CRIS GOES ABROAD

I am pretty sure that one of the things people suggested you do while on exchange is to join an after-class club, or even better, a sport, because that helps you making friends (and why not, you keep yourself in good shape). But if you are like me, you are not a sport lover, you never were or simply you never practiced anything competitively, so what to do? I will give you some advice.

Do Something You Are Good At.

I mean there must be something that you are willing to do more than other things, right? I do not like soccer, I tried to play in the past but I did not like it, so I knew that I didn't want to play it abroad either, I'd rather run so I was thinking about joining cross country. Think about what you are willing to do more, just make a list, starting with the "ok" sports to the "I would never do that" sports.

Do Something You Are Comfortable Doing.

If they ask you to play a sport you are not interested in, refuse. You are not obliged to do it. If you want to do it but you feel like you are not good enough, it is okay! No one is good at the first shot, it takes practice to become good in something, so I suggest you ask your coach if you can practice with the team but maybe skip the first couple of games so that you can watch your teammates play and get an idea of what competitions are like. Once you feel confident, you can ask your coach to let you play competitions.

Try Something New.

I ended up playing tennis, and not cross country, because prior to my arrival in the United States my American mom told me that her son plays tennis and he and the rest of the team wanted me to play with them. The main reason they wanted me was that they needed players, but I thought that behind it there would be at least some excitement in having a foreigner on the team, so I accepted. Tennis was a new thing for me. Before going to the USA I played it once or twice with my siblings, but for fun. I never really knew the rules, I always focused on only hitting the ball. So I was excited to try something different, this is something I constantly did on exchange: saying yes to almost everything.

Do Something That Gives You The Opportunity To Meet People.

If the team has barely ten members and you are new at the sport, I suggest you don't join. The team is most likely seeking for someone who's already good at playing and if you join you will feel the pressure of competitions, and maybe won't make friends that last the whole year, but simply some people you have to deal with until the season is over. 

If you are already a professional player, the small team isn't a problem for you because you will contribute to the victory of the team and will most likely feel part of the group in no time. But if you want to try football or cross country, for instance, for the first time there is more chance that your team is full so you don't have to play if you don't feel comfortable but simply practice and getting to know everyone on the team. If you want to give it a shot in competitions as well (also because meets are cool, you travel around the State, or even better out the State if you go regionals) you can ask your friends if they can spend some time practicing with you, even on weekends, so you will get to hang out but also to get better at the sport. You will most likely get some friends who will last longer than a small and hostile team.

I hope these simple suggestions will make your sports seasons more enjoyable. If you have any problem just talk to the coach, and if you want to quit and start something else, just ask! I cannot promise that it is the same for every school, but sometimes they agreed to let me do some things just because I was an exchange student, so you will never know if you don't try!

- Cris

It is that time of the year: exchange students started traveling across the world, from Europe to the United States, from the States to South America, and so on. A lot of people will be facing jet-lag, some will handle it better than others, but what should you do when you get up at three or four in the morning and cannot go back to sleep? I personally went to bed at midnight my first day in the States but I still woke up at six a.m. the day after, which was not nice. So I started unpacking and then at eight in the morning I finally decided to go upstairs and see if my host family was up, and, even if it was Sunday, they were. But what if they were still having sweet dreams?

Prepare Breakfast For Your Host Family.

I am sure your host family already showed you where the fridge is and told you to feel like at home, so my suggestion is to prepare breakfast for them. If you do not know what they like in the morning, just prepare something you normally have and tell them that is what you eat in your home country. They will not judge what you made, but will instead thank you for thinking about doing such a thing for them. This way they will see your interest in bonding with them. I am sure that if they host students because they enjoy it, they will appreciate your action.

Do Some Exercise.

I am not a sports lover and I will probably never be, but one of the things you can do early in the morning is working out. You will most likely gain weight in your host country anyway so the best way to "prevent" it is to start doing some exercise for the very beginning. By the time you will be done you will be able to take a shower and go to the kitchen for breakfast.

Read Or Watch TV In Your Host Language.

