 Well I’ve been here for 3 weeks now and I’ve enjoyed every minute
of it! Thanks again Rotary!
I arrived on September 1st, having traveled for the last
18 hours by myself non-stop, I was in Italia (insert carefree Whoo-hoo
here), armed only with my suitcases, Rotary blazer (which doesn’t help as
people here don’t know what Rotary is), my English – Italian dictionaries
and my minimal (and boy do I mean minimal) knowledge of the Italian
language. The minute I stepped off of the plane in Genoa, my heart began to
pound and a million questions zoomed around in my head. “Wow I'm really
here, Wonder what it’s like?”, “Will my host family like me?”, “Will they
even recognize me?”, “Uh-Oh, what do they look like!” just to name a few. I
was scared out of my mind! As I got out of the baggage claim area I didn’t
see anyone and my heart immediately dropped as I started to think they
forgot about me. Then as soon as I rounded the corner I saw them and I knew
immediately it was them. Although their jumping up and down and screaming my
name probably helped J.
I joined them and immediately felt at home. On the drive
home we talked about the rules and our upcoming vacation to France and Spain
only THREE days after I arrived. Right then and there I knew this was going
to be a very fun year.
So three days later and me still a bit jet-lagged, we took
off on a ferry to Barcelona, Spain. My first thought as my host dad Roberto
drove the car off of the boat was, “Whoa, I can’t believe I'm in Spain!”,
little did I know this same phrase would cross my mind after we crossed the
French border. While in Barcelona we did a lot of sightseeing and visited a
lot of old churches and continued closer and closer to France with each day.
Unfortunately our trip got cut short because I got a splitting migraine and
after a consultation with a Spanish emergency room (Spanish hospitals are
really nice by the way), my host parents decided the best thing to do would
be to head straight home.
After cena (dinner) and a sunset stroll along the beach in
Nice (yes, I still got to stop in France for a few hours), we continued on
our way to home sweet home.
Fast forward 2 weeks to my first day of school!! As
exciting as this statement may sound I was the exact opposite. I was a
bit…unhappy that I had to go to school after I already swore on graduation
day that I was never going back to high school. And on top of that I'm a
ninth grader! So as you can see it’s nearly impossible to explain to my
teachers why I'm not the most focused student in the class because I
graduated (graduation age here = 19, my graduation age = 15, result = big
confusion) but somehow I’ve managed to make my point relatively clear
through sign language and some help (OK a lot of help) from my classmates.
By the way, apparently in Genova, being from the Bahamas automatically
elevates you to the status of BMOC (Big Man On Campus). In the words of the
immortal Bugs Bunny, “Who wuddah thunk it?”.
So I think I’ve rambled on enough for now (I’ve got to
write these things more often) so just one more point: Grazie a mille Rotary
for making this possible!!
Kevin
P.S. Can’t figure it out? Then find an online dictionary
J. |
Kevin Turnquest II