One of the highlights of any school year is the Italian exchange program.  Filled with food, monuments and historic sights, this year’s trip to Italy was one for the books.      
The exchange program is simple: students can sign up to host a student from Italy, and in turn, they have the opportunity to travel to Italy and stay with an Italian student and their family.  There, students go to school with their pen-pal and sight-see all of Italy.  
Despite the number of attractions Italy has the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the famous Colosseum, the European country is probably most known for the food.  Italy is most commonly associated with pasta and pizza and there’s a reason why.
“The food was incredible, but the myth is true…they really do eat pasta and pizza at almost every meal,” junior Jade Glassman said.  “At least that’s how it was in my house. For dinner every night, I had a new type of pasta followed with pizza, bread, and salad. It was a lot of empty carbs I guess you could say, but it was still delicious.”
The food was obviously a plus but the extravagant and homemade meals aren’t the only thing different from the United States.  
“The culture is definitely different in Italy than here,” Glassman said.  “In America, it’s pretty typical to run errands in sweats and comfy clothes with no makeup and your hair usually a mess, but that’s not the case over there.  Everywhere I went everyone had really good fashion and style.”
But the exchange trip wasn’t just about fashion or food, but rather the opportunity to travel and experience an entirely new culture, as well as make a friend for life.   
“I think this trip changed me because I was able to see how kids just like me live in another country and I was able to experience a whole different culture and see the differences between Italy and America,” junior Abbey Colao said.
If any student has the opportunity to participate in any of the language exchange programs, they should.  Not only will one be able to try new things, but one will get to learn about a foreign culture and experience traveling to its fullest.