#afser

After we saw Rome, it was time for each of us to go to our respective cities and meet our hosting families. All this process was a wonder for me because I had never traveled by train, and I had never seen the snow, and both things turned out to happen at the same time. I traveled with 7 more girls who were going to cities near mine, and one instructor that helped us to get safe and sound to our cities. I had been asigned to a small town called Sirolo, next to the city of Ancona. But, as Sirolo isn’t a big town, the train stopped at Ancona and then I had to travel with my family by car to the house.

To this point, I had never thought about the moment I would meet my host family. I was enjoying the moment so much, that I forgot the upcoming fears that ment to meet completely strange people and become part of their family. So when I finally realized what was actually going to happen, an enormous amount of anxiety and stress hit me like a truck. 

I started sweating and shaking, and I was so nervous I didn’t speak through the entire trip. When we finally arrived, it was really cold and windy, but there was no snow. Waiting for me there was Dafne, the volunteer who was supposed to take care of me during my entire exchange. I didn’t know back then how important Dafne was going to be for me, but she truly became one of my biggest supports and one of the only people I could speak to freely.

Behind Dafne, there were 5 other people, a man, a woman, a teenage girl and two little kids. That was my family. I knew their names, but that was it. I didn’t know how Italians say hi, if I should aproach to them and kiss them or just give them a handshake, I didn’t know how to speak in Italian and I was already too nervous to start remembering the basic words. I greeted them in english, and the teenage girl, Nicole, answered me in english as well. I realized that they were as nervous as I was, and as me, this was their first AFS experience. Although there were a lot of awkward silences and all of them looked at me like I was some sort of alien, we managed to jump in the car and travel +30 minutes, in awkward silence as well. Needless to say, I had also a lot of jet lag and I was too tired due all the tension and stress I was submited to, so I was half alive and internally screaming, and half dead and wanting a bed soooooo badly.

When we arrived, my first thought was that the house was reaaaaaally small. I do not live in the biggest house here in Chile, but compared to my house here, that Italian house was like a doll house lol. Of course I didn’t complain, I was just surprised, but not mad nor sad at all. They told me I was going to sleep with my new host sister, and if I wanted to sleep now. I had never said yes so fast in my life. I layed down, closed my eyes, and the last thing I heard was the family talking some things I never understood. And that, was my first day with my first family.

So my story begins back in 2012 when I applied to go on an exchange year to the USA, but the organization (AFS) thought I was too young and shy to go that year, but that I should apply the next year.

I did it, but this time I chose Italy as my first option. I was so happy when I finally got the reply from AFS saying that I was actually selected to go to Italy in 2014. I started learning some basic Italian (more like, I learned how to say Hi, apple, and water), I started choosing what to take with me and what to leave here, and that kind of things. As I was so excited, I basically ended up all my duties in 1 week. 

Months passed, and finally the day of the flight was here. I had never traveled by plane before, so I was really nervous about it. I’ve never been too much of a sensitive person, so by the time of saying goodbye, I didn’t suffer a bit. My parents tried their best to not to cry, but as every partent and every kid was crying (except for me), they couldn’t hold it and started crying as well.

My flight to Italy had one scale in Paris, France, where we had to wait for about 6 hours before taking another plane to Rome. We left Chile around 3:00 pm, and arrived Italy the night of the following day.

By the time we’ve arrived in Rome, I was soooo tired, and so scared of everything I can’t even remember how the airport looks like. I am very small (around 5,1 ft) and I was carrying a bag of +20 kg with my little weak arms lol, so I was REALLY tired of this whole airplanes thing. But as we left the airport, and waited around 2 hours for another group of students to arrive, I started to realize what was going on. I was in Italy. I was in Rome. I was in another coutry that wasn’t Chile. I was in another continent. And I started to change my mood from really tired to really really excited. Suddenly, my bag wasn’t heavy anymore, and everything else didn’t matter. I was in Italy fullfilling my dreams. And that’s a feeling I’ll never forget.

