Update and Advice to Future AFS'ers

Ciao a tutti!  I have come to the conclusion that the only thing harder than going on exchange, is going on exchange an trying to keep a blog.  I am terrible at keeping this updated.  In my defense, this has been the craziest month of my life.  It has certainly been great… but crazy.  Anyway, I’ll try to update more often blah blah blah…  This post will be an update, but it came to my attention that this blog goes out to A LOT of people.  Like a lot.  Because of this, I will do an advice portion to any future AFS’er.

Many people claim that it’s around the six month period that you finally settle into you Italian home, but I think I’m an outlier.  I feel completely at home here, and I’ve only been here a month.  The language is still a barrier, but it’s something that has become a part of my daily routine, so I am not annoyed by it anymore.  Everything is just normal; I have a routine, I know the city well enough to take public transportation (which is confusing no matter where you go by the way), and I have a home here. 

The language is becoming way easier.  I have gotten to the point where I can understand 75% of what people say, but my speaking is still rough.  It’s very patchy for me.  One sentence will come out fantastically, and then the next will make me sound like a child.  I can live with that, as it provides some conversation starters with new people. 

Update

Since my last post, so much has happened.  It’s impossible to write it all, so I’ll just tell you two major highlights.

In late February, my brother Giorgio and I went to Teramo to visit one of my friends named Max.  A girl from Austria named Valerie also went with us.  We took the train from Pescara to Teramo, which only took about an hour.  Max met us at the train station, and we went to the city center to walk around for a little bit. (I’ll post some pictures at the bottom. Very beautiful city.)  After about an hour, we went to Max’s house for dinner with is family.  His house is pretty high up in the mountains, so the view was amazing.  We ate a really good dinner, and then spent the rest of the night talking around a fire (aesthetic). The next day, we ate lunch with Max’s family, and then took a train to Giulianova, where we walked around for a little while.  It is right on the coast, so it looked a lot like Pescara to me.  We caught a train going back to Pescara, and then got lost trying to get back home.  We eventually figured it out… 2 hours later.

Yesterday, I got to cross something of my bucket list.  I finally got to go skiing in on a notable mountain.  It wasn’t the Alps, but compared to Minnesota skiing, it sure seemed like it.  Giorgio, and family friend named Ana, and I went together.  It was exciting to actually be able to ski for more than 30 seconds before getting to the bottom.  I can’t really describe it in words, so I’ll just post some pictures at the bottom.

Advice for future AFS’ers

Here are some things I wish I would have known before I came here.  Granted, I have only been here for a month, so take these with a grain of salt.

1)      When you first arrive, you have about a two week window of being extremely interesting at school.  Everyone will want to talk to you, and you’ll be sort of famous.  Take advantage of this.  Invite people out, and don’t wait to be invited.  I did, and it took a lot longer to make friends.

2)      Stop talking in English.  It’s incredibly hard, but learning Italian is 100% harder if you talk in English all the time.  If your family speaks no English, consider yourself lucky.  It forces you to learn the language quickly, and it will make assimilation into the culture much easier.

3)      Download Quizlet now.  This is the best way to study Italian.  I have learned tons of verbs thanks to this app, and it was actually fun to learn them.

4)      Be open.  Everyone will tell you this, but it’s true.  I live on the coast, so some of the food is very strange looking. But, I always at least try it, and 9/10 times it’s fantastic.  This also goes for making friends.  The people you will meet are so different then the people you know in your home country.  You can’t expect them to act the same as your friends do.

5)      Learn what to call your host parents quickly.  There is nothing more awkward than not knowing what to call the people you live with.  I didn’t do this, and now I just casually start talking to the person hoping I get their attention.  It’s very strange.

6)      Be active, and drink a lot of water.  This is good no matter where you go, but it’s especially true in the beginning of your exchange.  You’re going to be tired all the time. If you try to combat your sleepiness (is that a word?) with exercise, you will feel a lot better.

