Angelina (Italy, Age 14): English 362

My name is Angelina, I’m 14 years old and I’m from Italy. My house in Italy was kind of big. It was in a building, the first floor. Once you enter the house there is a rectangle space and there was a storage chest with a mirror on top of it and my mom used to put towels and home stuff there. At the right, there is the living room and at the left there is the kitchen. After the small rectangle space there is a small corridor where there is another storage chest and in front of it there is my parent’s room, and then the corridor finishes and you turn left and there is the bathroom and in front of the bathroom there is the guest room and in between the bathroom and the guest room there is my room. You could always hear me singing at my house and it smelled like Egyptian and Italian food, but mostly pizza and I used to eat it every single Saturday. Around 2011, my dad came to New York for three months to see how New York is because there was no work in Italy. He used to live at my mom’s aunt house. My mom and I used to call him everyday, and every time I had a test at school I called him and cried. My dad could have stayed more time in New York but then he saw that we miss him so he came back. When he was in New York he worked at a museum and clean, or sometimes in a pizzeria. When he arrived, he went to my mom’s aunt house and they welcomed him and my mom’s aunt husband was happy to help him, but my dad felt like he was bothering them. When he called us he told us that the air was really different in here and there were a lot of buildings.

After my dad came back from New York, I went outside a lot more than before with my friends. We used to go to the library to study, but at the end we end up talking, and one of my friend, which was my best friend used to come to my house so we could study together and do homework for the next day. I also used to go to sleep at my cousin’s house almost every Saturday. I was really happy that I could sleep at their house, and we did homework together. Sometimes at school in Italy the teachers used to pick two students and asked them a lot of question about that subject and they give us a grade, so when my cousin used to have one of those, I used to ask her questions, she used to answer and I used to give her a grade so we kind of played being teacher and students and we also did the same thing when I had one of those. Also, when I had a test at school, my cousins used to write me a test and I had to do it or she was going to yell at me but she was joking and at the end we just laughed so hard. We used to watch a lot of TV and we invented stupid games and in summer we used to play with the bikes also the summer was really hot. While in winter, we used to go in the park in front of her house or my house and throw at each others snow balls. In spring, the luna park opens and we used to go there. The next day, which was Sunday, we used to wake up really early like at 5 a.m. to go to church and I actually didn’t regret waking up early in the morning, I actually went to sleep at their house because my cousins and her mom were always the first people at church, so I wanted to do that too. But if I was with my mom we used to go a little bit late. After church, sometimes my cousins and I used to stay with our friends and we just talked or play “truth or dare.” Sometimes we used to go outside and walked all together. Since where we lived was really a small city, which is Reggio nell’Emilia, there were just two places we could go to and have fun. One is the mall, where we could play games, walk and shop.  Also there is the center of Reggio nell’Emilia and there is a big fountain there and it changes colors at night and it brings the color of Italy’s flag and it’s really beautiful. In summer, in that center there is something called Mercoledì Rosa, and it means Pink Wednesday and it was every Wednesday for a month, and there used to be a lot of people, there were games like domino, chess and my cousins are really good at it, so one of them used to play with my dad and then we just walked a lot and had fun. Also in Easter, my dad, my cousins and I used to go to the mountains and sometimes we took with us their mom and my mom to scare them because they are scared of heights, or sometimes we used to go to the lake with our friends in church and their parents and we ate meat and play with the ball. I’m really happy to have friends and cousins like them with whom I can be myself.

One day I was with my cousin after school at my house, and my parents called me and they told me that they might buy the tickets to come to New York and after they told me that, I became really sad. The next day I went to school and I took my closest friend aside and I told her that I might go to New York and I couldn’t help but cry and my other friend came and asked me what happened and I told her and I even cried more, and at the end the whole class knew. Then another day, my parents came home and my cousins and their parents were there and my parents told me that we were going to New York. I cried every single day from the day they told me that we were going to when we left our house. I was really sad because I didn’t want to leave everything behind. So, I told my friends at school and they made me a small party in class to say goodbye and it was supposed to be secret but then I found out because when I asked my friend what they were always asking the teacher, he told me that he wanted to do a surprise party for his little sister but I didn’t believe him because his sister wasn’t even at that school, so it was obvious that they were doing something for me so I just found out. In this party, all my friends in the class went in front of the class and they said nice things to me and they gave me gifts. I also told my friends in church and they also made me a surprise party but I didn’t find out. One day, I had to go to church at night just to see my friends for the last time and in the morning my cousin was at my house and she asked me for my USB to save homework on it so I gave it to her. When I got to church, my friend’s mom closed my eyes and guided me inside the small church and they all yelled “surprise” and I was really surprised. They all gave me gifts like earrings, necklace, rings, but the one that I liked most was a video that my two cousins made and it had all of my and their pictures together, we put it on the computer and all of my friends were around me and I started crying as soon as the video started. After the video finished, my cousin told me that she didn’t need the USB to save homework, but to save the video. After I calmed down a bit, we stayed together and talked and some of them came to my house and that was our last goodbye. I didn’t go to school for the last month, so the day after I went to see my friends at school and I hugged them and I said goodbye.

