On October 16th we arrived in Italy and already met the first Italian teachers and students who brought us to our hostel. Shortly afterwards, we had our first dinner in a pizza restaurant in Monza. The second day was the first day of school, during which the Italian students showed us the entire school building. Additionally, we did various welcome activities and we also started to build a lamp from recycled material.
On the second day we had school again. At first, we had various English dialogues about sustainability with Italian students. Then we started an art project about sustainability and continued to work on our lamp. In the afternoon we visited the city of Monza, its park, its royal villa and its cathedral and finally we had a dinner in Monza.
On the third day of school, we conducted a survey on responsible consumption and environmental awareness with the Italian students. Afterwards we learned the basics of pizza acrobatics from an Italian teacher. We also finished our lamps and, in the evening, there was a theatrical performance in the school building by former students who recreated various scenes from Shakespeare under the title “Shakespeare cut into pieces for Erasmus”.
On October 20th we went to Milan together with the Italian students and visited Da Vinci’s Cenacolo, Castello Sforzesco, the cathedral, La Scala Theater and the main churches in the center. During this day, we learned a lot of new facts about the Italian culture in Milan. We started our last day by visiting the racetrack in Monza and then we had to take the train home again.
In conclusion, we can only say that we all improved many different skills such as language or social skills and were able to collect unforgettable memories during the entire exchange. It was a unique experience we will never forget, and we also learned much about another culture.
Fragkioudakis Erotokritos-Martin, 8BR