7)      Be prepared to learn a lot about our country.  Exchange isn’t just designed to learn a new culture.  It’s also made so you can recognize your own cultural habits.  This one is hard to describe, but things you never thought about before you left are now the things you miss most.  The first few weeks are very reflective, so you will understand what I mean.

8)      Get close with other AFS’ers.  They are really the only ones who know what you are experiencing, which makes them the greatest people to talk to when you have had a bad day.  Which brings me to my next point.

9)      Download some super emotional songs.  Life is too short to keep pretending you don’t need Spotify Premium.  Get some super sad songs in a playlist, and feel those feelings away.  I highly recommend Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour”.  Had some great group feels sessions to that one.

10)   Put the phone down.  This one, in my opinion, is the hardest.  When I am in an awkward situation, I immediately reach for my phone.  Unfortunately, every situation here is awkward to some extent, so I am constantly on my phone.  This is really stunting my relationship with my family, so just get into the habit of leaving your phone at home when you go out.  Nothing important is going to happen. I promise.

11)   You will question everything you do.  I don’t mean this in some philosophical way, I mean it literally.  For example, during the first dinner I had here, I had absolutely no idea what to do with my hands.  Like not even a clue.  I didn’t know if anything was rude or not, so I was just constantly changing hand positions to make sure I wasn’t being disrespectful. 

12)   Pick up on hints.  This is really important.  Something that I have noticed with my family is that they don’t take problems directly to you.  For example, I have an extension cord strip thing in my room.  I always leave it on in the mornings, but when I come home from school, it is shut off.  Obviously, my host mom keeps turning it off during the day, so now I know to shut off before I leave.  You need to be conscious of these things, no matter how small they are.

I hope those help.  I’ll keep posting more when I think of them.  If you are reading this and thinking about going on exchange, quit thinking and just apply.  You will not have any regrets.  If you are having problems deciding if it is right for you, please feel free to email me.  I would be more than happy to help!  My email is colingran@gmail.com.  Ci vediamo!

PS. So my computer is only letting me upload these two pictures... I don't know why, but I know I hate technology sometimes.

School and Other Things I Don't Understand.

Hey all. Sorry it's been awhile since my last post, I've been very busy this past week.  I'll give you a run down of my past 2 weeks.

I started school last Monday, and it is by far the most boring thing I have ever experienced.  I don't understand anything the teachers say, so most of the day I am just studying Italian by myself.  Some of the classes that I am supposed to be paying attention in include: Italian (I don't even understand the language, how am I supposed to understand the literature?), Math (I have absolutely no idea what we are studying), English (the only class that I understand), Art History (even though I don't understand what she is saying, this class is pretty interesting), Physical Education (this class is an absolute joke.  I run maybe 3 minutes, then do whatever I want.  Side note, basketball is not a thing here, so when I made a 3 pointer, they thought I was Michael Jordan), Italian History (again, don't understand, but very interesting), and finally Physics (my least favorite of all the classes).  I study each of these subjects for a total of 3 hours week, so my schedule varies depending on what day it is. It may sound like a lot, but they also give me 3 hours of independent study on Monday mornings, and 2 hours on Friday, where I usually study Italian. (That's a lie, I just sleep).

Italian schools are so much different than American schools.  They have five classes a day, each for an hour.  The class is basically ran by the students, and the teachers are simply there to guide their learning.  Nearly all of their grades are determined by oral interrogations.  By this I mean one student gets up to the board and talks about the material for about 25 minutes.  Every week.  I don't know how they do it, but they can.  Their "presentations" are graded on a scale of 1-10; the lowest possible score being 2, and the highest is a 10, but this is impossible.  The average score is a 5, but you need an average of 6 to pass the course, otherwise you have to retake the entire year over.  Insane standards, but these kids are brilliant.

My Italian is definitely coming along nicely.  I still don't know enough to uphold a productive conversation without speaking a little English, but I'm getting there. Hopefully by the end of March I will be able to communicate more than the basics.  Most of my day is spent conjugating verbs, and trying memorize new vocabulary.  I have an Italian course 2 days a week, and that helps a lot.  The tutor asked me today if I wanted to help teach his English course next month, so I think that will be fun!

