“Affrontare La Paura (Face The Fear)”
Faiqah Farras Syahirah (INA AFS to ITA YP 18–19)
Buongiorno. Mi chiamo Farras, sono una studenta di scambio dall’Indonesia, in Italia. Piacere! (Hello. My name is Farras, I am exchange student from Indonesia, in Italia. Nice to meet you!) #NoGoogleTraduttore, Italy.
I have been in Italy exactly in Sicilia for three months. Somehow, I still remembered ‘yesterday’ I was in Soekarno Hatta International Airport, waiting for my flights with my other 21 fellas. Palembang-Jakarta-Dubai-Roma-Catania. It took almost full day and I was really tired also happy in the same time. Like, it’s really my dream to study abroad and voila, I’m here. Actually I really didn’t know what to write here, since it’s my first newsletter and at first I didn’t have any idea.
I live with The Scata’ family. My family is typical Italian family, they talk a lot, very closed each other, share problem together, and I really like it because I found a second family. The best thing that I like is I got 2 good views from 1 balcony only, Mt. Etna and the sea. The sea become daily view of mine here. Everywhere and every time I look around, there must be a sea. We live at Augusta, a small city in Sicilia that closed to Catania. My host-parent told me that Augusta is a industrial city but it is a really small city. Why? Because, when you already live here for 1,5 month only, you literally know everyone in the city. That sounds great right? You won’t get lost here in this city, plus all of them are really kind even most of them can’t speak English clearly.
Now, I’m living in Pizza and Pasta’s country. I start to eat pizza, pasta, and also bread every day instead of rice that I eat in my home country. I’m shock because here, ONE PAN OF PIZZA IS FOR ONE PERSON. Hahahaha for almost 2 month I can’t eat all of it, but last week I totally can! My favorite pizza is Bufala, it is pizza with bufallo’s mozzarella. Damn, it is really good. Last, ofcourse the pizza and the pasta more delicious here than in my home country.
[Italian.]
The unique things of Italian people is how they talk. Before I came here, I read some articles that said Italian have their gesture for speak. Beside that, Italian people are very talk active, so both of them combine into one. That makes Italian people seem really expressive. How they talk, how they ask, how they laugh, and everything.
[School.]
I went to a linguistic school, Liceo Linguistico Megara. Here, I study 4 languages and other lesson that really different from my school lesson in Indonesia. English, Italian, Spanish, and French, that is 4 languages that I studied every day in this school. Can you imagine what inside my head look a like lol. Some other lesson is Philosophy, Physic, Biology, Math, PE, History and Art History. It is really different, since I went to social study areas at my school in Indonesia. About the marks, there are 2 type of test that the teacher give to the student. Oral test and written test, but written test is not so commonly in my school since it’s linguistic school. I’m here with 2 other exchange students. They are from Thailand and Brazil, we knew each other and have fun together. Talking about friends, it isn’t hard to find Italian friend, they all are really friendly even they not good in English. Did you know, at the first time we (me and my Italian friends) use our body languages to talk because we can’t understand each other. But, when my Italian language start increasing, damn it’s pretty cool, I can’t even stop talking.
Back to the title, Face the fear. Yes, I’m afraid of the sea. Can you imagine everyday I saw a sea and I’m afraid of that. But, I accepted that and I want to face it. My host family also help me, they took me to the sea and told me that’s okay. Then, slowly I start to face it. Now I can swim in the sea without fear and I love the blue of the sea. I can’t wait to face another fear and I know I can do it.
Last but not least, I wanna say thank you for all people and the most important AFS — Bina Antarbudaya. Thank you for being the wings, that let me fly and reach my dream. Thank you for supporting, knowing, and believing me the best. Thank you for giving me love and hope so I can be a better person.
Thank you for everything.
From Augusta, Sicily
Faiqah Farras Syahirah
