FIRST STAGE: ITALY
BERGAMO
Hi, I’m going to start by introducing myself. My name is Denisia (my friends call me Deni), I’m 19 years old and I am from Lleida. Four months ago, I decided to sign up for this course and nowadays I can say that is the best decision I’ve ever taken.
As I’ve said, I’ve lived in Bergamo for four months. I have to admit that we have been incredibly lucky to find a flat here and also with its owner. We couldn’t start our lessons when we arrived in Bergamo, we started the lessons later because it was really hard for us to find a place to stay, so the school gave us more time to keep searching for a flat.
The few first days we had some presentations of the course and also, we had the honor of attending a lunch with some representatives of the school including the headmaster. Then we started the regular lessons. We were given cards with our names on them to sign us every morning at school to register that we were attending to the classes.
The experience at Jobs Academy was really good from my point of view, although the truth is that this year there have been some problems with the organization, we couldn’t attend to as many classes as we should have attended and that means that we will have to retake them online when we are in the Netherlands. About the classes I can say that they are quite entertaining since we did group projects and it was easier to work as a team.
I’m really glad to say that I’ve had a really good relationship from the very first moment with all the people I met here. I didn’t know anyone before I started the course and then we became a little family, especially with our colleagues from Vic. I think it’s a very important point to make all this adventure enjoyable as we are away from home for many months. Also, the coexistence at home has not been hard, we have generally had a great time together.
I have also had very good relationship with our Italian classmates. From what I have had the chance to know, I can say that Italians are very open-minded people, very expressive and with a contagious happiness. I had the opportunity to get on very well with some of them and they’re amazing people. Most of them have studied Spanish in school so we communicated with a mix of languages; Italian-Spanish-English. We were always making plans together and it was really fun to spend time with them and to learn new things about all their culture.
To conclude, it is not that easy to live and study by yourself in another country. And that’s the point, I cannot express all the things I’ve learned during the time I have spent here. I have grown up, I have learned how to manage every situation by myself and I’m very proud of it, I’ve also learned a lot of new things about marketing and about Italian culture too.
From this experience I take with me new friends, memories and lessons that will be useful forever. I don’t really think that the Netherlands can surpass all the emotions I felt in Italy because everything was new for me for the first time and it was much more exciting. But I am sure that Netherlands will be another experience in which I will learn many new things with all these people that I now consider them my friends.
I hope in the future to be able to return to this small town that has been our home for a few months and I will take it in my heart. If you are considering taking this course, I would recommend it 100%, you have nothing to lose, quite the opposite, you will gain a lot of new experiences, you will expand your culture, you will increase your English level and for sure you will meet people and take memories that you will only experience once in your life. Don’t let this amazing opportunity slip away.
Thank you very much for your attention, I hope I have been helpful. I will keep in touch on the second stage.
To be continued…