In questo periodo per noi fuori dall’ordinario, rileggere i resoconti dei ragazzi che hanno partecipato a esperienze all’estero e che abbiamo avuto la fortuna di ospitare ci dà una grande forza e ci motiva nel nostro lavoro. Oggi condividiamo le parole di Martina Ferry, che viene da Malta ed ha svolto la sua mobilità Erasmus a Forlì nei primi mesi dell’anno, facendo un tirocinio in un asilo della città.
Having the opportunity to study and live in Forlì for 8 weeks has been such an amazing experience overall.
The location
Forlì is a quiet and great location and it is also a lovely city to visit and close to a number of other cities. Indeed, the mobility experience gave us the opportunity to taste a bit of the culture, history and scenic views that Italy has to offer. Forlì itself is also a safe city. Our accommodation was very central. There are a lot of shops such as supermarkets and restaurants which was convenient for us. We were also well served with a pharmacy close by as well as the services of a medical doctor – which was useful given that unfortunately during my stay I fell ill.
Living away from home
During my time there, I never felt alone or ‘homesick’ due to the great amount of help that was given and shown by UNISER and the people around me. The UNISER company had a chat (for mentoring the incoming students) and I found it really helpful, since if we had a problem, we could just message them, and they can help us right away. UNISER were also very welcoming when we arrived at Forlì and this helped us to settle down really fast. Living away from home has taught me of the importance of planning a lot of things which I take for granted at home – buying foodstuff to eat, cleaning, planning what to cook, cooking and also budgeting on expenses.
The challenge
The biggest challenge I found during my experience was communicating with some of the local people I was meeting since my knowledge of Italian is very limited. For example, on the first day of my placement, the teachers I was assigned to did not know how to speak in English. We communicated through Google Translate and with gestures. I found that it was easier for me to understand what they were saying in Italian than to try to speak back with their language. However, as time passed, I started getting used to the words and phrases that they were using and till the end of the placement, I was understanding them and communicating much better. I also learnt some new Italian words.
The staff and the children
I loved getting to know the teachers who were always very helpful and supportive. I also loved the children that were assigned to me and I really enjoyed playing games with them and implementing activities that I created for them. The part that I did not like most was supervision duty of 2 hours every afternoon whilst the children slept – but I still undertook that duty very carefully.
Conclusion
Despite being unwell a number of times and also having to suffer the inconveniences from the epidemic emergency, my mobility experience at Forlì was fantastic and I would most definitely recommend it to any student for their studies abroad. It will be an experience that I will never forget.
Places I visited together with my group while in Italy: Bologna, Ravenna, Rimini, Cesena, San Marino, Faenza, Modena, Venezia, Piacenza, Brisighella
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