Arrivederci Ferrara

This experience has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I can honestly say that Italy is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen and I absolutely loved the city of Ferrara. Living in New York, it was a nice break from the big city life, to live in a smaller city for a while. Ferrara was breathtaking and it has tons of history. I loved that there was a gelateria on every corner like there's a Starbucks on every corner in New York. Some of my favorite moments were eating gelato in the city center or riding my bike with my friends. I also feel like I've grown so much from this experience and I've really matured. The program leaders kept us very busy with activities after school and I learned a lot from some of them, especially the pizza making. Some other activities were just fun, like when we watched a terrible Italian movie, and we were all making fun of it.

I also had a blast with my host family and my roommate, Alex. My host dad was an excellent cook and he was always super funny. I'll never forget all the stupid stuff we used to laugh about dinner time. My host sister was extremely helpful because she was the only one that really spoke English. She served as a very useful translator. My host mother, however, is who I learned the most from. She didn't speak any English, so when my host sister wasn't there I had to depend on my knowledge of Italian to talk to her. Before coming on this program I could barely have a simple conversation with someone in Italian and it was very hard for me to understand people. Talking to my host mother really helped to improve and by the end I was able to have full conversations with her. I also had a blast with my roommate. We would always make jokes with each other especially when we were trying to outdo the other by taking embarrassing pictures of each other. Unfortunately, I think most of them were of me. Between cramming for our presentations at 1:30 in the morning to singing and watching movies on the terrace, these were some of my best memories.

I also loved the excursions that we went on. We got to take an amazing trip to Venice, where I took a gondola ride, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. We also took a tour of the largest caves in Europe. My favorite trip, however, was to San Marino. The history of San Marino was amazing to me, seeing how it is one of the smallest countries in the world and is also the oldest republic in the world. The history of this country is matched only by the breathtaking view from the city center. It was honestly one of the most beautiful sights I have every seen. While the trip was amazing, the day didn't end as well as it began. Unfortunately, the time to meet at the end of the day was changed from what it originally said on the itinerary, while my friend, Victoria, and I were in the bathroom. We arrived a half hour late and received a verbal warning. Although I was absolutely mortified, it ended up being a bonding experience for us.

Clearly, you can see that some of my best memories in Italy are when I was hanging out with my friends. One of the funniest memories that I have from this trip was during the photography lesson, which was one the activities we had after school. We had learned certain techniques to take pictures, by the photography teacher, and then were allowed to go and take those pictures. I took a picture of my friend, Kathy, that I was very proud of. It was in black and white and I really thought that I used a lot of the techniques that he talked about. When it came time for us to show our pictures to the teacher, I was very excited. I handed him my phone and he paused for about five seconds and simply responded with, "Okay", and handed the phone back to me. All of my friends were laughing at me and it was a pretty funny experience. Another one of my favorite moments is a little sadder. One of the last few days, before it was time to leave, my friend Christa had written everyone in my friend group a letter. The letter absolutely touched my soul and it made everyone of us cry. Unfortunately, we happened to be in the middle of the street when we read this letter, and it was really late. Then, Christa was picked up her host dad, so we were all left there, crying in the middle of the street. It seemed like a sad moment at the time, but in hindsight it was actually pretty funny.

My friends are what made this trip so special. I truly believe that I have found friends that I can stay in touch with my whole life. We had so many fun moments, like really bad karaoke and trying on each others sun glasses, that I will remember forever. It was these moments that made my time in Ferrara such a memorable experience.