Hi, my name is Irene and I was a member of the Greek’s Erasmus+ team. I’m 17 years old, I’m a pre-senior student and I live in Veria, Greece. I learnt about the exchange programme from my sister, who was a member too in 2015 and since then I was dreaming about that moment. I chose to go to Italy because i like their manners and also the monuments and the views of Venice.
We stayed in Brescia which is a town near Venice. When we arrived our host students came and picked us up and took us to their houses. My host student’s name is Alessia, she is 15 years old and her hobby is volleyball, she was really nice with me and her family was very polite with me too. Our characters are the same and I think that if she lived in Veroia we would absolutely be best friends. So it was easy for us to break the ice, it only took us one or two days.
On our first day of school some Italian students showed us the school which was a four floor school and it had 2.000 registered students. That was really odd for us because we’re used to smaller facilities.
On our five days in the programme we did a lot of things. We worked on a project song which we wrote and we recorded in the school, we also visited Verona and we saw Romeo and Juliet’s garden, we walked through the town of Brescia and saw all the monuments but the most important is that we made a lot of friends from every country. Now we have a place to stay in Spain, France, Germany, Turkey and Latvia! I miss everybody a lot but the thing that’s making me feel good is that when we came back in Veria we made a group chat on our phones and till today we’re still talking everyday. We’re also arranging a videocall with our hosts in the summer! I’m so excited!
In conclusion, I have to say that Erasmus+ is the best programme for a high school student to open their mind, see other cultures and make some unforgettable memories!