Buongiorno Italy!

Greetings from Italy! I still can’t believe I’m in freakinItaly. It still feels so surreal. I never thought I’d go to Europe someday. OK,yes I have and it came true!

Travelling to Italy was nerve wrecking. I was SOOO nervousthe moment I first said goodbye to my family at the airport. But at the sametime, I’ve never been so excited before. There were so many things on my mind; what if my host family don’t likeme? What if I don’t fit in with my classmates? What if I don’t like it here?

There were just so many questions on my mind.

I’m not the only one though. Even Syefah, another exchangestudent was also nervous. Heck, she was crying when we left our parents!

Its true that I absolutely love travelling, but I also HATEgoing on long flights. And the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Doha took about 8effin hours! That’s not even Italy yet. We still have to go on transit fromDoha to Italy which is about a 6 hour flight.

So altogether, I’ve been travelling for about 14 hours, butthat’s not even counting the 8 hours we had to wait on transit for the flightto Italy.  Yeah, it took us about 22hours to reach Italy XP

When I first arrived in Rome, the first thing that hit mewhen I stepped out of the airport was the smell of cigarettes. I’ve been toldthat most Italians smoke, so I was prepared to tahan the smell if my hostfamily happened to smoke.

I still can't believe I was in Rome. Its like a dream come true :)

Before meeting our host family, we had to go for anorientation camp for 2 days. The volunteers are super friendly and we had agreat time!

In the hotel, I found some gorgeous postcards of Rome and Iwanted to buy it because I collect postcards. But the counter had no change for10 euros. Like hello!? It’s a counter, its supposed to have change wth =.=

I brought only notes with me so I was disappointed to findout that I can’t buy a drink from the vending machine. I haven’t had a drop ofwater since I stepped out of the plane so I was pretty frustrated that not onlycan’t I buy a drink, I can’t buy postcards or make a call because the freakincounter had no change for 10 euros!

But the place is absolutely beautiful! I fell in love withit instantly.

My first Italian breakfast! In Italy, there is bread in every meal and I mean every meal. Not that I'm complaining though. Their bread is so yummy!

During our break from the session, Ricardo, our volunteer,took me and my group to the top of the roof to see St. Peter’s church. I’vealways wanted to visit that place! Its been my dream to see the Vatican andvisit the most famous church in the world!

I really hope I could visit that place someday *sigh*.

At the end of the session, we all said our goodbyes to eachother as we went our separate ways to meet our host families. I was really,really nervous at that time because I was afraid I might not recognize my hostfamily or they might not pick me up from the train station.

Come to think of it, I guess that was kinda silly, huh?

I took some pictures on the way to the train station fromthe bus. Once again, here’s st. Peter’s church. *sigh* So near, yet so far…

The roads are so clean and the cars are so adorable!

I don’t know what’sthis place called, but Lorenzo said it’s a famous court or some sort.

Everything is simply beautiful! I love Italy :D

Sorryfor the VERY late update, but I’ve been busy settling down in my new home forthe next 2 months.  When I finally tookthe train to Avellino, my heart was beating fast because I really hoped my hostfamily would like me.

Sowhen I stepped off the train into the cold dark night, I got very worried whenI saw no one there. I can’t speak Italian, my phone was dead and I didn’t haveany small change to call if there’s a problem. I don’t know if it was the coldor if I was nervous, but my body shook vigorously and my teeth was chattering…you know what? I think I was cold after all.

Anyway,I found a bench and sat there for about 10 minutes before a lady holding an AFSposter with my name on it approached me. That’s when I met my host mom.

Iwas so relieved! I haven’t introduced you to my host family, have I?

Myhost family is a family of four, just like mine. There’s my host mom,Genoveffa, host dad, Pasquale, my host sister (I finally have a sister!), Lia,and my host brother, Raffaele.

Iliked my host family instantly. They are so kind and generous. When I firstarrived at their home, they gave me a brand new coat, hat and scarf becausethey knew Malaysia is a hot country and they were concerned that I’d get coldhere.

Iwas so touched. I can’t imagine buying things like these for completestrangers. As I was preparing for bedtime, my host mom asked me if I hadpyjamas. I told her that I planned to wear my track pants and the cardigan thatI was wearing.

Shesimply shook her head, took out a box containing a set of new pyjamas and gaveit to me! The pyjamas is so warm and comfortable. I never thought anybody wouldbe this generous and kind to outsiders like me. 

A complete stranger whom theybarely know and they've welcomed me into their home and gave me clothes becausethey were concerned about my well being.

Apparently, my host family couldn't speak English very well. I discovered that they've been using Google translate when e-mailing me. Luckily, my host sister, Lia, could speak English just fine. Not that great English, but good enough for us to communicate with each other.

Ifeel so lucky to be in this family.

Soanyway, we had dinner of Margarita pizza. It’s a classic pizza in Italy and Ireally liked it! Really.

Ihad no idea that I’m supposed to have one whole pizza to myself. I also foundout that apparently, Italians eat quickly. And I mean really quick. Everybodyelse had finished their pizza while I was only halfway through my first slice! 

And trust me, it was a very big slice of pizza.

Theslice of pizza was actually enough to fill my tummy, so I politely declined therest. I really couldn’t eat anymore because I had an apple, a big sandwich,yoghurt, and more bread on the train.

Inthe house, I saw a fireplace! An actual fireplace that works! My host dad orbrother would take firewood from outside the house and put it in there. I knowit sounds silly, but I was really fascinated to see a real fireplace that isfully functionable to heat the house.

Raffaeletold me that the heat from the firsplace goes round the whole house becausethere is a heater in every room. The heat from the fireplace would travelthrough the pipes and out the heater so that it’ll be nice and toasty in thehouse.

Ididn’t have an adaptor for any of my gadgets so I had no choice but to use myhost family’s computer at the moment. The keyboard is slightly different fromthe keyboards in Malaysia. So it took me some time to find the keys and letters I needed to e-mail my family.

In Italy, some of the symbols such as @?()&;*%are in different places and there are also other symbols I’ve never seenbefore. Its probably an accent which is read differently.

Thenext day, I had to go to school. I’ll blog about it the next time. Ciao!