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Lorenzo s Chronicles - First Impression
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Hi, I’m Lorenzo and I frequent “Euganeo” Secondary School in Este, a small city near Padua. Last year I applied for an “Erasmus +” scholarship and that’s why now I’m living in North Wales, to be more specific, in a village called Colwyn Bay. I’m not the only student from my school that is taking part in “Erasmus +” project this year: some of my school friends are going to Tallinn (Estonia) or Valencia (Spain) and some are here with me.

Honestly my expectations about the places where I was going to live were not very high, but luckily I change my ideas about it. North Wales is a very beautiful place (for Lonley Planet it is even the 4th best place to visit in the world): the natural landscape is not so varius, but the contrast between the sea and the hills is amazing. There are also a lot of things to do, from culture and historical things to adventures, sports and funny things to try and enjoy. The weather compared to Italy is very very different: in my country the sun is not uncommon like here; in North Wales there are often a cloudy or rainy weather and the temperature is lower than the North of Italy.

I think that the first good things that I’ve realize, seen and felt are the big hospitality of my host family and… the efficiency of the buses system. When I arrived in my host family on the 20th of May my host Jaqueline made me feel comfortable as if I were at my house. She is very kind with me and she takes care of everything about the experiences I’m following here. The first days for move to different places like Abergele or Llandudno I’ve catch bus several times: maybe for Britain people it’s normal to have a good and efficient network of public transport, but for an Italian it’s not so an obvious thing. Wi-Fi on the buses and the “Arriva” app (that permit you to see the position or the delay of every bus in live) are very nice and helpful. The second week, therefore from the 30th of June, I started to work at “Livetech”, an IT company that is involved into web design and web marketing. Today it’s my third day here but I’m already happy to work here and to make me useful in different ways. The place where I work into it’s an open space: in this big space there are me and other six of my collegues and the Company Director Paul Levy. All of them are very kind and polite with me.

I’ve discovered a lot of surprising and unusual things (for an Italian) in Wales: first of all, seriously Do I have to be fully grown for to buy a lighter or some rolling papers? In Italy these things are allowed for minors. I think that at Tesco they will ask me my ID even if I’ll buy some Doritos chips.  What a sense of law here in UK! Another thing that was unexpected for me it’s to have seen a lot of animals like cows and sheep that live “free” in the countryside fields. One more thing that shocked me a bit is the shopping in Liverpool: when me and the other students went to “The Pool of Talent” the last weekend I think I understood for the first time the real mean of “consumerism” word: especially in a shop called Primark, I have never seen before so much people (included me of course) buying so many things. Unbelievable.


If you are an Italian you’ll certainly understand the next argument of which I’m writing: the food. I tried the local food, like the welsh lamb or like fish and chips, and it was very good. I think that I still have a lot of typical dishes to discover and I’m happy and curios about that. I also think that the “fake Italian food” that I’ve ate here is not so good. Things like “pineapple pizza” (all joking aside, what is wrong in people that love this type of pizza?) or the “pasta” is very different and atypical from the food that we usually eat in Italy. Anyway I like to think that the most part of the “cuisine” here is at least eatable (thank God).

I haven’t met so many local people since my first day here. One of the first person I’ve speak to is the son of my Host. His name is Sam he’s shy but also talkative in some situations. Sincerely Before I came here I didn’t think that the people were so polite and friendly in UK. However the most polite and outgoing people that I’ve ever meet here are the elderly in Llandudno. Sometimes young people in the streets make fun of me or other Italian students but I don’t care about it, they make me laugh too. I’m sure that in the next few weeks I’ll have the opportunity to meet and know more locals.

Fun Facts:
The last week I and some of my Italian friends went to visit Rhyl. At a certain point me and other people went inside Poundland to buy some very useful things but Filippo, one of my classmate and currently my roommate, was hungry and so he went to Mc Donald to buy some food. When he left the  fast food with a sandwich in his hand a seagull flew over him to steal the food like a RAF’s fighter aircraft. At least the seagull won the war and Filippo was obligated to give the sandwich to the bully seagull. After this episode for me seagulls are definitely bad people.


**UPDATE**
Few days ago I've been attacked by a seagull like my friend. I'm literally speechless.


Image by: Hefin Owen (Flickr - CC 2.0)


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