ιταλιιιι

Day No.1: 23/09/2024, Monday
At around 5 o’clock on the 23rd day of September, I and some kids from my school started heading towards Athens International airport. We were just about to enter the first stage of our one week Erasmus journey to Italy, the “trip to Palmi”. I remember i was so excited but also so nervous that day! We gathered at the meeting point that our teachers had set, outside of our terminal and we waited for about 10 to 15 minutes for Mr Samios to tell us that we were good to go. We followed the signs to the check in desks of the airline we were flying with and each one of us got our boarding passes. We had officially secured the bag! After that, we went through the security screening process and then we finally had half an hour to walk around the airport and explore the duty free shops.
The time to get on the plane had almost come! We all met at the seating area of our gate, A09 and started counting down the minutes. The announcement that our flight was boarding sounded from the speakers and all 18 of us got in line to get our identities checked one last time. We walked through the airplane bellow and the business class hallway, until we reached our assigned seats. We settled down and we observed the room, while thinking about how we could spend our time during the flight. The plane wasn’t very spacious and it was pretty confined, but it could get the job done. Most of us turned on the little TVs that were attached to the seats in front of us and decided on what movie we were going to watch. After some time passed, the pilot informed us that it was time to take off so we buckled up and embraced ourselves for departure. But we had no idea what was waiting for us…
Ahhh, I fooled you there, didn’t I? Actually, the flight was kind of alright! We experienced light turbulence sometime towards the end of our trip, but other than that everything was perfect. Same thing with our connecting flight, from Rome to Reggio Calabria, which we managed to catch at the last second, as there was a slight delay of our first one.
Eventually, we arrived in our final destination! There the bus we had rented was waiting for us. The distance from the airport to the meeting point in Palmi was about 50km, so our next step was a short road trip of around 40 minutes. That was actually when I started writing this diary!
And guess who was waiting for us at 1 o’clock in the morning, in the dark streets (well, not so dark, there definitely were lights) of Palmi… our Italian friends!!! The feeling of seeing Grazia again after such a long time really was immaculate. Ugh, I’m going to cry now. OH WAIT! I forgot to introduce you to my host student, a beautiful girl who stayed at my house a few months back, the one and only GRAZIA!!! You can’t comprehend the love i have for this person. You just can’t. She’s two years older than me but i think we are the perfect match! Our characters, our interests, our opinions… oh we bonded so well! I really miss her you know… But i’ll definitely see her again in the future. At least I hope so. WHERE WAS I!? Oh, right. After we greeted each other and finished with the small talk, each one of us started heading home with our host families. Grazia’s parents really were amazing. They were so welcoming and so caring and their household had such a nice, warm and welcoming aura. Oh! I forgot to mention, Grazia also has a dog, Ryu! His name is actually pronounced Ree-u, if you didn’t already know. He is a beautiful Shiba Inu. Most of his fur is an orange-like colour and as far as I can tell he is a very difficult character. Even though he was always looking at me weird, I think we became friends at some point as he let me pet him without growling or barking at me. Anyways, nothing really exciting happened when we went home. My host mom made us some dinner and me and Grazia caught up on some stuff right before we went to bed.

Day No.2: 24/09/2024, Tuesday

As the next day came, the birds were chirping, light was shining through the openings of the windows and the smell of a freshly baked pie was coming through the crack of the bedroom door. Oh, who am I kidding! We woke up to the extraordinary sound of the alarm clock and my phone vibrating on the floor. I was so thrilled about the adventure awaiting us! Grazia and I got out of bed and started our morning routines. I had obviously chosen my outfits already so I put my clothes on, washed up and put on some light makeup. My host mother had prepared us some Nutella sandwiches -fan fact: Nutella originated in Piedmont, Italy- pared with some peach iced tea. After we finished with our breakfast, we put on our shoes and some perfume (because we have to smell good, of course) and we followed Grazia’s father to the car. We hopped in and headed to the school. After about 7 and a half minutes we arrived at our destination (we were actually kind of late) and we waited for the others to come. When the whole group got together, each one of us followed our hosts to our assigned classrooms. On the first day, we only took like two lessons (the first one was about the history of Greek art and the second one, if i remember correctly, was a literature lesson) and then we moved to the second building of the school. Istituto “Einaudi/Alvaro di Palmi” is actually a high school whose facilities consist of three different premises. The first one, the one that our host students go to, is the building where they study human sciences. There they take lessons about anthropology, sociology, physiology and pedagogy. In addition, they study economics and linguistics. In the second half of the school, the teenage students engaged in agriculture and chemistry and they learn about hotel management (“alberghiero”), by doing activities such as cooking etc.. In this particular building, the children welcomed us warmly, with a huge buffet that consisted of very interesting and maybe traditional Italian food. There, they also showed us their greenhouses, the honeybees, and the biology and chemistry lab, while also taking us on a tour of the school perimeter. After school, the parents picked us up and took us home. We spent some time resting, until we had to start getting ready for our night out. That day, we went to eat at a restaurant in Gioia Tauro, where we had already made a reservation. I can’t remember the name of the place, but what i can remember is one of the highlights of our trip! Me and Lydia broke a table… It wasn’t really our fault, as the table was already kind of damaged, but when I kind of sat on Lydia -emphasis on “kind of” because i didn’t even put my weight on her- who was already leaning on the table, a disaster was waiting to happen… I was fine, obviously! My friend on the other hand, fell to the ground with the table, but thank God she didn’t get hurt. The whole restaurant gathered around us to see what had happened and some ladies started shouting at us something in Italian (they might have been a bit mad, but it’s fine, I guess). After our embarrassing incident, we did what you normally do at a restaurant: we ate, we talked, we laughed, you know, the usual. By around one o’clock everyone was home.

