MY HOST BROTHER AND I.

Prior to departure, every exchange student goes through a time of uncertainty. Questions and doubts pop up in their minds. Is it going to be the best year of their lives? Will they have a good relationship with their host families? Will their host siblings even like them?

This last question is important because think about it. If your host brother does not like you, it is most likely that he will not introduce you to his friends, and if you go to the same school as him he will not even speak to you at school, I mean, these are the chances. Today I want to talk about my relationship with my host brother, a relationship which was already the main topic of another post of mine, but this time is from a different perspective. To be able to send the message I need to talk about a few things that happened between me and him.

(One of them is him, try to find out who lol).

First Assembly of The Year.

I was the happiest person on Earth because I was in the United States, but I still wanted people to care about me and I was after all shy, just like I was in Italy. I went to the first assembly of the year, basically the first day of school. I had no one to sit with and I was just sitting behind my host brother when all of the sudden he stood and ran away. I had no clue why, was I supposed to follow him? was I supposed to stay? At some point, I checked my phone and I found out that he sent me four text messages saying "HURRY! I GOTTA GO! CRISTIAAAN! I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT FOR AN HAIRCUT! ". So I ran outside because I knew that he was waiting for me and I eventually just said I was sorry for keeping him outside. But the thing dropped there, I was just basically feeling weird and I did not know what to expect, like was he mad at me? why didn't he tell me to go out with me in person and waited to get outside to text me? I will never know.

First Time He Asked Me To Play With Him In His Room.

My room was the only one in the basement. The only reason why the rest of the family would come downstairs was to do laundry so I mean I always tried to be upstairs, not to be isolated from the rest. Once my host brother came to me and asked if I wanted to join him in his room and play Xbox with him. I was surprised and I am not the type of guy who plays but I definitely said yes because it was finally time to spend some quality time with him and get to know him better. We played for a long time and since I was enjoying it, I ended up going to his room to play and watch Netflix almost every night (at least when we did not have school the day after, also because we would end up staying up until 4 a. m. ).

Spring Break in Playa Del Carmen Mexico.

Time was passing by and we ended up being fairly close, he was like my little brother to me (and still is). Now it was time to go to Mexico for our spring break. We were all very excited, it was not their first time for them but it was for me so I was even more excited if that was possible. We arrived, checked-in in our room and we ran into the pool right away because we could not wait longer. It was a beautiful resort and we started to play in the swimming pool and talk. One of the things that I enjoyed the most was spending the evening and night with him. We would go to the teen room, the one with a bunch of consoles, a Wii with a projector, a pool table and some tables with chairs to enjoy some drinks. We would play some pool and drink some smoothies. I would chat with the barman, who hardly spoke English, and then we would walk around the pool. It was dark outside and the pools would light up with colors. One of the nights we were lying down on a beach chair and we were talking about stuff we never talked before. We hardly talked about personal stuff until that night. It was very nice. Like, I knew I was not only one of the many exchange students he had but he enjoyed spending time with me, so I felt great. Then we went back to our room and called the room service because we wanted to eat a hamburger... at one in the morning, yes. At the beginning of my exchange year, I would have never thought that we could be doing things like these.

He Came To Visit Me In Italy.

It was time for me to leave the United States, so I left a letter to each member of the family and went to the airport. When they went back home and found them, they texted me. My host brother sent me a snap on Snapchat with my letter saying "I will miss my Italian Brother". So well, one year passed by and the next summer he came to Italy to visit me, we spent three weeks together and I took him to Milan, Verona, Venice, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Rome, Lake Como and Cinque Terre (there are many posts about it).

I went back to the United States Of America.

This time I was the one back home, from home. And he was now able to drive so he drove me places and one of the things that I remember the most is my very last one, when he came to me, at like one in the morning, and said "well, do you want to go to McDonald's? I crave a burger". It was kind of weird, I mean, I did not want a burger at that time but I said yes because why not, so we went to the car and left. It was the funniest thing and it made me also think about that one time when we ordered a hamburger at one in the morning in Mexico. It was the most random thing to do but I am glad he asked me to join him because at least I did not stay in my room trying to fall asleep for the last time in the USA.

He is now growing and is already eighteen. Now he drives and is a senior. It is hard to believe that my fifteen-year-old host brother is now taller than me. My point is, even if now it seems like you can not stand your host siblings, or that they do not like you... give it time! You have one year to establish a good relationship with them.

- Cristian

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