Orientation and Meeting my host family

WARNING-VERY LONG POST GUYS READ WHEN YOU HAVE TIME

Both my parents and my sister Kylee came with me and got passes to go past security with me. At security, they took away some of my toiletries because it didn't fit the quart bag requirement (which I totally forgot about) My parents dropped me off at the departure gate in my city to fly to New York for the AFS orientation. My plane had a layover in Texas (that was very fast and easy thank the lord) and then went to the New York airport Laguardia. In total the flight was about 8 hours. When I landed on New York I followed the instructions on my paper and got my bags. Then I got a call from an AFS volunteer saying that she was already there. Once I found her, we got my bags and had to call an Uber. It turns out that I was the only one that flew into that airport and everyone else either flew in before the time slot they gave us, or flew in with the airport that was right next door to the hotel I was staying at.

On our way to the Uber, we had to take a shuttle bus to the area where cars were allowed to pick up passengers. Although the volunteer helped he shuttle bus was so hard to get into with my luggage and was the first of many times that I regretted bringing two checked bags. There was a woman one the shuttle bus with her two kids, and she was very quick to explain to us how they were invited to the New York fashion week. I guess her two kids get a change to walk in the kids section of the show if one of the designers likes their modeling. Anyway after that ride was over we got into the Uber and headed over to the hotel.

When I got to the hotel and put my bags into the room, I went up to the top floor where the rest of the exchange students were. There were kids going to Italy, Spain, and Portugal there. Since I came a little late, the orientation had already started. I joined the group with other people that were also a little later than everyone else. In the activities they were pretty much quizzing us on random Europe facts and I really did not know the answers so I was actually glad I was late. 

After that we were put into groups based on the number on our name tags and went to separate rooms to do activities and go over rules quickly and all that. All the students in my group were going to Italy. We did introductions where we shared our name, state, something we were nervous about, and then something we were excited about. For the last two, I said I was nervous about people not being able to understand me or my host family to think I was needy or rude. Then I said I was excited for meeting my host family. Our group leader who was a volunteer was 18 or 19 years old, I don't remember exactly but she only a little older than us. Her name was Edith and she was so nice and chill. As the meeting progressed all of us were having so much fun and already making inside jokes so it was so fun. 

After that meeting, we left the room and ate lunch provided by the hotel staff (it wasn't very good but it wasn't horrible) I sat with everyone from my group plus one other guy that was going to Italy who for some reason got put into a group all going to Spain. (He was really salty about it) Throughout the rest of the orientation we had so much fun in our little group and all the AFS volunteers were super nice and relaxed. 

After dinner we were released to our rooms and I was room mates with a very nice girl from my group. Our little friend group that started already started a group chat on Snapchat. We were sending each other jokes funny videos from our separate rooms. Someone ended finding out that The Lizzie McGuire movie was playing on cable and we all watched it at the same time (my room mate and I watched it more passively) Some of the other kids going to Italy had never seen the movie so it was pretty funny seeing their reactions from videos that they sent us. 

That night I ended staying up til two in the morning because I wanted to finish, add, and change things on an American presentation. At 7 AM, we all had breakfast and did a few more activities. Then were giving the rest of the time until out country's scheduled time to leave to chill out and do whatever we wanted in the upstairs room. So we played games and met lots of people, then headed to the airport. 

We rode a pretty short bus drive to the airport with one volunteer who had out tickets and passports with her. Then we did a group check in and payed for any extra bags we had. Then off to security we had to get our passports swiped and then go through a metal detector. When I put my things into buckets I had to separate my carry on duffel bag and my personal item. I had a whole quart bag stuffed with things in one bucket and then put other toiletries that I had in the other bucket (this worked at the last airport so I decided to try it again) and it worked when it went through the machine. Instead of the line for the metal detector, the made me go into the line for the full body scan. Before it was my turn, one of the other AFS students forgot before to take off her shoes, so she was frantically pulling at the shoe laces on her double knotted Converse high tops before her buckets disappeared. So I went over and helped by untying and unlacing one other shoe and we got them in on time. 