As I have said it a lot of times, the exchange friends that you’re able to make during your exchange year, is one of the best things, but it is also sad we can not meet all the time, just in some camps or trips, so one of the coolest things that happened during my time in Moscow was when I found my AFS friends!

I was with my family in ГУМ, that is the mall besides Red Square. While they were trying some clothes, I decided to check my phone and saw I had lost calls from my friend Rodrigo, who is the other Mexican exchanger in Russia. I found really strange that he tried to call me because usually we just text or send voice notes so I decided to call him back just to see if there was any problem. He answered the second time I called him and asked him what was going on. To my surprise he said he was in Moscow too. I couldn’t help but get so excited because it had been a long time from the last time I saw him. I asked where, when, why, everything! He said he was about to enter to Red Square. My host mom saw I was so excited (yeah, I was screaming and jumping...) so she allowed me to go and see him.

When I arrived to the entrance of Red Square, I called Rodrigo and then I saw he was also just entering but to my surprise, he wasn’t alone, he was with a lot of our AFS friends!!!!!! They were in Moscow because there they would take the train for their trip to Sochi (I wasn't going because in AFS Russia depending on the city you are placed, the trips are different, so that trip wasn’t available for me). So, basically, I heard them scream “FERNANDAAAAAAAAA!” and it was like a movie scene, I saw them and ran to hug Rodrigo first, then Valeria, my Italian friend, one of the best friends I’ve made, and then hug all of them one by one! I even cried😂 I was just so happy and surprised because I had been missing this guys a lot and then suddenly found them.

I was very lucky because in the exact moment found them, they got free time to be in Red Square, so I spent 40 minutes with them just being silly, screaming and shouting, laughing, taking pictures and telling how our time in Russia has been going.

AFSers kissing Red Square floor... yes, we kissed it, at least I did.

My Italian girl, Valeria! I cannot describe how happy I was to see her!

Mexican squad in Russia!

Camille and Augusto, my French and Brazilian boys. I just love them! #RybinskBlood

Rodrigo! Te quiero un chingo!❤️

Rodrigo is the only Mexican AFSer staying this year in Russia besides me. He’s such an incredible boy and it’s funny that we would have never met in Mexico if it wasn’t because both of us were planning to go to Russia.

I was not the only lucky girl that was placed in Kazan. This boy from Hungary, Marton, was also placed here.

I met Marton at the AFS arrival camp, but to be honest, I did’t really get to know him, for me he was the “Hungarian boy who made our orientations longer that they should had been” because he’s a talkative person... really😂 So after the camp in Moscow, we had to go together with an AFS volunteer in a train for 13hours or so to travel to Kazan. I remember I hadn’t changed my money into rubles yet so I was’t able to buy nothing and before boarding the train, we were offered to buy something to eat or drink because it would be a long trip and I just said “No, thanks” but I was so damn thirsty and Marton offered to buy something for me, which felt quite weird because practically we were still strangers for each other in that moment, but it was so nice and I realized he was a kind guy, and also because I struggled so much with my huge suitcase and he was always offering to help me every time we needed to carry them upstair or downstairs.

Then, at school, we were placed in different grades, so at first we didn’t meet a lot but when our special Russian lessons began, I think that was when we started to get along so much better. 

I do appreciate this boy so much for many reasons, he always tries to help me without me asking, he has listened to my problems when I’ve had hard times, with him I can always have a good laugh, he stands my bad jokes and my complains about everything (lol) and so much more.

Of course sometimes we have different opinions and we might argue a little bit, but I know I can always trust him. It’s cool because for me he’s not just “the talkative Hungarian boy” anymore, he is Marton, my friend.

PLEASE ADMIRE HIS DIFFERENT FACES, THEY ARE PRICELESS😂

I will keep updating tomorrow. There has been a lot of stuff happening this last months that I want to share! Sadly, my cellphone died and I lost all the pictured I took in Russia😪 Fortunately, I could get some of them back because I sent them to some people and they’re sending them back to me. 

And yeah... a few hours ago I phoned my family, and this picture perfectly describes my feelings. 

Si lees esto, TE AMO MAMÁ.