Day No.3: 25/09/2024, Wednesday

Wednesday greeted us with mixed signals. What i mean by that is that the weather was kind of hot but also it looked like it was going to rain, so the atmosphere was pretty humid. Just like we did the day before, we got ready and we left for school. We stayed at the first building for one hour, during which we attended a history class (let me tell you, not a single english word came out of the teachers mouth, but we did our best to understand what she was saying, as some greek and italian words are kind of similar). We finished with our lesson and we moved to the other building for the second time. There, the students showed us how to make hand creams using honey from their honeybees, olive oil and some different scents (they actually gave us some in the end but i sadly lost mine). We stayed for a little while at the school yard, until a lady told us that it was time for another lesson. She led us to the computer lab, where she showed us a video about different attractions in Reggio Calabria. Then she split us into like four or five groups (consisting of both italians and greeks) and she told us that each team had to find some information about one of the sights and make it into a short project. We finished with our assignment and we gathered with our teachers outside the front entrance. They told us that it was time for our tour in Reggio…
Everyone took the bus to the city and we spread out to find something to eat (we had to be quick, as our tour guide was waiting for us). The most accessible fast food restaurant we found was actually a Burger King, which turned out to be a good choice•I really liked it! Afterwards, we met up with our teachers and we waited for our tour guide. He took us to see some sights of the city (such as the Lungomare Falcomatà, which is a hiking area near the seaside • we saw many different sights there, such as the Opera, a sculpture consisting of a series of columns in wire mesh, by Edoardo Tresoldi, Arena dello Stretto, a Greek theatre that enjoys a spectacular view of the sea, the Greek walls, an archaeological site that shows a section of the city walls of the ancient Greek city during the expansion phase towards the sea etc.. Later that day, when the tour ended, we returned home and got ready for a lovely night out in the centre of Palmi.

Day No.4: 26/09/2024, Thursday

The time to visit an original italian museum had finally come! On Thursday, the 26th of September all of the greek and italian students that were participating in the program gathered at the school. Everyone started heading to the museum called “Casa della Cultura” which in english translates as “House of Culture”. We arrived at the location, where a pleasant surprise was waiting for us! The boys that stayed at the hotel and our teachers had brought us some croissants -a croissant in Italy is actually called a “cornetto”- for breakfast! So, we ate our cornettos al cioccolato and just as we were done, our museum docent told us to follow him inside. The exhibition was indeed very interesting. We saw a variety of sculptures and paintings, which you could tell just by looking at them that they were hiding a deeper meaning. We also took some pictures all together! Subsequently, we returned to Palmi and we sat at a cafe, where we played cards, chatted and stuff. OH! I almost forgot! One of the Italian teachers was generous enough to pay for our coffees!!! She was so sweet!
The next location on our list was Scilla, a town and commune in Calabria, administratively part of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. Fun fact: it is the traditional site of the sea monster Scylla of our Greek mythology! Anyway, we all went to the bus stop, where the Italian students left us to go with our teachers. We took the bus and headed to the train station. There, we purchased our tickets -we had a pretty hard time doing that- and got on the train. When we arrived at Scilla, the first thing that we beheld was a beautiful view of the sea. Let me tell you, the thought of going for a swim was pretty tempting. And guess what happened next… OUR TEACHERS LET US TOUCH THE WATER!!! (If you know what I mean…) Ugh I can still remember this was one of the most adrenaline-filled moments in my entire life. It is literally a core-memory for me! Okay okay, now let’s go over the next few hours after we were told that we could “feel the water” all together in the sea of Scilla, in ITALY. We first had to walk down the seaside and take a bunch of pictures of the view there. Our teachers had given us a task, where each of us had to send to our group chat one photo that had caught our eye -most of us sent like 4 or 5 though- and they would choose the one which was the most artistic. Following that little adventure, me and my friends searched for a tourist shop where we could find some “special” shorts -If you get me- and then we went to the beach.
We spent at least like one and a half to two hours there and then we got changed and went to find our teachers at a restaurant where they had sat. We ordered some sandwiches -which came literally at the last minute- and then we started running to catch our train. We didn’t manage to get on, as the tickets were a bit complex to get, so we waited for the next train, which would come in no less than 45 minutes. Our teachers earlier that day had informed us that Nikos, one of the greek students had Covid-19. Having in mind that most of the boys and some of the others had come in contact with him, we were obligated to take covid tests. It turned out that I was negative, just like almost half of the other students, but Lydia, Elizabeth, Konstantina, Panos and one of our teachers were positive. At the and of the day, my host parents picked me up from the hotel where we took the tests -it was called San Rocco Rooms and our teachers and the boys stayed there- and they took me home were we spent the rest of the night. Also, interestingly, the students that were sick stayed all together in a single room at the hotel.