 I'm starting to settle into my new life here.  I just recently started taking the public transportation alone, and I usually only miss my stop by a kilometer, which is progressive. (The first day I took the bus, I had to walk almost 3 kilometers, almost a mile and a half, in the cold because I missed my stop...).  I'm starting to go out with friends more, but all they do it study, so it's hard.  I have nothing to study, so I mostly just sleep...  I think that I am going for pizza tomorrow with my class, but I'm really never sure what they are saying so I'll find out tomorrow.

I know this blog is a little all over the place, but I am trying to write this while guests are over, so it's hard.  I'll post some pictures at the bottom to show you what it's like here.  Thanks for reading.  Not sure when I'll post again, Time is flying by here, so it could be awhile.

First few days

Well, I'm finally here with my host family.  I arrived in Pescara on Sunday the 1st, but was quite a journey to get there.  I've had some unforgettable experiences, and met some of the greatest people I've ever met in my life.  It's a weird friendship with AFS students.  You really only get to see each other for a few days before you don't see them for months, but they become some of your greatest friends in that short span of time.  This could be a long post; brace yourselves.

On Thursday the 29th, I got out of bed at 7:00 for the rest of the New York orientation.  I wish I would have slept longer. (I'll explain that in a minute...).  I don't remember that day very well, but I remember a lot of sitting around.  Our flight from New York to Zurich left at 6:30pm, so we left our hotel at about 2:30 to head for the airport.  While there, I walked around with a girl Jasmine', who went to France.  She was very fun to talk to.  After waiting for what felt like days, we finally got to board our flight.  On my flight from Minneapolis to New York, I got an entire row of seats to myself, so I felt pretty spoiled.  But that did not compare to this plane.  The seats were incredibly comfortable, and we all had movie screens with all of the new movies on it to watch.  It was only a 7 hour flight, but it was overnight, so it seemed longer. Jasmine' and I watched Boyhood together (it's terrible), and then we jammed out to Hairspray cause how can you not?  We stayed up the entire flight talking, which in hindsight was a terrible idea.  When we landed at 7:00 local time, we had been awake for 19 hours.

This is where the story gets fun.  Pre-read warning - this experience does not represent AFS as a company in anyway. They are incredible.  So when we landed, we went to go through customs and security.  This would be the last time we saw our chaperon, who was supposed to stay with us until we boarded our final flight.  She left us, but we didn't think anything of it.  How hard could this be? (pretty damn hard).  When we got to a splitting point between terminals, the Italy and the France kids said goodbye to each other.  That kinda sucked, but we were all too tired to really care.  We went and found our gate, and began the four hours of waiting.  Our flight was supposed to leave Zurich at 12:30pm, but at around 11:00am, we saw that it had been delayed until 1:30.  Ok, and extra hour isn't that bad, so we waited some more.  I was trying to contact AFS Italy/AFS USA to tell them that our flight was delayed, because there were volunteers waiting for us in Rome.  Well, the only number that our group could come up with definitely not the right number to call.  I think it was the the orientation department or something.  After that, I tried the emergency hotline, even though this really wasn't an emergency, and he told me not to call that number with these kind of things. Alright guy, thanks.  So, at this point, we have 15 overtired and irritated AFS kids with no chaperon trying to figure out who to call.  Then worst case scenario happened; our flight got cancelled.  Crap.  I stopped caring who I was calling then, so I tried the orientation department again.  They put me through to the travel and logistic department (why didn't they do that first?), and I talked to Jodi.  She was at the New York orientation, so I knew that I was talking to the right person.  I acted as a communicator for her and the airline trying to re-book a flight.  By the way, shout out to all the AFSUSA kids.  We da bomb.  I followed her instructions, and about 4 hours and 27 phones calls later, we finally had a flight to Rome.  Buuuuutt is was the next day at 5:30 pm.  The airline put us up in a hotel for the night, and gave us a bunch of free meal vouchers.  We got lunch/dinner at the airport while they transferred our luggage to baggage claim.  (30 francs for a pizza?  Whatever...).  We got our bags, and finally met our "chaperon", who we were all quite fed up with.  We took the shuttle to the hotel, and each got our rooms.  By the time we arrived in our rooms, it was about 7:00pm local time...  We had been awake for about 28 hours.  We were all asleep within an hour...

