Ciao, my name is Andre Rossi and i am an exchange student from Melbourne, Australia living in Boves Italy. I am 15 years old and am living with my host mum (Anna Maria), host dad (Alberto) and 3 host brothers (Stefano (15), Paolo(17) and Alessandro (20) ).
I arrived on Friday the 29th of November after 32 hours of travelling. As my host mum and dad said i was “Molto Stanco!” and feeling sick of plane food. It was hard adjusting to the different time zone considering the distance between Italy and Australia. It was horrible!! At 4pm here it was 2am back home so at 4pm i was already sleepy. Another major difference was the temperature! The day I left Australia the temperature was 30°C, and when i arrived in Boves it was -2°C! The low temperature of an Australian winter is 15°C so when a Boves winter temperature hit me i almost collapsed! There were a few reasons as to why i decided to become an exchange student. One was to gain indepenence and confidence, and another was to learn and understand a completely different culture to that of my own. But one of the main reasons was to learn how to speak Italian. My grandparents were originally from Italy, moving to Australia when they were only 17. They speak pretty good english but they’re Italian is a lot better. This is why i want to learn because I think it would be great to speak to them in Italian instead of English. I also saw it is a great experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity that i couldn’t say no to. Australian schools and Italian schools are very different. Australian schools start at 8:45 and end at 3:15 whereas Italian schools start at 8:00 and finish at 1:00. Australian schools also do not have school on Saturday where Italians do. In Australia there is only one type of school where you pick the subjects you want, besides the compulsory classes: Maths, Science, English and Religion. So it was no surprise that i found Italian schools very wierd. The small town that i am living in is very beautiful. The mountains with snow on top is amazing and something that i have never seen before. It is also very old which is much unlike Australia which is quite a new country. Hearing everyone speak Italian is so different! I am used to English so it is tiring translating everything i hear in Italian back to English. So far i have enjoyed my stay in Italy and am looking forward to what is still to come. I am hoping that my Italian continues to improve and am also looking foward to meeting many new people.
Andre Rossi 4^M
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