Ludovica er en italiensk udvekslingsstudent i danmark. Hun kom til Danmark i august 2017.
Her kan du læse om hendes oplevelse de første dage, og de udfordringer hun stod overfor.

I remember really well the last day in Italy before my departure, there was 40 degrees and the only thing I could think about was “I cannot wait to arrive in the cold Denmark”. The first days had been the longest of my experience. I was so excited and at the same time so scared. The volunteers talked about lots of things to prepare us to face Denmark but my English was so bad that I couldn’t understand or answer any question and this made me more scared so I really wanted to finish the camp and start my experience but at the same time I really wanted to stay there because my only thought was “and if the family will not like me?”. Now I can say how much unnecessary my thoughts were, I immediately understood that my family was the right one soon when I met them when they hugged me. In that moment I felt in the right place at the right time. Until that moment I couldn’t understand almost anything of English but my host mum was the only person who I could understand really well as if she knew how to talk to me. Arrived at home, my host mum showed me my room with all the photos of my family, my dog and my friends in Italy and in that moment I only thought  “this is my house, this my family, I really feel at home”.

The day before school started, teachers wanted to know all the new exchange students so I went to school with my host mum and again I couldn’t understand almost anything of the things that they were talking about, my English was terrible and everyone was so good but I couldn’t speak Italian of course so I just started to talk English. I didn’t feel like a person who speaks English but right know I can say “wow, I speak two languages, Italian and English and I’m learning the third one: danish”. Usually, I’m a person who talks a lot , my friends always say “How can you talk that much?” and in the first period I really missed to talk, I only wanted to come home and tell my experience of the day but I couldn’t, I didn’t have the words and it was so frustrating. I remember though, the day that I felt for the first time like a person who speaks English. I was at Mc Donald with two of my friends, Nana from Thailand and Henry from Taiwan and it was one of the first time that we were going out together so we didn’t know each other and we had lots of things to say, that day I talked so much that even if my English wasn’t perfect I felt like a perfect English girl and right now my two friends who I didn’t know are my best friends.

Ludovica sammen med Nana fra Thailand og Henry fra Taiwan

One of the most beautiful things of being an exchange student is discover all the new things, I remember almost any of them, like the first time that I understood something in danish and the first time that I have been able to answer, the first time that I saw the snow here (just because it’s today), the first time that I saw a seal, all the new foods (danish and not) and lots of different things.

I also remember really well the first day of school, I was so afraid and nervous, but my classmates had been very nice to me, they explained me everything and always helped me whether I didn’t ask them; also, they are really good friends.

I remember one day I had some free hours and two of my classmates had free hours too and they just asked me to go with them, invited me at their house to eat some food; in that moment I was so happy to have known them, and so happy to hang out with someone.

Ludovicas klasse på hendes første skoledag i en dansk skole

Here I have two younger host brothers, it’s the first time that I’m the big one because in Italy I’m the youngest and at the beginning I was so afraid to not be the perfect old sister; but everything just happened naturally, they are so sweet and they hug me all the time, I feel like I am their real sister, I love them so much, that I don’t want to think of my departure next year.

So now it’s been already/only four months since I got here in Denmark, and I feel like I came yesterday but at the same time I feel like I’ve always lived here. Lots of things happened in this period, time goes very fast but I’ve always heard that when this happens, it means that you are enjoying everything and that is what is actually happening. I’m happy of these four months that I’ve been here in Denmark, of all the new things that I’ve been discovering, and I’m sure that I’ll discover also other things though the rest of my experience, now I cannot wait to spend a very “Hyggelig” Christmas with my family, I’m very curious about it, I know how much is important here and it’s my favorite holiday, so I match perfectly with Denmark.

Ludovica med sine værtssøskende til Halloween

Tusind tak for læsning 🙂

Grazie per la lettura.

– Ludovica

Ludovica bor – som alle vores udvekslingsstudenter – hos en værtsfamilie.
Har du lyst til at vide mere om at være værtsfamilie, kan du læse mere her.