During the past Christmas holidays, rather than enjoying the summer warmth of Australia, five IB students from Year 11 travelled to mid-winter Rome for six weeks on a cultural exchange. Although we all participated in a general ‘Italian Exchange’ program, each of us had such diverse experiences during our time in Italy.

For the duration of the trip we were hosted by a family and essentially became a member of their household over our time there. A noteworthy recognition would have to be that of the inherent generosity of these families, who opted to take an unknown teenager from halfway across the world into their home over Christmas, simply out of the goodness of their hearts.

The range of opportunities undertaken there was tremendous and it is impossible for any two students to have had the exact same experience.

We didn’t see the other exchange students very often because we spent much of our time with our families, especially during the holiday period. Boys were either travelling to Sicily to see some Italian architectural genius, to Florence to experience the spectacle of Michelangelo’s statue of David, or to the Amalfi Coast to enjoy the panoramic mountain views.

Amongst all of our individual adventures, we also ventured into Rome a great number of times as a group, giving us the opportunity to learn about the city’s rich and decorated history and also simply to absorb some of the Roman atmosphere and culture. Looking up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, seeing the Colosseum for the first time, or admiring Saint Peter’s Basilica from the inside (after a 2 hour wait) are experiences that seemed unimaginable before actually doing them and surely have become memories that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

Above all though, the most special part of the experience was the ability to integrate oneself into the daily routine of an Italian. Things such as living in a local town, attending the local school and being a part of a genuine Italian family are only some of the profoundly unique experiences we were able to be a part of. This truly is something that is near impossible to experience without an exchange program. Being able to get off the beaten track of tourism in Rome and experience the everyday life of Italy was something that is incredibly undervalued and enabled us all to immerse ourselves in Italian language and culture.

Spending six weeks in a place where you don’t understand much of the language, are living with a whole other family to your own and aren’t used to the much more relaxed and less rigid way of life, means that the trip isn’t a piece of cake. However, these six weeks aren’t only for someone to learn a language and experience a culture, but also to be put out of one’s comfort zone. For such an extended amount of time it really tests one’s character, and whilst an exchange is typically something to do to improve your linguistic skills, it is something which also allows someone to be themselves, away from their day-to-day lives at school and to learn about who they are and simply progress as human beings.

By Jarrah Lindhout (12/KL) and Christos Tatsis (12/MO)