By Nancy Beniwal, Hosted in Italy
“Two months back, I couldn’t believe that I would be in Italy in some days. It seemed like a beautiful dream. But today here I am, writing my experience. I really don’t know how to put this into words. I can describe my experience best as amazing and confusing at the same time. Sometimes it’s like I’m lost in the middle of nowhere and the other days I feel like this is where I belong. It all started on a beautiful morning of September 9th 2017. Though I was very tired after a long journey but the mesmerizing view of Rome made it disappear, my excitement level was so high that I totally forgot about it. I must say that I’m love with this city. I stay 3 hours away from there but I never miss a chance to visit Roma! After a day, I finally met my host family. There was an instant connection between us; my host mother is the definition of kindness. I think she’s the nicest person I’ve ever met and my sisters are everything I wanted, we do all sorts of crazy stuff together. People in Italy are warm and welcoming and they tend to help you in each step. The one thing I missed most about India was my school. I personally think that it was the hardest part of my experience as I always felt lost and confused in my Italian school which I think is quite normal when you come to a totally different environment and with all of the differences. The best part of my experience till now was the AFS camp. When I got to know that there’s going to be a camp for four days, I had no idea what we were going to do. I thought the days would crawl by but the camp literally lasted for 0.5 seconds. We were divided in groups and each group had two volunteers, we played games and talked about everything and anything, about
(Photo Above: With new friends)
our lives in Italy and back in our home countries. The camp made us realize that we weren’t alone and that each one of us was going through the same and no matter where across the globe you belong to, in the end we are all same inside. And the most fun was the Talent show night. Everyone presented their countries; my Thai friends and I did a dance performance on Thai and Indian dance because that’s what an exchange is all about, exchanging cultures! This didn’t just end here, after all the stunning talents were shown, out of nowhere, we all started dancing. We danced on the tunes from different countries. Next day was supposed to be our last one and we didn’t want to leave but all good things come to an end. This experience till now has made me more confident and helped me bring out the best in me. I’m so glad that I chose to come on an exchange like this. If you want an overall experience in your life, there’s nothing better than “AFS”, it’s an all in one package. But this breathtaking experience isn’t just limited to a piece of paper. There’s yet to DISCOVER. So, ARRIVIDERCI!”