Hello! I’m Stacia from Indonesia. I’m 16 years old but in a week I will be 17 years old. Currently I’m part of the AFS PEACE PROGRAM in Italy. It’s been two months since I arrived in Italy and I really feel grateful for this wonderful opportunity. At first when I arrived here, I felt really anxious because I’m the only Indonesian. I was afraid if I won’t have someone to talk with or if I can’t adapt with everything in here and also how’s the language… there were a lot of things going on my mind. But that feelings were only temporary. Everyone in here are very welcoming to me and also respect each other. I’m so happy and glad that everyone here are really accepting me. I learn so much in here that differences do not matter. We need to respect people if we want to be respected.
Right now, I stay in Ruvo di Puglia (BA). It’s in the south part of Italy. I have one host sister and two host brothers. My host family here are very lovely and I really enjoy every moment with them. We also have a dog and a cat that just gave birth to four cute kittens. I go to the same school as my sister in Terlizzi. Every morning we take the bus from Ruvo di Puglia to Terlizzi. It only take 10 minutes to go to Terlizzi. I really like the school. I go to different classes such as the classical, the linguistics and the human science. Everyday after school I will take the bus to go back to Ruvo di Puglia. After arrived at home, I will have a lunch together with my host family. I really love the food here, everything is just so good. After the lunch I will rest a little bit or do some homework. On Monday and Thursday I will have my volunteer work in Caritas for 2 hours. In Caritas, I help the children to learn English and dance. On Tuesday and Thursday I have my dance class for an hour. I also have my Italian lesson in my teacher’s house twice or three times a week. In my free time I love to read a book, drawing or just write about my experience. The thing’s that I’d really love to stay here for a longer time but in a few weeks I will be back to Indonesia and go back to school. But still, I feel so grateful for the opportunity to be here.