On May 11, 2013 at night my cousins and their parents came over and I started crying again with my cousins, my mom and their mom. There was nothing at my house anymore. After we hugged each other a lot, my uncle and my dad took our bags and put it in the car and we went to the airport, which was in Milan, and it was two or three hours away from Reggio nell’Emilia. The first hour in the car I kept crying and saying “ I want to go back to my friends and cousins” then I slept and we stopped once for snacks. Once we got to the airport there were a lot of people and I was more sad.  My parents and I said goodbye to my uncle and we went to check in our bags and passed through security. There were a lot of people talking in the gate. It smelled like food because there were a lot of restaurant around and it also smelled like perfume because there were stores that sell perfumes. We got in the plane when we heard the voice say that the plane going to New York was there. The plane was full of people and it was hard moving. We stayed in the plane for nine hours and I watched three movies in a row and they gave us food two times and then I slept for one or two hours. We arrived at New York at 9 A.M. and my parents and I waited for some people to get out, so we could get out of the plane easily. When we were at the airport, we went to get our luggages and when we finished my mom’s aunt husband was waiting for us outside. There were a lot of people waiting for other people with a white paper in their hand with written other people name to find them. My mom’s aunt husband helped us take the luggages to his car.

We arrived at my mom’s aunt house and she hugged us really tight. She was really happy to see my mom after a really long time. She told me that I changed a lot since the last time, which was when I was a small kid in Egypt. She made me feel a little bit happy and welcomed. I felt a little bit uncomfortable but it wasn’t their fault but it was mine because I’m shy. My parents and I stayed at their house because we didn’t have any house yet. Outside their house there is a porch. Once you enter their house at the right there are the dining room and the kitchen. In front of the door that we enter from there is the living room, which has two couches and a small chair and the TV. Then there are two bedrooms and the bathroom. Their home is cute and they have a small black dog that I loved right away. In their house, the TV is always on. My mom’s aunt and her husband used to work till afternoon and their daughters to go to work or go to college, but sometimes one of their daughters used to stay with us at home and we just went out and walk. New York is really different from Italy. I didn’t feel comfortable around people here. I felt unsafe, but my parents kept telling me that here was safer than Italy. I tried to believe them and after a while I felt more comfortable. We stayed with them for one week.

After a week of staying at their house, we found our own house. It’s really small. Once you enter the house there is a small corridor and at the right there is a door that makes you go to the kitchen and another door to the bathroom. and there is the living room and it had two couches and a TV, a table and then we have one bedroom with two beds. When we entered the house for the first time, my mom cried because the houses here aren’t like the houses in Italy and she missed everyone in Italy. The next day at night while we were still getting our things from my mom’s aunt house to our new house, we saw our neighbor and she had a daughter. After two or three days we became friends. Then one of our neighbor had another daughter, and one time she knocked at my door and asked my mom if I can go walk with her, at first I said NO, but then my mom tried to convince me because I had to make friends, so I went to that girl. So, we went out and we got lost and I still didn’t know about the streets here, and at the end her brothers came to find us. The summer finished and in September I went to eighth grade with the girl that I met first. I felt really nervous and scared. I felt like I wasn’t going to make friends, but actually I made two friends on the first day. After a month, one day they called me in the office and they told me that I had to change class to a higher one. In that class, I had my closest friend for all the year. At the end of the year, I went to prom and celebrated graduation. Then summer came and I had fun. Then September came and I started 9th grade and at first I used to stay always by myself because I couldn’t go up to someone and talk to them because I’m shy and afraid. But then two Italian girls came to this high school and we became friends right away.