especially seeing as it was my 18th. On the following Tuesday my host Mum and sister picked me up from school and said we were going for Pizza at one of our favourite pizzerias. It turned out that this was a Surprise Birthday Celebration that they had organised for me and they had invited my closest group of friends to come along! It was such a special surprise and I couldn't believe they had done it for me. Some of my friends had to travel 2 hours on the train to get there just for the afternoon so it was honestly just amazing. The best surprise ever! After lunch we went back to my house and just all hung out. Hanging out with your friends in your own house may sound like a little thing, but when you're living in a host family you can't really invite round a whole group of friends very often so it was incredible to just all be together like that. It made me realise how lucky I am to have this amazing group of friends, and I really can't bare the thought of leaving them in a months time.

In May it was also my friend Ecmel's 18th birthday and we celebrated by staying at her house in Ravenna for the weekend. Her parents weren't home so it was just our small group of close friends which made it so special and so much fun. Her house is in the city centre so we had so much freedom to come and go from the house as we wanted and even went for a walk at 2am around the streets of Ravenna. When it came to Ecmel's cake Antonio (Mexico) and Alejandra (Honduras) told us that in their cultures the birthday girl/boy gets their face put in the cake so Ecmel even get a slice of their cultures in the form of a slice of cake in the face hahaha.

This time of the year also means the beginning of summery weather! After such a long winter and one much colder than what I'm used to in New Zealand I'm so excited to see what summer has to offer. We finish school in June and don't leave Italy until the beginning of July so there'll hopefully be time to enjoy the weather and spend time all together before this experience has to come to an end. 

My life here obviously is my life but I don't know how else to explain how I'm feeling other than saying I now feel like this is my life. I don't know when it happened but I had been feeling like I was here living this 'experience' it's no longer just an 'experience' though - it's my actual life. My day to day life here is so normal to me now that my life in New Zealand seems like another book in my series of life books if that makes sense. I can't go back and alter it, it's as it is, whereas my life here in Italy I'm living everyday; I can change things here, it's interactive. I feel like I've only read the book of my New Zealand life but someone else wrote it, it's so strange. One thing that scares me about feeling like this is that I'm sure that when I go back to New Zealand I'll feel the same but the other way around; I'll start to forget bits of my life here and close the book of my life in Italy. I want to try my best to keep both books open and even though juggling two at once will be hard, I never want to close the book of my life here in Italy.

Torino and my 18th Birthday

I found out earlier on in the year that my class' trip (or 'gita' as it's called in Italian which each class normally does once a year, often to somewhere abroad) would be an overnight trip to Torino, a city in the north of Italy. It had originally been planned as a 3-4 day trip but it had to be cut short due to unavailability of the teachers. It just so happened that the second and last day of the trip was my 18th birthday as well!

We had a super jam-packed program while we were in Torino. We visited the Salone Internazionale Del Libro which is the second biggest book event in Europe and attracts around 300,000 visitors each year since it started in 1988. It was absolutely massive and was filled with different book stalls - both independent authors and publishers, as well as the big names in the business. There were also talks by different authors including one American who made me feel super special being one of the only people in the audience who completely understood what she was saying before the translator got in hahaha. Although the book fair was great to see, it definitely wasn't my favourite thing about the trip because after all it was just a huge book shop with some special guests...

Other than the book fair we managed to fit into our short trip visits to many of the city's icons such as; Piazza San Carlo, Cesare Lombroso Museum, The National Cinema Museum and Palazzo Reale. The National Cinema Museum was a real standout for me because it definitely wasn't your average museum. It was super interactive and although we only had about 1/5 of the required time needed to get around the whole thing it made such an impact on me. Inside was quite dark and most of the corridors were super narrow which you'd think would just be annoying but it honestly just added to the atmosphere of it and made it even more unique. There were sections which explained the history of cinema, how old and modern day cameras work, different genres of film and even history of the cinema itself. In the centre of the museum was a huge room where a movie was playing which you could watch from one of many chairs with built-in speakers, surrounding this was case after case of movie memorabilia and movie sets - it was honestly amazing! Palazzo Reale, or the Royal Palace of Turin, is a 16th century palace in the centre of the city. We went on a guided tour around it and each and every room brought new surprises because the decorations were so incredibly extreme. Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos while inside but believe me it was breathtaking, and I can safely say that after the amount of AFS and school trips I've had this year to places which you're told are "STUPENDO!" The Cesare Lombroso Museum was probably one of the most interesting museums I've ever been to (it was also super compact so by the time you started getting bored it was over which is pretty handy haha), as I'm pretty interested in anthropology and Lombroso himself was a criminal anthropologist.