The next day, I woke up at 4:00am for some reason. Stupid jetlag.  I tried to watch TV, but it was all in German.  PS, if you ever get the chance to watch German Simpsons, take it.  It's hilarious.  I went down to breakfast and ran into our chaperon.  She said that someone from AFS Switzerland offered to give us a tour of Zurich, but we had to be ready to go in like an hour.  I think that I was the only one up, so I woke some other people up, and we scrambled to get everyone out the door.  We ended up leaving some kids behind (sorry) because we were in such a rush.  We met the Swiss volunteers at the train station, and we took a short train ride to downtown Zurich.  We only got to walk around for like an hour, but it was incredible.  If you ever get the chance, hang out in Zurich.  It's really beautiful.  I'll post some pictures at the bottom.

After our tour, we met up with all of the other kids at the airport, and waited for our flight.  Luckily, this one was on time, but we still had to wait for like 5 hours.  I started hanging out with some girls named Rory and Bear (coolest names ever), and a guy named Sam.  We wondered the airport until we had to board, and I realized how incredible they were.  They are so funny.  If any of you are reading this, I had an orange for breakfast this morning.  At 5:00, we boarded our flight to Rome.  It was only an hour long, so I just plugged in some headphones and tuned out.

When we arrived in Rome, we were greeted by AFS Italy volunteers.  They took us from the airport to our hotel about 30 minutes away.  That drive was the only bit of Rome that we got to see.  It was really cool.  When we got to the hotel, we met all of the other kids from around the world.  That marked the first time that I felt like an outsider.  There were 15 Americans, but 62 other kids from all over.  Most of them spoke English, as well as there home language, which made me feel stupid.  Why doesn't America learn other languages?  Sam, Rory, Bear, and I went out on our own and wondered the grounds.  They are seriously the greatest. #wildlemonsforlife.

The next day was the day (Sunday), we got to go to our host families. Rory and I got to go to the bus station together, but had to say goodbye there.  I had a 2 hour bus ride to Pescara.  I just slept most of the way.  That drive was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  We drove through the mountains and got to see all of the tiny villages in the hills.  It was really cool.

When I got off the bus, I was greeted by my family, some volunteers, and some of the other AFS kids.  I was excited to meet them, but really tired.  My family was excited to see me, but it got awkward quick.  In Italy, they do the cheek kiss thing, and I have never done that.  I wish I recorded the first time I had to do it.  I was so lost.  We got in their tiny car, and drove to Francavilla, where we live.  They helped me get my bags up, and then I took a nap.  They woke me up at 8:00pm, and told me the family was here for dinner.  Crap.  Next thing I new I was sitting at a table with all of the extended family talking at me in Italian.  I just smiled and nodded a lot.  They were really nice to me, so I wish I knew what they were saying so I could have conversed with them.

The past few days have been exhausting.  It's a constant flow of new things, and it really breaks you down.  I don't want to get all philosophical, but this is the best way I can explain it.  It's like my entire life was a puzzle, and coming here knocked all of the pieces out of place.  Now I have to try to fit them all back in place, but it's really emotionally and physically tiring.  That sounds negative, but it's not.  It definitely sucks, but I know that I am going to come out stronger on the other side.

I start school on Monday, so I'm sure I'll update sometime next week.  Sorry this was so long, but a lot has happened.  Grazie!