Day No.5: 27/09/2024 Friday

The upcoming day, the remaining students went to school for no more than two hours. During the lessons we were shown a video and a power point about Tropea, as we weren’t able to visit it in person. It was indeed a very interesting and remarkable place! Anyway, after this was over one of our teachers came to pick us up so that we could take another covid test just in case. But first we had to get something to eat, of course! If i remember correctly no one else was positive! So, we spoke with our host students and we decided that we were going to go shopping together in Reggio. Well, not all of us though. Some went home, as they had plans with their host family and the others went to Tropea?! Don’t ask, I have yet to understand how that happened. Me and Grazia and some of the other girls were hungry, so we went to eat lunch. Then, we walked around and mostly did some window shopping. Oh! I also bought a new lip liner and a lipstick from a makeup store which we don’t have in Greece. Everyone started leaving, so we called it a day and we went home too.

Day No.6: 28/09/2024 Saturday

On Saturday morning, me and Grazia stayed at home, rested and chatted, as we were kind of tired at that point. But we had another reason, of course. Saturday was the day that Laura, a girl from the Dominican Republic, who was going to stay with Grazia for the next 10 months (if not 10 it was 11, I’m not really sure) was supposed to arrive. I think at around noon Grazia’s father told her to get ready to leave to go get Laura from the airport. They got her some flowers and stuff, too! It was so sweet! Anyway, during that time, I took a shower, I put my stuff in my suitcase and then i laid down and played on my iPad. When I heard the car and voices from outside, I realised that they were here! At first, I was kind of anxious to meet Laura but then when we moved past the introduction, I felt really comfortable! She settled down, she took a shower and stuff and then it was time for a long chat. We talked about a variety of topics• we spoke about how different life is in our home countries, about school, about boys, you know, the typical girl talk!
After like 2 or 3 hours passed, we started getting ready for our night out. We had made a reservation at a restaurant in Palmi for like 20 something people! Actually, not all of the greeks were there, as some had gone to Reggio and their train was supposed to arrive after like an hour or so and Dorothy had gone to Sicily with her host family for a day trip. The company was very nice, just like the laughs and also the food! Anyways, we talked, we ate and then we went home to sleep, after another exhausting but fun day.

Day No.7: 29/09/2024 Sunday

The most dreadful day of the trip had finally come. It was time to go home. I had already packed my suitcase from the day before, so my morning was pretty chill. I ate breakfast with my family and then we said our goodbyes. It was so sad that I had to leave all those great people behind but at least I know that someday we will reunite again! Anyway, it was almost 11 o’clock, so we had to leave. We arrived at the meeting point where the bus was parked and we waited for the others to come. When we were finally all together, we took some pictures, we chatted for a bit and then we said our last goodbyes. Right after, the bus took us to Reggio Calabria’s airport, where we waited for quite some time. During our wait, we wandered around, we talked, we laughed, we ate some food and we took a video where we shared some of our favourite moments of the trip. Oh!I almost forgot! We also gave our teachers some gifts that we had bought for them to thank them for putting up with us all those days!
After a while, we finally boarded our flight which took us to the airport of Roma Fiumicino. When we arrived there, our teachers let us go do some shopping us we didn’t really have the time to do that in Reggio. I personally wanted to get some gifts for my loved ones -like souvenirs and stuff-, so I got my friend and we went through the shops, one by one. We got some food, too! Actually, it was so funny because we got KFC and every person that walked by us asked me where the KFC was and I accidentally pointed them in different directions… ANYWAYS, we caught our last flight of the trip and returned to our home country. It was kind of sad but also relieving, as we were all exhausted and needed some rest (and by some I mean like A LOT) at home. Our journey had finally come to an end, but the experience and the memories will always be in the back of our minds…