If you are done with your exercise (or simply skipped it - and that's okay) you can read a book in your host language and underline the words you don't know so that you can look them up afterward. If you are not a book lover and prefer to watch tv, do so. Turn it on and put subtitles in your host language so that way you will hear it but also read it. It will help you a lot and you will improve in a very short period of time.

Write A Letter To Yourself.

This may sound a bit stupid, but it is actually nice in the long run. Write down everything that comes to your mind. I mean, you are in your host country and still have the whole experience in front of you: write down what your feelings are, what your expectations are, what your level in your host language is and what you wish to achieve before the end of your year abroad. A year later, once you are back home, pull it out and read it. It will be crazy to realize how much you have grown.

Explore The Area Around You.

If you have the chance to, go for a walk. Don't be sitting on your bed just because you don't want to be the weird kid who walks on his own, just go. Imagine this: It is 6 in the morning, the sun is rising, the city is still calm and it is not hot yet: go for a walk. Watch bakers prepare their shop window with fresh bread, postmen riding their bikes and delivering newspapers, elderly people sipping coffee etc. If you are in the United States most of this might not be the case. Usually, the only way a person can get around is by driving a car, and you clearly cannot do that. So consider this idea only if you feel like you can do it. Maybe you can walk around your neighborhood and if you meet a next door fellow just say hi and introduce yourself. That way if they see you going around on your own they will not think a stranger is roaming around their property.

Write An Entry In Your Journal.

I suggest you keep a journal throughout the whole exchange experience because it will be nice to be able to read it again after some time. I wrote an online blog while I was on exchange and I also kept a calendar where I briefly wrote what I did day by day. I have been back from my exchange for two years now and I still open up my agenda sometimes to look at it and see what I was doing the same day two years before. It is also nice because sometimes I forget things and when I read them I am like "I did not remember that at all!".

Do Not Take Day Naps And Stay Up Late.

One of the most common advice people give exchange students is to go to bed when the host family does it, that way they will most likely wake up late and not before their host family. This can be true, but it depends on the situation because as I said earlier I went to bed at midnight and woke up at six. It sure helps not taking naps during the day, if you sleep in the afternoon you will be wide awake by the time everyone goes to bed, and that is not nice, but if it happens just follow some of the advice I gave you earlier! Read a book, watch a series or write a journal.

Read also: MY LAST DAY AS AN EXCHANGE STUDENT.

- Cris

We people often fail to value time. As soon as we depart for exchange lots of thoughts pop up in our minds. There are two kinds of people. The kind who is so excited to leave that at the airport he leaves his parents in a hurry to catch our plane because he desperately wants to go on exchange and do lots of stuff, and then the kind who is so lazy that when he is at his host house he feels like doing everything "later" because he has one year to do stuff, so he feels like there is no need to rush.

I definitely belong to kind one. I left my parents kind of in a hurry because I was excited to leave, but I should probably advise you to hug your parents one more time before you go because one year is long without your family.. and you feel it, especially during Christmas. I don't belong to kind two for sure though because one year is not so long when you have to bond with new people, pick up a new language, learn about your host culture, traditions, try new things, be social and so on. It is barely enough to let you "taste" all the fun, and when you finally feel like an insider, all is taken away from you. It is time to leave, which means no more American breakfast, drinks on the go, road trips or house parties.

There you are, at the airport with 50 plus kgs and a head full of emotions you can't even explain to yourself. As your plane caresses the clouds, you look out the window for the last time. The airport fades and you are left with your feelings, your headphones and airplane food.

I spent eleven months in the USA and yet I wish I had more time. I don't know how people choose an academic semester over one full year. It makes me sad to think that some people had half of the time I had. In spite of feeling like I needed more time, I know that I did all I could during those eleven months and I regret nothing.

The first thing your family and friends tell you when they see you after so long is probably "Oh, you gained weight." that's the first change they see in you. It's okay, it is concrete and it would be hard not to notice. It is not okay when they only see your body change and nothing else. I feel like I changed so much as a person that it would make me sad if people only noticed my heavier body.

