To say I have been busy would be an understatement - I am travelling to and from different towns here and there - sightseeing and spending the little time I have left with friends, and when I am not doing these things I am either at school, eating or catching up on some much needed sleep.

People say a photo says a thousand words - so heres a bunch of photos for you to imagine the stories yourself - because this is one of those times where I will be catching up on much needed sleep as last night only a few hours was slept.

exchange students don't go school  

i love my italians

walks with marielle 

walks with marielle

lecco  

lecco

lecco

my sisters 

we conquered milan

It has almost been a month since I last wrote about my most recent adventures, and I would do anything to relive this month over and over ago- as a matter of fact I would do anything to relive the past 5 months the difficult times do not even begin to compare to where I am today and the happiness that I constantly feel,

I don't believe there would be one exchange student out there that stood at the airport waving their families behind them thinking this exchange is going to be easy, or even for a split second thought why are they doing this - but in the end your the one that gets the satisfaction. You're the one who will wake up everyday and learn new words, try new foods, talk to strangers everywhere you go. You're the one who is going to walk into a strangers home and soon leave knowing they're your second family. You're the one who is going to meet friends that will soon mean more to you then people you could have met at home. And you're the one who is going to find yourself, realise what you want out of life, discover new pieces of you that you never knew because you have always been to scared to try.

To be able to share the aspects of your life with a person you haven't met before and in return get a story or two out of them are memories you will have forever. You may not remember every person you stop to take a photo for, or to help them with directions - but that one person may be forever grateful of what you have done for them even if they themselves do not remember who you are - the little things can help anyone!

When on exchange your mind changes, you realise that the world is a bigger and better place then just your small town you may have come from - you realise that even though the personalities from person to person may change immensely all over the world people really aren't all that different. You look and listen to the small things like a person's handwriting or a strangers laugh everything soon becomes interesting to you and you realise you have 1 life, you have 1 chance to live your exchange so your going to live it.

And that's what I love about exchange - your never to old to set a dream, to make a new friend, or to explore the world!

"If it wasn't hard everyone would do it.  It's the hard that makes it great"

22 Aprile

Life has been continuing on like normal.. if normal even exists for an exchange student! Italia is amazing and each day its becoming harder and harder to realise that I will have to leave! I have been attending school like normal and meeting some amazing girls, eating lots of pizza and gelato of course and shopping is definitely occupying my time! Host sister Giulia and I made cupcakes the other day!  Im off to the discoteca on Wednesday night and hopefully will go to Milano with Giulia on Saturday! I have been in my host family for just under 3 weeks but already it feels like I have been here forever and know them so well, I have settled in so quickly and just enjoying every minute now!

pizza con patatine- certo

cupcakessss

14 Aprile - Lake Como

On Sunday, Sophie, another exchange student from South Australia that is attending the same school with me in Merate invited me along with her host family to go to Lake Como! We had so much fun touristing around together and just wandering the beautiful streets while eating gelato, it was the perfect day for sightseeing and we had many laughs on the way home, from getting stuck in a traffic jam, to getting lost and ending off with running out of gas! Soph and I get on so well from talking about how much we miss different Aussie things like Curly Wurlys and meat pies to singing Somer Heights High, its amazing having another australian <3

There will come a point where reality will lift you back down and you will soon realise that the day to start packing your belongings and memories that have been collected during your exchange is here! To me I feel that day will never come, but as I look at my countdown reading 61 days tears are quickly brought to my eyes, how on earth am I going to leave my second family that has done everything to make me feel at home, my friends who I feel I have known forever, the boring road that I walk to catch the early bus to school every morning, the hill I have to climb to go to the town center and always reward myself with a pizza or gelato for my hard efforts. How am I meant to leave "my world" and slot back into reality which I have had on pause for so long while everyone else has been moving forward. I thought that leaving my home country would be the hard part but the only difficult part about being on exchange in my new country is leaving it all behind and one day having to come back and visit knowing that the people I once saw at school everyday will no longer be around and the man I always say ciao to when going to get my chocolates might  not be there to say hello to anymore, everything changes and thats the sad part!

This has been my life for the past 3 months and it has made me grow more then I ever thought possible, but for now I have 8 weeks left and I am going to make all of them count! 

11 Aprile

Since Wednesday 6th I have been living 20 minutes from the amazing city Milan this is really going to challenge my shopping addiction I think! My new host family consists of 3 daughters, Susanna, Laura and Giulia, only Giulia is living at home and is in my class at school! Ennio and Marielle are my host parents who have perfect english but are really helping me to improve my italian, they are all so lovely and welcoming! I have had 4 days at my new school and am really enjoying it, there is a few other exchange students and its really good we have private italian lessons together most days which is helping me a lot and Marielle takes me to Italian lessons in the town twice a week which is very sweet! She is an amazing cook and I swear in the last week I have doubled in size! There is an australian exchange student at my school with rotary and it turns out we were on the same plane to Bangkok which is a little crazy but shes amazing and its the best to have someone to talk about all our "aussie" things that we miss with!

So at the moment I'm still settling in but really feeling at home and making the most of the time I have left!

25-31 March EASTER HOLIDAYS

So for the easter holidays I did a lot of what I think is well deserved relaxing and more travelling in places like Florence and Rome, I visited the Colosseum in Rome but unfortunately it was closed and couldn't go inside, just another excuse to visit Rome again! Easter was very different to back home, not as much chocolate which was very sad for me but the many course made up for it!