On Being an Exchange Student

This is the first of several posts I've been writing on Italian life, life as an exchange student, learning Italian, what I'll miss/not miss, etc. I leave today for my tour and I've realised how much I've been ignoring my return until after I get back from my tour. Pretty much "I don't go home until after the tour, and since I hadn't left for the tour yet, my return date is not approaching, and therefore I don't have to worry about saying goodbye". But I know the end is near, less than a month left, so I've been trying to organise for my departure a little. 
Anyhow, here's something I wrote on being an exchange student. 

I'll Miss...
The built in excuse
Anything, from language, to clothing, to cultural no-nos, is usually forgiven after a "sorry, I'm foreign/an exchange student". Brilliant. Of course, this is not to be abused, but it is handy for learning the culture or pronunciation. 

Conversation Starter
Once I got better in Italian, I found myself chatting with so many people I would normally never say a word to - simply because they noticed I was foreign and asked where I was from. Before long I'm conversing, mentioning some differences between Italy and Canada, and they're telling me how much they want to go to Toronto - they have family there - and so on. On one hand, this fits into the "how do you know someone's an exchange student?... They'll tell you" category, but it's also an expression of the confidence I've gained through this experience. 

Explaining Canada
Most people here don't know a lot about Canada... We mention the USA in English and history classes, but Canada rarely gets a mention. Fortunately that means I get to tell everyone all about it! Well, anyone that will listen...

Being Part of a Club
It's sort of elite... (kidding)... But it is really fun. You instantly have something in common and you can laugh about language issues, faux pas, all with someone you had just met. 

But it's also really difficult...
Good friendships take time and energy to develop and when half of that time is spent speaking at baby level, it's even more difficult. 

I'm not sure how normal this is, but I felt emotional extremes here more - one day I think of calling my family to send the rest of my stuff over, I'm living here forever, the next I'm wondering how soon I can get on a plane. I think I'm looking forward to having things cool down a bit.