Kan je een kip aandoen?

There is this story about my exchange year in the Netherlands. It was my first month and I spoke very little dutch. I wanted to ask my classmates if anybody could imitate a chicken (it was no smart question I know). I tried and I ended up saying "Kan je een kip aandoen?" which means "Can you wear a chicken?". Of course they started laughing. Well, in a while, those kip-people became my best friends. 

This is the big deal. DARE. Dare and MEET the people. Dare to be friendly and happy and crazy with people you have never met. You will make the best memories and the strongest bond.
‪#‎WEPItaly‬ 

Much more than one year

My exchange year didn`t start when i took the plane to Schiphol, but when i took the decision to leave. Long time before. Back then I started changing, growing, looking at the world from a different prospective.

I have been very impulsive, I have discovered about the exchange programs and applied for one in the same week, and I went agains the will of my parents, who would have preferred me to stay home and go to school, instead of messing around in Europe.

My exchange year is not gonna end when I`ll meet again my parents at the airport. It`s gonna last my whole life, because the change is forever. I will live other wonderful experiences, I will travel again, I will change and grown a lot. But still, There will always be an ExchangeStudentPart in me.

Haydeè

Time`s up (almost)

There is less than a month to go before my flight back in Italy, and my emotions about it are still very confused.

How will it feel like to walk again the streets of my city, the places I have known since when I was a child? Meet again my friends, the ones that I still have contact with and the ones I have missed during these months? How will it feel like to speak my language, understand every word of what people say, go to my old school, talk to my parents and family everyday?

I think about the different person I am now, the experiences that made me richer, the fears i won, my projects, dreams changed, amazing people I have met, and with whom endless bonds are born. I feel a huge confusion in my head, turned between my old life and my present life. Not knowing if I will be able to fit in again in my italian life.