CRIS GOES ABROAD

Today I decided to dedicate this blogpost to my friend, Emily, who's currently a full time student in New York City. I stole some of her precious time to ask her some questions about her new (not so new anymore) life in the big apple. Let's start by introducing her.

Were you an exchange student? If yes, where? 

Yes, I was an exchange student during the school year 2014/2015 in Lockport NY, near Buffalo and the Niagara Falls. I was part of my school's senior class.

What are you studying? 

I’m currently attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in Chelsea, Manhattan. I’m majoring in Fashion Business Management, going into International Trade and Marketing for my Bachelor’s.

Why did you choose to study in New York City? 

NYC has always been my dream. It gives me unlimited opportunities of growth in the fashion industry. During my first day of college I was able to sign up to volunteer for New York Fashion Week. This led to a series of other great opportunities, which confirmed that I am exactly where I want to be, doing what I love. And NYC is THE city, who wouldn’t want to study/live there?!

  

Do you have roommates? If yes, how many? 

Yes, I do. I dorm with 3 girls who also attend FIT. Two of them are majoring in Fashion Business as well, and the other one is majoring in Advertising and Marketing Communications. I love them, we are really close and I couldn’t go through college without them.

What do you see from your dorm room? 

Last year I lived on the 13th floor, and I had a pretty cool view – I could see the Empire State Building from my bed! This year I live on the 5th floor, the view is not as great as last year, but I can see the New Yorker hotel.

What do you like the best of living there? 

I love the fact that there is always something going on. You are never bored, you just can’t be bored in NYC! I come from a very small town in Northern Italy, and I can say that NYC was quite of an adjustment, but I love it.

Is there something that you don't like instead? 

Sometimes I feel alone, it’s hard to make friends in the city. My school is very competitive as well, everyone is so focused on their success and everyone is busy all the time.

What do you do there during your spare time? 

I don’t have a lot of free time. Last semester I had a job, a part time internship, and 6 classes. My free time is very limited, but when I have some I enjoy walking around Chelsea, going shopping in Soho, and exploring new places, new restaurants and cafés in the city.

Do you walk through Central Park with a cup of Starbucks in your hand like an average white girl? 

Haha I get asked that a lot. Actually, I have never walked in Central Park holding a cup of Starbucks coffee. I walk through Central Park though, it’s one of my favorite things to do when I want to get away from the restlessness of the city.

Do you feel safe in NYC? 

There is a lot going on all the time, but I have learned to feel safe, and to be aware of my surroundings. It’s something that you learn over time.

If you could go back would you change location? Why? 

I would like to travel to the West Coast, because I have never been there, but as of right now I would not change location. I know that things could change in my future, but for now NYC is the perfect match for me.

Do you miss Italy? If yes what, in particular? 

Of course. I miss home, my family and friends, and REAL Italian food (especially my grandma’s food). I have tried some “Italian” food in NYC but it’s not the same, and it’s overpriced. Ugh.

Do you consider yourself a New Yorker after living there for more than a year? 

It has been a year and a half now, and for some aspects do I consider myself a New Yorker, but my heart will always be Italian, not matter where I will be settling even in the future.

How many celebrities did you see or even meet? Who? 

Shawn Mendes, Kendrick Lamar, Calvin Klein, Ansel Elgort, Brooklyn Beckham, Chris Martin, Jack Gilinsky, Madison Beer, Leandra Medine, Rihanna, Kylie Jenner, Ashley Graham, Metallica, Demi Lovato, Priyanka Chopra, Adam Levine, Cat Stevens, Florida, Nicole Miller, Alicia Keys, Eddie Vedder, Olivia Palermo. That’s pretty much it.

I'd like to thank my friend for sharing with me what her life in NY is all about because it is also my dream to settle there, if not permanently, for a few months. To discover what the city is truly about and to feel a resident rather than a tourist. I hope that through her words you could dream as well.

READ ALSO: FROM EXCHANGE STUDENT TO FLIGHT ATTENDANT.

- Cris   

I’ve been receiving different questions from people on Instagram, each one of them with the same purpose of knowing how in the world I can travel “so much”. First of all, I don't normally post pictures the moment they are taken, most of them are throwbacks. This means that if one day I posted a pic of Milan and the day after one of Denver I am simply posting old images, and so I am not in a different city every day. Second, I am currently studying abroad so this gives me the opportunity to travel around my host country and most of the planes I’ve been taking flew me back home to visit my family and friends.

