Today is strange. Today is new and exciting, and maybe a little bit daunting. Today is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. But mostly today is strange, and not in the way that I feel weirded out, but more in that I feel particularly normal.
----
Today was the first day of my gateway orientation in New York City. I said my final goodbyes at around 10 am, and boarded the hotel shuttle to join my fellow exchange students in anxiously waiting to be assigned to the 100 or so hotel rooms reserved for AFS outbound students. Though I received my room key and was introduced to my roomie not long after arriving, almost everyone else who arrived early had to wait for at least two hours in the unusually cold hotel lobby.
Besides a half hour nap before lunch, I spent the majority of my day socializing with the many other kids departing on adventures of their own. There are about 35 kids from the United States being hosted in Italy, and about 400 AFS exchange students being hosted in Italy total. It's nice to be surrounded by people who understand the motivations and the doubts that you have.
My time here so far has seemed a bit like a middle school summer camp: frustrated adults trying to quell the whispers of excited kids while they speak, stale semi-shitty generic foods, and an overload of introductions and get to know you questions. But despite having yet to learn anything exceedingly useful, I have actually enjoyed the small amount to of exchange student life I have experienced thus far. While in a makeshift yoga class tonight, put on by my lovely fellow AFSers Tami and Christina, I was struck by how strangely ordinary it all felt. A room of almost strangers sitting in silence despite the noise filling the neighboring halls.
