Cultural Exchange: Italy

India Mazzoccoli, Year 10

I went on a self-organised cultural exchange experience in Italy in 2018 from July to December. Initially school was really hard and understanding what the teachers were saying was difficult, even though I went in being able to speak fluent Italian. The first couple weeks, school was extremely unenjoyable and I didn’t even want to get up in the morning, especially because school starts at 8 in the morning here. After I had begun to make friends and realise that I didn’t need to take school too seriously as it was just an experience to help improve my Italian things got easier and more enjoyable. It was also a shock having to adjust to the way school works in Italy where you go from 8:00am until 1:00pm but with only a 15-minute break at 11:00am. It’s hard when you get homesick and things get tough or you don’t have a good day and all you want to do is go home to your own bed and you can’t. Overtime however, I got used to the new conditions and had to realise that it was an experience and years from now I’ll be glad I did it.