That said, I am not denying that I’ve also been traveling for fun, in fact, last week I was in Madrid, but it is all about budgeting correctly everything you do. You won’t see me at the club every Friday and Saturday night, I don’t get wasted every weekend and I don’t spend hundreds of euros on clothes every month. I simply work, pay my rent and save the rest for my travels.

I work in a warehouse, where I take night / morning / afternoon & evening shifts. Night shifts mean that after university I go home, eat dinner, pack a snacking and go to work from 11pm to 7am. Morning shift in the winter meant waking up at 4.40am, freezing at the bus stop at 5.20am and starting working at 6am. I don’t like afternoon shifts because even though they are the shortest I still lose the whole day. And lastly, evening shift means leaving directly from university and go to work from 3pm to 11pm, taking the bus back home, showering, and sleeping at around midnight. Sometimes after an evening shift, I even have work the morning after, which means that I can sleep just like 5 or 6 hours at the most (depending on the job/terminal I have to go to) and go back to my workplace.

This was just an insight for you to understand that the things you see on my Instagram are just the fun stuff that comes after me working at a dusty warehouse. If you come after me on Instagram claiming that you envy me, at least you should know that if you wanna switch lives you also have to wake up at 6am tomorrow because there are boxes for you that are waiting to be lifted.

"Everyone sees the tip of the iceberg, but very few see how much it took to rise above the waters."

Anyways, it doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you work and you spend money on necessary things and not on stuff that you don’t need, you will be able to save money and enjoy roaming around as well. Sounds cliché and everyone tells you to save money, but this is what it is. There is no magic trick, but if you want to make things easier for you: write things down. Set goals and spend money only on them. Keep notes of what you spend and when you spend it.

Problem Solving.
You also need to be keen on problem-solving because you may have loads of them. See, I've had problems with my visa, with my host university, even with something as simple as the issue of my passport. Prior to my exchange, a doctor who didn't know what she was doing even told me that something was wrong with my heart or surroundings, I can't remember the specific term she used, but my point is that I literally thought I was not going anywhere because of that. After a few more doctors appointments it turned out that I had no problems and she just scared the crap out of me. So whenever you see someone's feed and think "I wish I was them" remember that there is also a second side to the story and not everything is as it seems.

READ ALSO: IS TRAVELLING EXPENSIVE?



- Cris

Hello fellows, today I decided to write Gloria's story. She's an Italian exchange student who owns an awesome vlog (you should check it out here) and I wrote this post based on what she said on her latest videodiary: "Last day in the US". She wasn't done packing, it was late at night and her host family was probably sleeping but she wanted to videotape herself to keep that as a memory.
Before I start, I'd like you to follow my Google Plus, so you won't miss my future updates! You can do so by clicking here and then on follow.

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When I was in Italy my countdown was called "My new life" because this experience was, for me, a chance to start from zero. But now it's my last night in the US and 310 days passed by. All I can say is that I truly built the life I was dreaming until that countdown reached "0 days left for my new life".

When I was about to leave Italy my friends gave me a book and inside of it they quoted a song, "I Lived" by OneRepublic. This was their way of wishing me best of luck. The song kinda describes my whole life. It says "hope when you take that jump, you don't fear the fall, hope when the crowd screams out, they're screaming your name". I swear I lived. For one year I felt like Hannah Montana, like having two lives just like her. Nothing remains.. except me. I do have memories, photos and experiences but they are all part of who I am now. When someone asks me "Hey, how're you? What have you learnt abroad" the only thing I can reply is "look at me".

I've just a few hours left here and there are no words that can fully describe what I am feeling right now. It is almost what I felt before going on exchange, when I couldn't tell whether I was happy, anxious or what. I'm really satisfied of what my year turned out to be, because everything, even the smallest things, made me the way I am now. 

Sometimes the people who tried to tear you down return and say "By the way, I actually admire you.. I'm really proud of the person you've become" and this is when you realize you did something good, but also when someone who you've always admired a lot tells you "Congratualtions, I think you are a wonderful person, people should get to know you".

It was worth it. Life isn't always good, there are ups and downs. My year wasn't the most perfect, but it was the best one so far. It gave me a lot. I bought a flag and my american friends wrote me lovely stuff on it. It is really incredible how you can make a difference in someone's life.

Exchange is a chapter of my life that will end as soon as I will get home and that's sad, but I'm happy overall because I've people who love me waiting for me in Italy.

