Assuming that my countdown before leaving Italy started 6 or 7 years ago, I'll consider just the period from when I've known I had been selected to take part of this exchange program.
If I think now how was I feeling almost one year ago it comes difficult to remember exactly how impatient and anxious I was, but it comes easier when I read what I was writing. I think my head was already in Norway and I used to see everything related to Italy and to my home university as something boring and annoying. Especially when it came to Italian bureaucracy. I think nothing could be more stressful, and it made you waste time in a really stupid manner. Latenesses, inaccuracies, not-caring about other universities deadlines are key words to describe how everything was organized (or better, disorganized). It seems so incomprehensible now, compared with the Nordic efficiency and precision.
Anyway, everything seemed to make me feel never-ending the missing days to my departure. And the happiness and the enthusiasm contributed to distract me from my (never-ending) duties.
One of the most annoying thing was that I came to know I had been accepted to take part of the erasmus program only a couple of days before the admission deadline at the university of Bergen and I had to provide all the needed papers and documentation in a rush, and translate them all! (Probably my home university thinks a lot people in Norway can speak Italian and they didn't translate any kind of document in English). So I found myself running among offices and asking for urgent documentation, and I had to pay 37 euro to make it arrive by mail before the deadline was over (of course, I've never seen the advice delivery!).
The second most annoying thing was that I knew I had been accepted to attend the intensive language course of Norwegian for foreign students just three weeks before leaving and I had to spend a lot of money to buy my flight, even if I booked it in a renowned low-cost company.
But when I finally signed the financial agreement to get the "scholarship" I felt I realized more I had to leave. For a while I imagined myself standing into a dark-rainy forest with the wind blowing against my hairs and making me shiver. Probably because it was one of those hot, sultry and hateful sunny day of the Italian summer, when you almost feel to choke if you spend too much time outside.
One of the most common question people used to asking me was "But... aren't you afraid to feel alone, aren't you going to miss your family, friends, food, sun....?". I think this is one of the most stupid thing people could ask. There I could assume their level of ignorance and their total disinterest about something new and different from them. First of all, after having been living for twenty years in Italy, sun and hot weather was the first thing i wanted to get rid of. Then, I am going to spend a period of my life in a country among nature and mountains, which has the best level of welfare in the world, and I should have been worried about not finding good food????? Bitch please! This is the last of my worries, if it could be considered such. Moreover, if you're 20 years old and you don't feel any need to get out of your mummy-nest and try to leave alone, you're really one of those retarded southern European mummy-bonded. Generally, of course I'll miss meeting my friends, talking with my brother and my sister... but I was sure I would have met nice people in Norway and knew new friends!
The only thing I'll had really missed was my lovely kitty. But I was sure my sister was responsible enough to take care about her.
The only thing I had to do it was making the 20-kilos selection of really essential stuff to carry with me in my luggage.
If I think now how was I feeling almost one year ago it comes difficult to remember exactly how impatient and anxious I was, but it comes easier when I read what I was writing. I think my head was already in Norway and I used to see everything related to Italy and to my home university as something boring and annoying. Especially when it came to Italian bureaucracy. I think nothing could be more stressful, and it made you waste time in a really stupid manner. Latenesses, inaccuracies, not-caring about other universities deadlines are key words to describe how everything was organized (or better, disorganized). It seems so incomprehensible now, compared with the Nordic efficiency and precision.
Anyway, everything seemed to make me feel never-ending the missing days to my departure. And the happiness and the enthusiasm contributed to distract me from my (never-ending) duties.
One of the most annoying thing was that I came to know I had been accepted to take part of the erasmus program only a couple of days before the admission deadline at the university of Bergen and I had to provide all the needed papers and documentation in a rush, and translate them all! (Probably my home university thinks a lot people in Norway can speak Italian and they didn't translate any kind of document in English). So I found myself running among offices and asking for urgent documentation, and I had to pay 37 euro to make it arrive by mail before the deadline was over (of course, I've never seen the advice delivery!).
The second most annoying thing was that I knew I had been accepted to attend the intensive language course of Norwegian for foreign students just three weeks before leaving and I had to spend a lot of money to buy my flight, even if I booked it in a renowned low-cost company.
But when I finally signed the financial agreement to get the "scholarship" I felt I realized more I had to leave. For a while I imagined myself standing into a dark-rainy forest with the wind blowing against my hairs and making me shiver. Probably because it was one of those hot, sultry and hateful sunny day of the Italian summer, when you almost feel to choke if you spend too much time outside.
One of the most common question people used to asking me was "But... aren't you afraid to feel alone, aren't you going to miss your family, friends, food, sun....?". I think this is one of the most stupid thing people could ask. There I could assume their level of ignorance and their total disinterest about something new and different from them. First of all, after having been living for twenty years in Italy, sun and hot weather was the first thing i wanted to get rid of. Then, I am going to spend a period of my life in a country among nature and mountains, which has the best level of welfare in the world, and I should have been worried about not finding good food????? Bitch please! This is the last of my worries, if it could be considered such. Moreover, if you're 20 years old and you don't feel any need to get out of your mummy-nest and try to leave alone, you're really one of those retarded southern European mummy-bonded. Generally, of course I'll miss meeting my friends, talking with my brother and my sister... but I was sure I would have met nice people in Norway and knew new friends!
The only thing I'll had really missed was my lovely kitty. But I was sure my sister was responsible enough to take care about her.
The only thing I had to do it was making the 20-kilos selection of really essential stuff to carry with me in my luggage.
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