ERASMUS DIARY OF A DREAMDIARY OF A DREAM

THE AIRPORT It’s a memory that everyone shares: the emotion, the fear, and the excitement of meeting a completely new person were huge, for various reasons. First of all, we were very excited because we started to contact our guests some weeks before the arrival: most of us started to know its own guest on facebook, and instantly we found out that we had a lot of things in common. At the airport we were not waiting for foreigners, we were waiting for friends. Before our guests arrived, the excitement was touchable, words can’t express what we felt. As soon as they arrived we realized a great thing: for the very first moment, we were already a group. Just think about it: people that had never met each other started to act like a group since the first second. Amazing.

THE HOSTING EXPERIENCE There’s too much to say about this bit. Hosting someone means a lot: responsibilities, tasks and hard work. While hosting, you are one hundred percent responsible for your guest: you have to care about every need he has, and everything he has to do. While hosting, you have the chance to get more mature, to grow up both as an individual and as a member of the society. So, the Erasmus project meant also this, to us.

LEARNING ABOUT OUR TERRITORY Beside the main topic of the project (the healthy food), we had the chance to enlarge our culture: we discovered a lot of things about our products (for example the so-called “piennolo tomato”), we learned a lot of things about our industries (the trip at the seeds factory), about our history (the visit at Pompeii), about the close relationship between sports and health (the trip at Arco Felice’s beach). But, even beside the amount of information about the territory, we also made a great discovery: our guests. While staying with them, we learnt more about their cultures, their traditions, their customs, their lives, their tastes, their religions, the differences between each political order and so on. That was so fascinating and charming!

THE LAST DAY This is, we think, the most painful to write. It was the last day, and we didn’t see it coming. We were so united that we thought that day would have never come. We were wrong. Beside that, it was a fantastic day: in the morning we had the chance to explore the heart of our city, Naples, and we could do it by ourselves after a short guided tour! We saw ourselves even more responsible than the other days and we were so excited! After the morning experience, we moved, in the evening to Villa Minieri, for the farewell ceremony. We ate, we drank, we talked and we danced a lot. Especially the dancing bit (we just killed ourselves on the dance floor!). We stayed there until midnight, we left the Swedish guests there because they had to sleep in the hotel, then we left. We arrived outside the school, and it came: the farewell. So intense, we hugged and we cried to each other, we were a huge family splitting. Just thinking about the fact that we probably would never meet up again upsets us still now; but, before they took off, we promised that we’ll meet them again, probably next summer. So, those were our memories about the Erasmus experience: it’s been so meaningful to each of us, basically, our lives have just changed permanently, in a very good way. We learned, we discovered, we met, we loved, we cried. Thank you all, Really!

THANKING With love: Francesco, Miryam, Sara, Rosalia, Marika, Rocco, Salvatore, Gennaro, Gaetano, Maria, Raffaele, Giuseppe, Maria, Emanuela, Raffaele, Salvatore, Alessio, Giovanni, Luigi, Christian, Luca, Sabatino and Giovanni.