Perks of studying abroad as a foreign exchange student

Sometimes young adults do not take seriously an exchange, defining it a “long vacation away from parents” and forgetting about all the aspects that need to be taken more seriously. After all, I would not call a long vacation.

• learning a new language
• settling in a new and perhaps completely different environment
• having to start a new school
• make new friends
• learning how to deal with unpleasant situations
• spend time on your own;

It is hard enough having to grow up where you were born and raised, try to imagine being sent overseas on your own at age of sixteen. I did it and so I do not have to imagine (even though my departure day I was over the top excited and not worried about anything, really). Now that I have listed the things you might have some difficulties dealing with, I will try to underline the perks of what living overseas as a foreign exchange students are.

You are a celebrity

Oh yes, you are the new guy in town, the cool kid from Europe who came to the boring American city. Maybe your school is even K1-12, meaning that it has elementary, middle and high school all in the same campus and so everyone knows everyone. They see you and they all start to wonder and to ask someone else who you are. By no time you are in everyone’s mouth, it is up to you to keep that excitement going by speaking with people so they get to know you. If you do not, they will slowly get used to you being there and will not pay that much attention to you because after all, they have their friends they always hang out with.

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They love your accent

They will ask you to repeat a word twenty times just because they think you pronounce it in a funny way. Do not take it too seriously, even if it sounds like they are making fun of you. Let them, because your English will get better and they will start speaking about something different and hopefully you will be their friends. And besides, who does not like foreign accents?

Less school, more culture

If you are lucky, your school counselor will help you out in picking the classes you will be taking for the entire year, but since you will be an exchange student they will also allow you to switch classes throughout the year if you are struggling with something. For example, I switched English classes for a couple of reasons and I do not think that is allowed to local students and that is because they need to get certain credits to graduate. Also, when you are an exchange student sometimes teachers give you half of the homework the rest of the class has to do because you need to:

• enjoy your free time
• visit your host city
• hang out with friends and host family
• study for the other classes

I am not saying that every teacher is like that, but I had a couple of teachers that were more laid back with me just because they wanted me to have the time of my life. Sometimes they gave me some work to do at home rather than at school so that I could do it whenever I could and with more time (even though my English was fine and I did not need that).

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From Student to Traveler

Alright, we are exchange students but eventually, all we do is traveling. As soon as I arrived in America I started taking pictures of everything because I wanted to save every moment (and also because some things were strange and I needed to capture them). Photography is not the only passion I discovered on exchange, but also traveling. I visited a lot of States and were always somewhere new.

• “Now that you are in Colorado Cris you cannot go back to Italy without skiing here. ”
• “You do not have spring break over there? We will go to Mexico! ”
• “We will take you to Denver for Christmas. ”
• “There is a graduation we have to go to in St. Louis, we will take you with us. ”

My math teacher was sick of me asking for permission to go somewhere, he always looking at me like if I disappointed him when I asked him if he could sign my permission. He was not one of the teachers I have talked about before.

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Speak your own language

It is rude so I hardly did it, but sometimes I felt like I needed to speak in Italian just so that I could pour out. One time I remember clearly was when I decided to go on a ride at the amusement park California Adventures, the one in front of Disneyland. I wanted to scream but I did not want to be understood so I started swearing in Italian. Or also, if someone would be rude to me, or maybe strangers would walk slower than I normally do, I would say “Eccheppalle e levati” for example.

Start taking care of yourself

Despite having to rely on other people for rides anywhere, you are pretty much independent. I have always been doing things at home to help my parents, but during my exchange I really had to take care of my things, for the first time in my life I did not have to share my own room with siblings, so I had to keep it tidy on my own, I started to do my own laundry and so on.

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I am pretty sure that there are endless reasons why students should consider study abroad, even for just a few weeks to start off, but these are the few perks I could think of based on my own experience.

- Cristian,

a former rotary exchange student from Italy to Colorado USA back in 2014-2015.

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