I'm glad I had a vlog during my experience because now I can watch my oldest videos and see how different things were and how much I grew during this short period of time. Thank you for hearing me out, this might be my last videodiary, or maybe not. Goodbye.

PS Glow arrived in Italy June 3rd, check this out to see how she surprised her friends.

- Cris, on Glow's behalf.

When you are finally back home after a year abroad people start asking you all kinds of questions because they are curious to know what you experienced, and stuff like that. Truth is, once you are home, you tend to remember only the good things because those are worth to carry with you in life. You are not going to tell your friend, for example, that on October 27th you had a breakdown because at school you didn't have many friends. By the end of the year, you were most likely surrounded by people who love you and you will completely forget what you felt like at the beginning. Or, at least, this is what happened to me, but people need to know that it is not all smooth as we make it sound.

Even if you don't want to, you will feel homesick.

This varies from person to person. I honestly wasn't sad to leave Italy, I always wanted to visit and live in the USA so I just focused on that fact and promised myself to enjoy it. I know other students who, instead, struggled because of many factors: bad host families, lack of friends at school, it was hard to follow classes in a different language, etc.

My point is that it can and will happen, even if you want to go on exchange so badly that before you do it you think "I'm strong enough not to struggle". It can be skyping with your whole family on your birthday and see that everyone is hanging out except you because you are on the other side of the world, or it can be when during the Christmas holidays your family sends you pictures of the traditional foods and games they play...

Not everything is ok.

Everyone is jealous of your exchange life when they take a look at your Instagram stories, but they don't know that you need a ride everywhere to be able to hang out or even buy groceries. They don't know that sometimes you need a hug and no one gives it to you. They have no clue what it feels like when you are unable to express yourself the way you would like to.

When you go on exchange you take the whole package: all the cool stuff but also all the things you have to learn how to deal with at age 16. That said, it is all doable, no worries.
(Read also How To Deal With Homesickness)

Exchange Students may be treated like things.

Saying "Hey guys, this is Fred (I'm just making this up). An exchange student from Italy who lives in my house." is definitely time-consuming, so instead, this is how people introduce you 99% of the time: "Hey guys this is MY exchange student from Italy." So yes, it sounds like you are someone's pet and the only thing that people know is your country of origin, so they call you "Italy" because it's too hard for them to learn your name, which doesn't make sense because for you it is 10 times harder to remember everyone's name. They only have to learn yours and you have to remember the name of every student in the school because you cannot shout "America!" when you want to speak to someone, can you?

We are being teased.
One of the first things that we are made fun of is our accent. We might speak broken English, but we know more than one language and had enough courage to show up in our host country despite the level of language we had, ready to improve and get better. We don't need your "Your accent is so weird!" we would rather have you correct us so that we can learn from our mistakes. We also know that we gained some weight throughout the year, we don't need to hear it from you.

Update: This is not how everyone feels and is not my personal experience either. I gathered comments and stories from different exchange students because it is important that teens understand what they are putting themselves into before they actually fly abroad. I have seen many people escaping their responsibilities and flying back home, and I think that one of the reasons why this happens is that they were not prepared. Former exchange students bragged about how good their experience was and completely ignored the fact that sharing the bad stuff gives new students the chance to avoid making the same mistakes. And again, I loved my experience as a foreign exchange student, with all the good and the bad.

- Cris

Sometimes the excitement that we have when we go on exchange never dies, it just changes shape. This is the case of one of my good friends, Mirco, who after his exchange year found himself interested in being a flight attendant and after his graduation decided to give it a try. Not only he succeeded but now he has been working for almost 6 months. I asked if he had some time, maybe between one flight and the other, to answer some of my questions and this is the result:

I'd say that everything started when I was an exchange student. I really enjoyed flying and having the opportunity to visit new places. I enjoy admiring earth from above and I thought that flying was an awesome way of working rather than being in the same place everyday. And yes, I'm on a plane everyday, but I land in different airports, meet different people every time, and the views are amazing. Whoever works in a office, for instance, can't really say the same. I'd call this "unstoppable desire of travelling."

Which company are you working for and where are you based?

I've been a Ryanair Flight Attendant since this past winter and I'm based in Bologna, Italy.

Did you choose your base or did Ryanair place you randomly?