Let's Go

Today has been eventful.  I finally got to start the trip I have been working towards for so long.  I went to the airport super early this morning to catch my 7:00am flight to NYC.  Sarah, another girl who is going to Italy with me, met me at the airport.  We ended up on the same flight, which made navigating the airport pretty easy.  The flight to New York was very uninteresting, so I slept just about the whole way.  We landed at JFK earlier than expected, so we had a bit of time to kill after we got our bags.  We waited for the shuttle to the hotel along with Emma, who is also going to Italy.  Once we got to the hotel, we hung out with a bunch of new people until the orientation started.  Apparently, only girls go on exchange because I am one of like 4 guys out of the 30 people here. I'm still learning names, but everyone here is fantastic.  We've been hanging in 1 room the whole night playing games, and listening to terrible impersonations.  The actual orientation was pretty boring, but they brought in a woman who went on exchange to Italy way back when, and we had a good conversation.  A lot of our questions were answered, and she was very interesting to talk to.

Right now, I'm sitting in my hotel room trying to fight off the tiredness.  (I'm determined to finish this post). It's becoming more real that I am actually leaving home for 6 months, and I'm starting to get a little homesick already.  Nothing serious, but I think the next few weeks will be tough.  Hopefully I keep myself busy, and not think about home too much.  Tomorrow, we have a bit more orientation, and then we finally get to fly Switzerland, and then to Rome!  I'm literally about to fall asleep, so I'm gonna end it here.  I'll update after the Rome orientation is done, and I'm settled in with my host family.

P.S. - If any orientation kids are reading this, thanks for being awesome.

Tis' the Season To Lower Expectations

16 days to go.  Honestly can't believe it's finally come.  I've been preparing for this trip for so long, but it now that it's here, I feel like it's only been a couple of days.  A piece of advice to people that are applying:  it seems like things are taking forever, but you should cherish your time at home.  I've been so focused on the future that I kinda forgot to pay attention to where I am at right now.  I was lucky enough to have a niece born in late November, and that really prompted me to stop thinking about my trip so much, and just enjoy the moment.  I am really soaking up my time here at home before I have to leave it for half a year.  I'm realizing that this sounds a little negative, and that's not what I mean at all!  I'm so lucky to be going abroad, but I'm just realizing that I am very lucky to have the normal life I do as well.

As for my next steps, I'm just learning the language.  A lot.  Luckily I don't have to go to school until I arrive in Italy, so I can just work on it all day.  Now that I got my fair share of oversleeping, (honestly about 13 hours a night... nothing makes you feel more gross than not doing anything but sleeping all day by the way.), I am really diving into the Rosetta Stone.  I'm soaking up all of the information quickly, so hopefully I can get through a couple of levels. I'm becoming more confident in speaking it to people as well.  I was a little afraid to at first, but a lack of "language confidence" is the last thing that I need abroad.

I had my pre-departure orientation last Sunday as well.  It was rather boring, but I got to meet everyone that was going abroad from Minnesota.  Only one other person is going to Italy with me.  I think that she is placed outside of Venice, so chances are slim that we will see each other much.  One guy is going to Costa Rica for a year, one to Japan, one to Chile, and one to Ghana!  It ended up that me and the other girl going to Italy are on the same flight to New York!  I've never really flown before, so it will be good to have someone to be confused with.

Now, to address the title of the post.  Again, sounds negative but it really isn't.  At this point, I built up quite a fantasy as to what my semester is going to be like.  I'm going to travel all around the country.  I'm going to be friends with everybody.  I'm going to be fluent in Italian.  These are ok goals to have, but I don't think that they should be expectations.  These are, what I'm going to call, "ignorant expectations". Part of being an exchange student is having the ability to adapt.  Things are not going to go the way I think they are.  This is a fact.  Chances are, I'm not going to be friends with everybody.  I'm not going to see everything I want to see.  I might not learn the language as much as I want to.  Nothing I have done in my life can compare to what I am about to do. I have no idea how the next few months will play out.  But it's ok.  That's the reason I'm going on exchange. I'm going to change my entire way of life, but I'm just not sure how quite yet.  At the end of Night at the Museum 3, Robin Williams asks Ben Stiller what he's going to do tomorrow.  He says simply, "I don't know", to which Williams replies, "How exciting".  Certainly my new favorite quote.  I've been rambling on a bit trying to explain an idea I don't really understand yet, but I think that quote sums it up.  Each day abroad is going to be a new adventure, which is why I need to go into this trip with minimal expectations.  (See, I related this rambling with the title.  It just took awhile.)  If I expect too much, I'm going to end up disappointed.  I'm not really sure what to expect out of this trip, which is really exciting for me.