I wish I had more time because there are lots of things that I did not have the chance to do in Colorado, like going to a concert at Red Rocks or hiking, but stay tuned Coloradans because I might come back sooner than you think!

Read also: "Fulfilling my dream of visiting New York City."

- Cris

I'm almost twenty and left for exchange almost three years ago, but I want to tell you all about my departure day anyways, because it is always good to remember it.

Try to imagine a sixteen-year old who hardly travelled by airplane ever before and who had to fly for almost twenty hours and have a layover in one of the biggest airports, Heathrow, by himself. It isn't hard to imagine, right? But I wasn't worried at all, actually.

I think I put many alarms on my phone just to make sure that I'd wake up on time, even though I knew that there was no way I'd miss even the first one. I hardly slept, I was too excited. I arrived at the airport so early that I had breakfast again with my parents to kill time and have a last chat with them. I specifically asked for window seats at the counter, but from Milan to London I had an aisle seat, which anyways is better than the middle one. I didn't mind as the flight was short. The flight was delayed for approximately 30 minutes, but I was still not worried.

Flashbacks of 16 year-old me wearing a blazer and wandering in Heathrow still come and go nowadays. I was so excited to be out of the country, to see things I used to see only on a small screen. I was even excited to have a coffee from Starbucks (we currently don't have it in Italy), just because it was so famous.. I even took a selfie with its sign, what an idiot some of you might think, haha neext.

Heads up for future exchange students: 
Having a frozen yogurt right after a coffee and before a 9-hour flight is not a smart idea. I had to use the toilet onboard a couple of times because of that, but anyways I will keep details for myself.

I was finally floating between clouds, over the ocean and Canada. I was listening to music, even though British Airways' playlist was very poor in choices (there was basically the full discography of one direction and not much more). My point is: I never slept. I just couldn't, so I took thousands pictures of.. clouds. "Cabin Crew please take your seats, we will be landing shortly." This is it. I played "Hopeless Wanderer" so many times that day that it was just about time to land and start wandering hopelessly.

Touchdown. 

"Welcome to Denver, Colorado. The Mile-High City." I don't even wait for the airplane to park that I'm already texting my American family. "I landed" I said, and shortly after I directly called them. I'm sure customs where not so long, but they sure felt like that. Gosh, I was exhausted yet so energetic. I couldn't wait to cross the gate and meet my US family, I already imagined it in my head, just like in the movies. I'd arrive and they would be there waiting and ready to hug me. Well, they were not. "Where are you Cris?" "I don't know, I don't know this Airport. I'm assuming I'm at the arrivals." And I was, but my American dad & brother were waiting for me at the national arrivals, I arrived with an international flight, so we missed each other.

I desperately needed to use a restroom but they did not have dinner prior to my arrival, so we stopped at Wendys. I did not want any food so I just stole a few fries and had a frosty. The sky turned dark-blue and I was just staring out the window while my host brother was staring at me as I was some kind of alien. "Wow" I was thinking "This is insane!" Milan is a city, so everywhere you walk you have buildings limiting your vision. In Colorado all I could see where endless fields and a 180° sky.

My house was at the end of a blind alley and once arrived and parked in the garage they showed me everywhere, up and down the stairs. It was almost 1 am when I went to bed because I couldn't sleep so I started unpacking. 6am is around the corner and I'm already up. "They must be sleeping still, it is Sunday. There is no way I can go upstairs now, I will decorate my room." 

Two hours later I couldn't keep myself in my room, I wanted to go upstairs and talk to them. They were up and surprised because I was awake. "You know Cris, we hosted 16 exchange students before you and you are the first one who woke up so early" - "Well, what would you say if I told you that I'm actually up since 6am?" The weather was beautiful so we had breakfast outside the patio, I had banana bread with the amazing coffee my American dad makes. I felt like I was living in a movie. "Cris, I have to wash my car, would you like to come with me?" Of course I went, his car is amazing! He got it a few hours before I landed, I would say he did it just for me but that would bea lie haha.