Ryanair can place you anywhere in Europe. To be honest, I'd have been happy with anything, as in being placed abroad or here in Italy. I'd have liked being abroad to be able to get to know a new place and create memories elsewhere, but being in Bologna is equally good. I can go home quite often and it is less expensive than other cities in Europe.

Where did the preparation course take place? How long was it?

The course took place in Bergamo (Orio), Italy and lasted 6 weeks. During that time I moved there and lived with other trainees, who I happened to know through social media.

What did you have to study in order to pass it?

The training course, which is in English, is composed by two parts: Initial and Conversion. The former is all about basic information on aviation, first aid and so on. The latter instead is specialized on Ryanair's aircraft type, which is 737-800. During this part of the course I learnt every emergency procedure, in theory and practice. There was an airplane on location where we could do all kinds of things, like going down the inflatable slide. We also had to save a "kid" on board of a smoky plane. We had to prove our swimming skills as well, having to put the jacket on and rescue some people from the "ocean".

What was the hardest thing for you to do?

The hardest thing was being able to study right after the training. Every morning I woke up at 6.30am to get ready and take the public transport. The course started at 9am and lasted until 6pm. By the time I'd get home it would be already 7pm, I'd prepare something to eat, shower and then study until midnight. Every day same routine. The only thing that made it easier for me to study was the fact that I was very interested and liked the things I had to memorize. 

What are the main requirements for being a Ryanair flight attendant?

You need: to be at least 1.57m tall to a maximum of 1.88m, to speak english fluently, to see properly (contact lenses accepted), to be able to swim, to be physically fit, to be flexible, willing to operate on a shift roster and possibly outgoing. You wouldn't want to be served by a cranky steward, would you?

Do you regret choosing this career? How do you manage to have a social life when on average two to four airplanes fly you back and forth daily?

I don't regret anything. I really like the job and I think this is a good start for my career since I'd love to become a pilot one day. Every five days of work we get three days off, so if during the week I feel tired and don't want to go out I can simply be social during my off period. If I have only morning shifts I can decide to go out in the afternoon, but normally I am tired and prefer to rest. What is nice is that I can take holidays in advance, in this case the system is pretty flexible.

Is there something that customers do that annoys the cabin crew?

To be honest yes, there are many things. I encountered many persons who put their smaller bags, which should be stored under the seat, in the overhead compartment, along with their box of local food, jackets and so on. The overhead compartment has a capacity of 90 carry-ons, and we need to make sure that we use our space effectively, but when I ask people to move their stuff they get annoyed as I am the one who did something wrong. People also get mad when we check their carry-on and yes, I know how stressful it is having to wait for your luggage in your country of arrival, especially if you are on holidays and you can't wait to get to your hotel, but we don't do it to piss you off. We do it because there isn't physical space on board for your belongings. If you want to prevent this from happening get in line ahead of time and board before everyone does. Sorry. Another thing that annoys us is having to deal with people who smoke on board. You would think that this would never happen, everyone knows that it is forbidden. But it does happen, sadly. And no, you cannot smoke electronic cigarettes either. Not allowed. We need to fill up papers when this happens. Believe me, you don't want to be welcomed in your country of arrival by a police officer.

Have you ever met someone cool? Or did something happen that made you think "I've the coolest job"?

I can't think of a specific person or event now, but I really enjoy meeting people from different backgrounds. When I have the opportunity, I talk to my customers who can take a break from their crossword puzzles, and I discover where they are from and why they are travelling. Once I met an American lady who was flying from Tenerife and she told me she travels back and forth quite a lot because of work. One other time I recognized a couple who flew with us before.. I think the whole "meet and travel" is pretty cool.

Do you use specific codes when you want to communicate with your colleagues? Can you give us an example?

It is more like gestures. If I am at the head of the plane and I need to talk to a colleague who's at the very end, I can simply ring him to get his attention. Then, I will communicate with him through gestures. Let's say I need a long coffee. I will move my hand in a certain way. I need a hot tea? I will do something else. We have a sign for everything, which is nice and quick. And when I say everything, I mean it. Male flight attendants also have a way to speak to one another in case there's a pretty lady on board, but I'm not going to reveal how, haha.

What advice would you give to a future flight attendant?

If you are a friendly and outgoing person who likes to be constantly around people, is interested in meeting people from different countries and different backgrounds, loves travelling and enjoys doing it by plane, be a flight attendant! 

Best of luck to everyone who is considering to start this career, don't let anyone knock you down and pursue your dreams, whatever they are. "Welcome on board!"

- Cris