Once we entered the plane, the first part of the plane that we passed through was first class and they had the nicest set up. They were able to put there whole seat back and it was separated from everyone else. Then we got back to where our seats were and boy was it crowded. I ended getting the window seat but fortunately it was with two other AFS girls so it wasn't hard to get out when I had to go to the bathroom. I slept for maybe an hour of the plane ride but it was so hard to fall asleep. One of the girls decided to trade spots with me so she could try to sleep and I could use the bathroom when I needed. She ended up falling asleep but on my shoulder and killed my shoulder so much because her head was so heavy. I got to know the two girls very well from the flight. It took about 8 hours til we landed in Rome. The local time was late morning so even after being so tired, we had to stay up. 

Local volunteers from Rome then took charge and brought us to the bus. On the bus we traveled for about 40 minutes to get to a hotel just outside of Rome. On the bus, I sat near the volunteer and she was so nice and answered questions I had about Italian for me. 

Once we arrived at the hotel, the volunteers were so happy and welcomed us outside the bus. We were the third group to arrive. We went through a small process to get our new name tags, T-shirts, put our big luggage in a separate room, and get our room keys. I was put in a room with the same girls from my plane seat. After more groups arrived, we all helped them find there rooms and 99% of them spoke English so it was very easy to make friends. There were kids from so many countries, and there were about 45 kids from Thailand I believe. It was really fun talking to other people because they wanted to know a lot about America. Even some of the kids from Thailand taught some of us a game called the ABC game and it was really funny trying to learn it with few English words. 

As we got to meet more people, a few of the students from America became close with the kids from Canada (they spoke English and Canadian French which was so cool), one kid from Romania, and some other girls from Northern Europe. 

One guy from Canada and the guy from Romania had just met recently but they became best friends over night. To me, their personalities worked so well together and they reminded me of a typical Dynamic Duo. They were both so funny and hung out with my friends and I most of the time we were at the orientation. 

One of my room mates, the boy from Romania, the boy from Canada, and me went to go with the Romanian guy to meet his room mates that just got there. When we got to hit room when in, the first thing the room mate said was, "Do you smoke?" and it was so funny because none of us were expecting it. He had two friends with him and we all met and we asking each other questions. He asked why none of us smoked, and my room mate and I had to explain that in America, young people that smoked were pretty much losers and no one our age smoked anymore. Him and his two friends were so confused and genuinely surprised by that information. 

All the volunteers here were so nice too. They all spoke English, and most spoke Spanish as well. While sitting and talking with friends on the couch in the main lobby, one volunteer was helping explain some Italian words and grammar that we were confused on. She sat by me and as the conversation got turned into smaller different conversations she helped me with grammar and drew me a chart that helped with my spelling so well. She also helped me with reading rules on certain vowels.

The next day, everyone left with the group indicated on their name tag starting at 8 AM to 4 PM. Each group's size varied. I left at 2 PM. We left the hotel on a bus and drove to a bus station. it wasn't like a normal bus station. I looked like a parking lot, with small buildings on the sides, and it had about 20 different places for buses to park and pick up people. We had to walk a little far to get from the hotel bus to enter the station and that was the second time I regretted bringing so much luggage. The bus was very comfortable and clean though. I didn't have to sit by anyone and I was able to sleep a little bit. On the bus I got to talk with these two girls from Northern Europe. Also, there was a little girl maybe 10 years old who just kept looking at all of us and staring. While at one of the bus stops, she came up and gave me and the other girls candy. The bus ride was about 7 hours not including the first bus, and at each stop more students got off and met their host family. At around 10:10 PM we finally came to Matera and I was able to meet my host family. They made me a cute poster that said "Benvenuta Imogen" and had little drawings on it. We then drove to their house and had dinner (which was so late and I was so tired) I was finally able to go to bed around 12 AM and I slept so well.