The Summer so far, Getting Ready to Leave, Worries and Advice Part 1

This summer has been very busy, but I have completed all of my summer classes and decided which colleges to apply to! I received my host family information in mid- July! I will be living in a small town called Tortona in the Alessandria Province of Italy. I have  a mother, father, and a sister. They also have a son who is 17 as well, but he is studying with AFS in Denmark this year and has been there for a week now. When I received my host family information the first thing I did was email my host mom, sister and dad. I assumed they spoke English, but it turns out they only speak Italian, which is great because it means I will learn faster! They are very nice people and I love them already. I will be going to Istituto Scolastico Peano which is less than a kilometer away from my house J. I believe when they call the school “Scolastico” it means it ha more than one of the school programs (Linguistico, scientifico, classico…) I am very excited to be in the Linguistico class because I love languages. I do not have my class schedule yet, but I think it will be something like French, German, Italian, English, Art History (yay), and maybe a science. Rumor on facebook is that Linguistico is the easiest and most fun program for exchange students I’m not sure why that is, but I’m sure it’s true. On August 20^th I have my appointment at the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles and I also need to turn in my transcripts from my summer classes to my American high school. Talk about a busy day!

 So now for some advice to future AFSers about Visa instructions (lightning crash) ooh scary I know. First of all make your appointment at the consulate the SECOND you get that email! I made my appointment the day I got the email from AFS giving the OK, and when I called the next week all appointments were booked until after the due date! Luckily I already had mine set for the 20^th. In addition, AFS will send papers saying what they “think” the consulate requires, however, make sure to check the consulate website! The website and the instructions from AFS differed tremendously and to overcome that my mom made sure we had everything that both places listed plus two copies of everything (the website says one copy, but an AFSer on fb stated that at his appointment they wanted two copies).  I will post after my appointment about how it went and anything I think is good advice.

I have begun the countdown to days until Italy and it is a shockingly low 23 days! So now I find myself wondering odd things like “ Will this be the last tube of American toothpaste I buy before I leave?”, or “ How many pairs of underwear should I bring?”. I have my suitcase and it is sleek, sexy, and polka dotted! I got one of the light weight plastic (not sure if it is actually plastic, but you know what I mean) rolly suitcases, which I thought a god decision because of the weight restrictions. I have been hearing from past AFSers that the less you bring the better and that minimalism is key. I had the opportunity to speak to a family of AFSers at an open house my lovely Aunt Patty took me to (Love you!). These girls had been to Russia, Ecuador, Switzerland, and Norway! They all said that the best advice would be to be observant and use your obvious Americanness/ foreignness to ask as many questions as you can about everything, also they said to assume nothing. Customs can be very different and definitely ask questions even about “embarrassing” stuff like bathroom and shower customs. As far as homesickness goes they said that IT WILL HAPPEN the best thing you can do is when you are feeling the worst pretend and smile any way. See Part 2!