It was so cool to be able to drive through my host city with daylight. My dad showed me my school, places where they normally go to grab a coffee, eat or buy groceries and all I could think of was "It looks just like GTA, huge roads and enormous cars."

We had reservations at Texas Roadhouse for 5pm, which is a bit early for me to have dinner but it turned out great because by 6pm I was literally falling asleep on the table. Thankfully after that jet lag didn't hit me anymore. I had dinner with a student from Greeley who was headed to Belgium two days after. We basically switched continents. 

It was for sure one of the most intense moments of my exchange year, followed by American holidays, trips and meetings with unbelievable people. I feel still fortunate nowadays for the experience I had, for the amazing family who I am still in contact with and all the other people who still text me now and then to see how I'm doing. By writing this post I realised how many things I still remember, even though it has been three long years, full of changes and stuff that enriched my life.

For all my Italian readers, and for whoever trusts Google Translate, I wrote a journal while I was in the USA where I went deeply into what I did other there, if you are interested check it out: 

ON MY WAY TO USA.

- Cris

"Sometimes it all gets a little too much" sings Shawn Mendes, but I perfectly agree. From time to time we need to take a deep breath, stop stressing about things that won't matter in the long run and take a break. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Yes, going on a trip, even for just a few days, will work! So jump on the internet, book your flights and pack. See you at the airport!

I moved to Denmark last August and throughout the year I had the chance to see my best friend "only" four times, which is why we decided to go somewhere together, just the two of us, and catch up. Our choice was Spain, Madrid to be precise.

Plaza Mayor.

Needless to say that we loved it. I loved the culture, the food, the Spanish vibes and hearing the language. I'm honestly missing sippin' Sangria or chilling at Parque de el Retiro. Italian & Spanish cultures are so similar yet so different. I've tried to speak Spanish with people, even though sometimes I was actually forced to do so, for example when I asked a person "Do you speak English?" he replied with a firm "Español!" ... Si señor, my apologies, Spanish it is.

Even though the tube costs 2 euros per ride (from and to the Airport it costs around 5€), we decided to walk everywhere and ended up with an average of 30km per day, we almost arrived at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and Google Offices by simply walking (and we were based in Atocha)! Think about it, if we took the tube for 4 days, back and forth, we would have spent at least 16 euros just for that, when all the fun of traveling is finding hidden alleys and capturing perfect shots. Also, we decided to spend those 16 euros on Paella, Sangria, Empanadas and a bottle of white wine (or maybe two..) to celebrate.

Royal Palace of Madrid.

Tips for discovering Madrid on foot:

Bring water with you, and sunscreen. Luckily enough I directly tanned without getting sunburnt, but having protection would be nice. We visited Madrid in June and even though from time to time it was hot, there was a little breeze which fooled us. I went back to Milan with a white line around my neck. I couldn't stop taking pictures, so I didn't tan where the strip was. Oh well, it is not that visible by now anyways haha.

Bring comfortable shoes. We decided we wanted to go to a cheap and warm place so we decided Madrid, but we didn't know it would be on hills. And this is why along with water you need good shoes. Well, we made it and I would do it again. I was so tired that I slept without any problems those three nights haha.

Talk to locals for advice. As my friend and I were walking we found a restaurant with a very competitive menu price, so I wanted to ask for more information. I thought that the person standing in front of the main door was the owner and so I approached him with a "disculpe!". I then figured he was not working there so I tried to apologise and leave, but he wouldn't let me. He kept saying if I had a pregunta for him. No, no questions, thank you though. Nada, he was nice enough to keep asking me if I needed help, and so I told him in Spanish that I thought he was working there and I wanted to ask information. Little did I know that from this first approach we would spend half an hour talking to this middle-aged tipsy español. He gave us advice and warned us. He was a nice guy, even though he started our conversation by saying that Spanish people engañan (cheat you) just like Italians. As we told him we were Italians he started a whole new and different conversation "Io amo l'Italia, Italiano lingua più bella del mondo, io canto, io amo la cultura" (I love Italy and Italian, I'm a singer and love the culture). Well, we eventually ate there and it was good!