11th May It has been a very particular day, very exciting, I was really shaken.
In the afternoon I tidied up all of my room, I put up the bed for her and I emptied a corner of my closet for her to put her stuff in.
My family has been very close to me and they have tried to calm me down.
The first and the only thing that I thought and I wanted was "I hope that she will be well with us, she will have a good time and she has all she needs during her stay with us".
I had already known the person that I was going to host because I had chatted with her a lot of times on MSN and we had agreed that she'd come to my house.
In the evening my parents and I went out to meet Ewelina at the stadium in Pontedera.
They had to get there at 11 p.m. but they arrived at 12:30 p.m.
We were there all together, waiting for these people we didn’t know.
When they got there, we welcomed them with some songs. One that I still remember was " Hi Polish".
We picked up the girl and we went home.
During the trip in the car we chatted a lot, in fact for my parents it was a surprise.
The first evening had already gone.
She spoke English very well, she spoke fast, but I understood her and this was the important thing.
Ewelina and I already had a good relationship because we almost knew everything about each other.
12th MayWe woke up, we had breakfast at home and got ready to go and take the bus.
I tried to explain everything to her, how it worked on the bus with the tickets, I told her the times of the school and a lot of other things (and I repeated her every day because she forgot it =)).
I introduced her to all of my friends. When we got off the bus we waited for the other guys, so we got to know everybody and we went to school.
In the morning, at school we spent some time in the great hall, to introduce our school and our region to the Polish students.
In the afternoon we took them to the Easy Food restaurant, where we had lunch and then to rest in the park of the “Salici”. A lot of them loved to drink, the first thing that they had learned in Italian and that they asked everybody was: " Puoi indicarmi la via per la birra?" After the rest we went for a stroll in the high street (Corso) in Pontedera and then we went home.
It was the first evening that we had dinner together with my family. My mum cooked the pasta for her.
It was a very beautiful experience, she told us everything about her family, my parents didn't understand anything and I translated everything that that she said.
My brothers tried to understand and to talk to her that little that they knew.
We also laughed a lot while we were eating.
The supper didn’t last so much because then we had to go out to meet the other people.
She gave us many gifts and my parents were very happy and she gave me a bracelet that I will never get out because for me it is very important.
The night we came back home very late.. ihihihih…we spent a very beautiful night.
And the second night was over.
In general... Every day we went to school and as always before going to school we met everybody and walked to school together, laughing and kidding..
On Wednesday we met in front of the gym and we had three hours of physical education.
Every morning I brought Ewelina to have breakfast to the cafe near my house before taking the bus..
On the first days when the teachers asked us how we had spend the day, we were not very enthusiastic but we had enjoyed ourselves so much..
The more days we spent together, the more we made friends with the Polish students.
We spent many afternoons together meeting in different places making them have a good time, Ewelina was a very good friend of the girl that was hosted by Sara, then we often met so as to make them happy.
Ewelina was telling us some things that her friend didn't even know. :)
We made a lot of trips: we went to Florence, to Pisa, to Viareggio, to Volterra and San Gimignano.
Every time that we went on trips I bought her some souvenirs that I gave to her when she left, in addition to that I gave her the typical Italian food and drinks for her parents.
On Saturday evening Sara and I met in her house, because the other guys went to the disco and since Ewelina and Kalina didn't like it very much we stayed at home to watch a film in English and to chat.
Later I invited Kalina (the girl that was staying in Sara’s house) to my house, because in the morning Sara had an important match and she could not abdicate, so Kalina came to the sea with us on Sunday.
On Sunday we went to Viareggio, to the beach, with the whole group.
It was a very beautiful but tiresome day, in fact in the evening we didn’t go out.
On Monday we went together to the beach again.
We also organised a supper where the Polish cooked for us and we cooked for them.
It was a very beautiful thing.
All the people made me try their food, but they also told me that the girl that had cooked had not been very good.
I am really happy because they liked the Italian cuisine a lot and that Ewelina (having had the possibility to try it) also liked the Albanian cuisine and for this I am happy.
One day we went to our teacher Salvini’s house, who welcomed us very well.
When we got in, both us and the Polish students were really surprised, it was a very big and very beautiful house, Ewelina asked me a lot of times if the house is all hers...
After the visit to the house of the teacher (where we ate very good sweets and cakes) we went to Giulio’s home to have the last dinner together.
It was already the last dinner, the days had passed very quickly, unfortunately.
That evening was very beautiful we ate, danced, drank and so many other things...we had such a good time.. I will never forget that date: 21/05/09.
The day of their departure was always nearer.
The day arrived.
Nobody succeeded in making me stop crying.
I saw Agata’s eyes full of tears and when she said to me “I will miss you“ I couldn’t stop crying.
I could not think that I would not see those people anymore until October, those people that had become so important to me
Even today, if I think about them, I cry because I miss them too much...
but then I remember the words that they told me “ Eriada don’t cry, we will soon see each other, please don’t worry and be happy”.
My relationship with them
Ewelina and I had a beautiful relationship every time that we came back home we spoke about everything.
She told me what her friends said about me and I told her what my friends said about her..
We exchanged opinions, ideas, we spoke about what to wear, things to do.
Ewelina had also established a beautiful relationship with my family.
We listened to the Polish music, the Albanian music and the Italian music.
I have established a beautiful relationship of friendship with all the Polish boys and girls.
I was really surprised because they all knew my name and they told me that they had learned it reading my posts in the forum.
In addition to Ewelina, I established a beautiful relationship with other two guys Pshemek and Agata..
Agata is very friendly with me, in fact when she left, she gave me a small letter where she wrote that she will miss me and she thanks me for everything.
I now often talk to them on msn or on the forum.
I am in contact with Agata over the telephone, I speak almost every day with Ewelina, Peter and Lubel on MSN, on the contrary with Pshemek and Patryk I always speak on the forum.
All the guys always tell me that they miss those days we spent together and those laughters.
They have helped me a lot to learn some words in Polish in fact an evening while Ewelina talked to her mother as every time I told her to greet her and to tell her not to worry about her, one evening she had me speak on the phone with her mother and I spoke her in Polish..
It was funny because then I didn't understand anything and I told her "ne movie popolsku"(I don’t speak Polish) and I gave the telephone to Ewelina.
Every time I learned some new words I went to the Polish students and I told it to them, we had a good time!
Patryk (the most beautiful boy of their group) always told me that I was becoming a Polish girl.
All the people have understood that I had a great desire to learn something of them, of their language, of their culture etc.
Then they all helped me and they told me the things I wanted to know.
I have just learned to say “How are you” in Polish I went to their teachers and I asked them, and they always answered me in Italian.
Those two weeks have been very important and very beautiful for me, in fact I have written this date everywhere: 11/05/09 - 22/05/09.
I want to thank the teacher Salvini and the teacher that is now reading this diary of mine where I have tried to write everything that I remember about those two unforgettable weeks, and I remember well the first days when she proposed to us this cultural exchange with a group of Polish students we were not very enthusiastic, but now, after this experience I can only thank you very much for having given me the opportunity to meet some special people..
Love,
Eriada..
