This past weekend I went to Ponte
Di Legno with the all the other exchange students from district 2050 for our
inbound orientation weekend. We left Saturday morning at 7:15 am. I rode in the
car with Ashley and Sam. When we arrived in Brescia we met up with all the
other exchange students. I had mistaken the age of one of the students, Angelo,
I thought he was 27 and a supervisor but he is actually 18 and high school
graduate! Once everyone arrived at the station, we boarded the train, which was
really only exciting for the first hour and then I became bored! The train ride
was really long almost 3 hours! On the train I sat with Kayleigh, Kurt and
Corinna, who are all people I go to school with in Cremona. Once I got off the
train I was feeling a little sick, which only got worse when I got on the bus.
We also met up with 2 other exchange students from the district, Alex and Dani,
they are both very outgoing and fun to talk to! After a
very windy and long bus ride up the Alps we made it to Ponte Di
Legno, a small ski village in the mountains.
After we dropped our bags off in
the hotel we drove even higher up the mountains until we got to a cute little
restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We ate gnocchi, pasta and beef, and I
had a piece of fruit pie for desert! After lunch we went for a 5 & 1/2 hour
hike through the Alps to a small village near the top called Case Di Viso. The
village was beautiful but also sad like it was slowly being forgotten. As we
were leaving, I was followed by this beautiful young colt. Laura went up to it
and was able to keep it still while everyone went up to pet it! On the way down
I walked with Kayleigh at first. We talked about horses, as it turns out we
both ride, we both love singing and we have so much in common. We became
friends instantly. Than we started to talk to Angelo about quantum mechanics
and the idea of relativity! It was nice to a real intellectual conversation
with people who are your own age and could actually hold up there end of the
conversation.
When we got back to the hotel we
had free time for an hour, and since we were all already soaked from
the rain we decided to go swimming in the pool. I really missed being
in the water even if it was just a pool. At dinner all the exchange students
sat together at one large table so we decided to play a massive game of
telephone. It was so much fun, I hadn't laughed that hard since I got here!
After dinner we went downstairs where they had a disco, I tried to get everyone
dancing but no one was really into it. I think it was around a 11:00pm when we
started playing cards. We played for at least an hour before people started to
drift up to bed. By 12:30am it was just Matt, Austin, Kelly, Kayla, Ashley and
I left down stairs, so we decided to play a couple games of pool, Austin and
Matt against Kelly and I. Kelly had never played before so along with teaching
her I also had to carry our team. She did pretty well though getting a couple
of balls in . The game was really bad though and it took for ever, eventually
we won. The guys wanted a rematch because apparently they had some
"mad" skills that just weren't obvious in the last game.
They did win the second game but it was not played any better taking almost an
hour to finish. By the end it was really late almost 2:00am so we decided to
call it a night. Ashley and I went up to our room to put our PJ's on
before going to Kayleigh, Kelly and Kayla's room to hang out with them and
Kurt. I was really tired so I went to bed a little before them, about
3:00am.
The next morning Ashley and I
woke up at about 8:30am, we grabbed Kayleigh and headed down
for breakfast about 9:00am. At 10 o'clock we had our inbound
orientation meeting with the Rotarians. It was really long and boring but
we did do our pin swap and now my blazer is so full, mostly with american pins!
We had some free time before lunch so Francesco, one of the Rotarians, took a
group of us into town to see the village, even though it was still raining
pretty hard! Ponte Di Legno is a really pretty town, like something you would
see in a European ski add!
After Lunch we all went up to our
rooms to pack then we boarded the bus. Halfway down the mountain I was feeling
pretty motion sick. I had cold sweats, I was shaking, and for some reason I had
lost feeling in my fingers. I have never felt like that from motion sickness
ever. It felt like a lifetime had passed before we finally made it to the train
station. When I got on the train I felt really low, I was tired and sick and
all I wanted to do was crawl under my duvet cover back home
in Collingwood and cry! It had finally hit me how far away from home I actually
was. I cried for a while on the train before my friend Kelly came over to sit
with me and comfort me.
When we arrived in Brescia I said
goodbye to all my new friends and headed back to Cremona. It is truly amazing
how a group of strangers can get so close after only two days. The people I
meet here will stay with me forever. I know now that there really is no suck
thing as good bye, only see you later!