As I said before the Sunday was my birthday, and 18th at that! To be honest I had extreme mixed feelings about this. My class at school is so lovely and I've made some great friends in it but they are and just seem a lot younger than me and I'm not particularly close to any of them so I was pretty disappointed that I would be spending my birthday with them and not my close friends who I'd made outside of school. However on Saturday night just before midnight my classmates took me into one of the hotel rooms where they had organised a little surprise party for me! It was the cutest thing ever complete with presents, balloons and even a cake! I honestly couldn't believe they'd done all of that for me, it was so lovely of them and really put my birthday off to a great start.

I would love to revisit Torino one day with more time and freedom to explore. Even from our overnight visit I could see how beautiful and unique it was with so many different things to see. You'll definitely be seeing me again one day Torino <3

Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum

Since soon after I arrived in Italy I've been taking part in an Italian night-class which is run by the community for foreign immigrants. Ida and I had been attending the classes twice a week and recently our friend Madi (USA) who is in Cesena with Rotary has started going along with us. A while back our teacher Monica told us there was a trip to Napoli planned and we would also get to go to Pompeii! This was a dream come true for me because I have always wanted to visit Pompeii because I can remember my Grandma telling me about it when I was younger. All three of us signed up and it was an amazing, fast-paced weekend that I'll never forget.

I liked Naples as a city - sure it was dirty and crowded just like people say but it had something special about it. Many of the streets were super narrow and as well as the streams of people pouring through each one there were Vespas trying to get through. It was hectic but hectically, interestingly, beautiful if that makes sense... hahaha.

Pompeii and Herculaneum were my favourite parts of the whole trip because I'd dreamt about visiting them even before going to Italy. It was incredible to hear the history and see it all in person. At Herculaneum there were even skeletons left exactly where they had been found - in a cellar type area where people had gone to hide when Vesuvius was erupting!

Coincidentally at Pompeii Madi saw one of the other Rotary students from her town in the US! It was so unbelievable when we heard someone yell out "MADI" from behind us. The boy told us that there were also Kiwi Rotary students so I got to meet them too. It turns out they were all of the Rotary students who were on exchange in Belgium and were on a trip to Italy at the time.

Exchange Week - Sardinia

AFS in Italy organises an exchange week for us students to go and experience another part of the country, with another family for a week. I chose Sardinia which is an island off the mainland of Italy. It was the best choice that I could have made because I had an absolutely amazing week and met some people that will forever be in my heart.

My host family was incredible; I had a host brother and a host sister around my age and they introduced me to quite a few of their friends as well. They lived in Iglesias which is a city in the southwest of the island. Throughout the week AFS had organised different trips such as a gazillion museums (too many if you ask any of us... hahaha), trips to the beautiful beaches and tours of different towns such as Calgiari - the capital of Sardinia. The other exchange students who had travelled to Carbonia-Iglesias for the week were all so lovely and we bonded immediately! We were such a mixed group coming from all around the world - China, Costa Rica, Germany, Turkey, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand. It was the perfect group and I enjoyed every minute of the week, I'd have to say it was one of the best weeks of my whole exchange so far and I would love to go back one day.

The culture in Sardinia is surprisingly different to where I've been living this year. In my opinion it's a lot more open and relaxed - but I can't say much after a week haha. I've heard many times that the culture in Italy varies a lot region to region but I didn't realise how true that was until my week in Sardinia. I thought that the culture was much more similar to that of New Zealand which could be something to do with it being an island nation I suppose. This made me feel so at home and relaxed! When I took a trip to the coast with my host siblings and our friend, Alessia one day I had to stop and look out to sea for ages because it was just so amazing to see the ocean after all of this time!!

Another random thing that I loved about Sardinia were all of the abandoned buildings! Iglesias used to be a mining town and now all of those buildings are left abandoned and it's absolutely incredible to see. My host siblings were teasing me for the amount of photos I took of abandoned buildings but I seriously couldn't help it - they were beautiful!