Arianna Pera’s first few weeks in Australia were turbulent, to say the least. When the Macintyre High School exchange student first arrived, fresh from Northern Italy, her impression wasn’t exactly positive.
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“I had like a very, very shocking experience, because I was in Sydney, in the airport, and there was a volunteer that was supposed to meet me, but he wasn’t there,” she said. All alone in an English-speaking country, with only rudimentary language skills, Arianna was terrified.
“I didn’t know where to go, and I was so tired after the 21 hours, I was about to cry, seriously.” To add to the drama, Arianna’s flight to Armidale was cancelled. Luckily, her host mum, Tanya Luxford, who was in the city for work, saved the day and picked her up.
“And then she started talking, and it was like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t understand; it’s too fast.’”
Moving from city life in Italy with one sister, to an English-only country town in Australia with two brothers was a huge adjustment for Arianna, but she was helped along by her new friends and host family. She was amazed by how friendly Australians were.
“They always talk with you, they always say hello, they always smile and stuff.”
Arianna believes Australia has changed her for the better.
“I changed a lot during this experience. I’m really, really self- confident now. Before coming here, I was scared of everything, really everything.” After four months in Inverell, Arianna now spends her afternoons watching movies and cooling off in the swimming pool with friends or playing with her three-year old host brother. She said her brain is now divided, half Italian, half English.
She has less than one month left in the country.
“It’s a very, very complicated feeling,” she said. Despite her excitement in going home, Arianna was conflicted about leaving Australia,” she said.
“I can’t imagine my life there in Italy because now I’m living here, and I’m like, completely in the experience.
“It will be so weird for the first month.”