A little bit of a ramble, but I hope you understand what I am getting at.  Thanks for reading.  I'll probably update this one more time before I leave.  Ciao.

Visa and Update

Alright, so in my last blog post I received my host family information, and was days away from my visa appointment.  That feels like forever ago, because getting a visa has been the most complicated thing ever.  AFS Italy couldn't get some of the documents that we needed to us in time for our Dec. 13 appointment, so that didn't happen.  Months ago, I made an appointment in Chicago for a visa appointment. (If you don't know, I live in Hutchinson, MN, which is about 8 hours away from Chicago.)  That appointment was a last case scenario, in case things went bad.  Well, things went bad so we ended up going to Chicago this last weekend.  The actual appointment only lasted about 15 minutes, which was nice but also kind of annoying.  It had taken weeks to gather all of the documents to get the visa.  That plus an 16 hours of driving, all for a 15 minute conversation.  As long as I get my visa, I will get over it I guess!  The lady said that everything looked good as far as paperwork went, so I don't think there will be a problem.  

My domestic flight to New York is booked now.  I will arrive in NYC at about 10:30 a.m. on January 28th.  I think that we will have an orientation that night, then a longer orientation the next day.  The next night, we depart to Italy!  Then we will have another orientation in Rome, and then head to our host families!

The next month will be dedicated to learning Italian.  I have owned all 5 levels of Rosetta Stone for almost two years, and I've only done like one level...  I am done with school until I get to Italy, so my days are pretty open to learn it anyways.  I have a local orientation on the 18th, which will be cool because I can meet some of the other people going abroad.  It's more than just Italy people too, so hopefully I meet a lot of people.  (If you are going to be at the orientation, find me on Facebook! Colin Gran).  

That's about it for now.  Hope you all had a good Christmas.  More than likely, I'll forget to update again before I leave, so my next post may or may not be from Italy!

Host Family!!!

I got my host family information today!  WOOHOOO!  Their pictures make them look like the happiest people in the world.  The father is ALWAYS smiling.  I am not sure if they want me sharing anything personal, but I can tell you some stuff I guess.  The father is named Tiziano, and the mother is named Stefania.  The have a 17 year old son named Giorgio as well, which is awesome!  At least I will know 1 person at school. Haha!  They live in Francavilla Al Mare, which is right on the Eastern Coast!  Their house is only 200 meters away from the beach, but they are also by some mountains it looks like! Couldn't have been better placement.  I wish I could describe this feeling.  It's like I am so excited, but I am so unbelievably terrified. Everything is so real now that I know where I am going. At first, I had a little panic attack, but after I calmed down a bit, I realized how perfect everything is.  I have been talking with Giogio, and he seems really cool.  They live a different lifestyle than I do, but isn't that part of why I'm going? (it is)

Today I received my Rosetta Stone information as well.  I already own all five levels, but I haven't done very much, so this will be good.  My goal is to finish all five levels before I go, but I'm not sure if that will happen.  I'll try, but it's gonna be a lot of work.

My flight information came as well.  I need to be in New York City on January 28th for the pre-departure orientation.  Then, I fly from NYC to Zurich, Switzerland on the 29th.  We have a layover in Zurich for a few hours, then we fly to Rome on the 30th.  We will have our arrival orientation, then go our host families!

I have my visa appointment in Minneapolis on December 13th.  I am busy trying to get everything organized for that.  Do you know how impossible it is to have passport pictures copied?  IT'S IM-FRICKEN-POSSIBLE.  It took three and a half hours today to get some freaking copies of my picture!  I ended up just having to retake them.  I think I have everything figured out now, but it wasn't without some frustration. (PS, I hate you Walmart.)

I'll try to keep this updated more (it took me about a week to write this post by the way). Everything just kind of happened at once, so I'm not sure what I will have to update.  I'll let you know! Peace.