Emily Coulson - ACT to Italy

Wed 28 Apr 2010

Emily Coulson comes from Giralang, ACT and is currently in Italy on our 10 month exchange program. She has provided us with a quick account on her trip so far:

I would hate to start with a cliché, but my three months in Broni, about an hour south of Milan, have flown by with unimaginable speed. It feels like just yesterday that I was stepping off the plane in Milan and being confronted with my first sight of snow. Since then I have walked to school in the snow quite a number of times, but the novelty still hasn't worn off!

My host family is your typical large Italian style set-up. I live in a house with my host family and my host dad's sister and her family, so although they live in a different part of the house, we still see each other regularly and catch-up often. I have two host sisters, both of which are wonderful and easy to get along with. My host parents are lovely as well and my host mum is an amazing cook, of course.

I go to the local high school with one of my host sisters and it’s just down the road from my house thankfully, and I don't have to wake up at 6am and catch a bus like my other host sister does. All the kids in my class are really friendly and we help each other with our respective languages. The school is science and maths based, but they do learn English quite well, and I get my morning "Hhhello HhhEmily, Hhhow hare you?" as I walk to school, it never fails to put a smile on my face, even when I am half asleep! Everyone knows me there as it's a relatively small school, with only about 200 students all up.

The main differences between schools here is the timetable. School starts at 8am and goes until 1pm, with a short break half way through, and I do have to force myself to wake up early on a Saturday and attend school, but I'm always home for a nice lunch, so that makes up for it! Instead of the students moving to each class, the teachers are the ones who do the changing, and the one class stays in the same room for the whole day.

When I'm not at school I love riding my bike around the town, little as it is it's only minutes from 'the countryside' and right at the bottom of several picturesque hills, covered in vineyards and bright green, when it's not snowing. I love looking out over the town and listening to bell tower chiming on the hour, something that my host family can't believe we don't have in Australia and they think it's strange that I giggle every time I hear them. I love all the old houses too, with their chipping paint and rusty door handles. Anything old or broken is my cup of tea, so you can imagine the time I had in Rome!

My host family are determined to show me as much of Italy as possible, and for Easter we travelled to Rome. I thought it would be relatively quiet, being a holiday and all, but it was absolutely jam packed with tourists, and it was strange hearing people talk in English after listening to Italian for so long, I could understand everything that people were saying! It wasn't right! The highlights of Rome for me were definitely the Colosseum, although I didn't see the inside, as well as the Piazza Navona and Trevi Fountain. But I think what I liked best was just roaming the streets after dark (with my host family of course) and seeing all the local restaurants lit up in all the hidden back alleys, away from all the tourists and large crowds.

I had the opportunity to go to Tuscany both with my school and with my host family, because they own a holiday house there near the beach. Aside from the strange accents (as they pronounce their hard c's as an 'h') it was absolutely beautiful, full of fields of poppies and thin dark green trees lining the roads. Each city has a characteristic of its own, with a different culture and cuisine. The highlight of my school trip was seeing Siena, where all the bright red houses are squished together and the streets are so steep that they have built and underground escalator to use instead!

Right now I'm just trying to improve my Italian, which is proving a lot more difficult than I imagined. I had studied Italian for two years at school in Australia, but there's really nothing that can prepare you for the speed at which Italians talk to you in, let alone the fact that each region, and even each village, has its own dialect. But you just have to accept that you're going to make mistakes and put yourself out there, because that's the only way you're going to improve. After just three months I am able to have a conversation with someone, or understand what someone is saying at least most of the time, and have actually started to forget English! I'm taking that as a good sign!

Overall, this experience has been the most exciting and fulfilling one that I have undertaken, and I wake up each day wondering what new and fantastic things the day will unfold. Even when things get tough and you feel like you're not making progress, there is always something here to cheer you up!

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