Meeting my first family ♡
After we saw Rome, it was time for each of us to go to our respective cities and meet our hosting families. All this process was a wonder for me because I had never traveled by train, and I had never seen the snow, and both things turned out to happen at the same time. I traveled with 7 more girls who were going to cities near mine, and one instructor that helped us to get safe and sound to our cities. I had been asigned to a small town called Sirolo, next to the city of Ancona. But, as Sirolo isn’t a big town, the train stopped at Ancona and then I had to travel with my family by car to the house.
To this point, I had never thought about the moment I would meet my host family. I was enjoying the moment so much, that I forgot the upcoming fears that ment to meet completely strange people and become part of their family. So when I finally realized what was actually going to happen, an enormous amount of anxiety and stress hit me like a truck.
I started sweating and shaking, and I was so nervous I didn’t speak through the entire trip. When we finally arrived, it was really cold and windy, but there was no snow. Waiting for me there was Dafne, the volunteer who was supposed to take care of me during my entire exchange. I didn’t know back then how important Dafne was going to be for me, but she truly became one of my biggest supports and one of the only people I could speak to freely.
Behind Dafne, there were 5 other people, a man, a woman, a teenage girl and two little kids. That was my family. I knew their names, but that was it. I didn’t know how Italians say hi, if I should aproach to them and kiss them or just give them a handshake, I didn’t know how to speak in Italian and I was already too nervous to start remembering the basic words. I greeted them in english, and the teenage girl, Nicole, answered me in english as well. I realized that they were as nervous as I was, and as me, this was their first AFS experience. Although there were a lot of awkward silences and all of them looked at me like I was some sort of alien, we managed to jump in the car and travel +30 minutes, in awkward silence as well. Needless to say, I had also a lot of jet lag and I was too tired due all the tension and stress I was submited to, so I was half alive and internally screaming, and half dead and wanting a bed soooooo badly.
When we arrived, my first thought was that the house was reaaaaaally small. I do not live in the biggest house here in Chile, but compared to my house here, that Italian house was like a doll house lol. Of course I didn’t complain, I was just surprised, but not mad nor sad at all. They told me I was going to sleep with my new host sister, and if I wanted to sleep now. I had never said yes so fast in my life. I layed down, closed my eyes, and the last thing I heard was the family talking some things I never understood. And that, was my first day with my first family.
Hope you enjoyed reading, I’ll be posting some pics of Sirolo! Thanks for reading! Lots of love ♥ ♥ ♥
