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!