AFS Orientation in Trento

Six day weekend. Oh my goodness thank you! After going to school on Saturdays and Sundays always occupied, I think you would be thankful, too.

Although 4 of those days were for an AFS Orientation Camp in Trento, Italy. I don't mind cause I didn't waste it. It was one of the best weekends in Italy so far!

I think the younger AFS volunteers at the Orientation camp make Italy more enjoyable. The old volunteers in Treviso make me feel like my life is rated G  and it's just lame.

I'll try to remember everything that happened cause it was just plain crazy. I'll tell the major events.

Day 1

I caught the bus (mountain gear and bag), with a few odd stares on the bus, to the train station early in the morning to meet AFS volunteers and my Treviso friends for another bus.

That bus would take us to the mountains and would begin our orientation.
I saw so many familiar faces on the bus from the beginning of the AFS year, and we all got to meet again!  I was so happy. There were a lot of students (55 people for a region orientation is huge!) on the bus that some of us ended up sitting in rows of threes in 2 people seaters or in the aisles with volunteers. 

I believe there were 29 different countries in all  in my region. Some kids from the same country and some the only one from their country. My American Treviso friend, Millie, and I rejoined 3 other Americans from the beginning of the year. One of them, I learned, I had unknowingly met in Cincinnati before arriving to Italy. So when we get back to the United States we will still be able to talk about our experiences together. It was just a pure awesome coincidence we both reside in the same part of Italy and we come from Ohio. =]

Everyone was speaking in different languages. I remember hearing German, Portuguese, Spanish, English,  Norwegian and Thai all at once... it kind of just sounds like background noise after a while because you don't understand anything. I love the Thailand kids, they taught everyone so many bad words in their language and they would laugh at us saying them to other people. As you can tell, we're really mature. ;P

But after we arrived in the cold beautiful mountains we seperated into rooms and color groups. I was in the awesome green group! I shared a room with a Chinese girl and the only girl from Russia. They were so kind! :) We really got along well. The girls side of the long cabin we stayed in was so cool, but the boys had the rowdier side.

In the lobby, there was a foosball table the boys would raid and play. They took the game so seriously, it was if they were watching a real game on TV! There would always be two-on-two matches of different countries/continents/genders. It was really enjoyable to watch! One of my American friends, Forrest, paired up with a Mexican girl and they played against Norway and Germany. It was so hilarious, but they lost.

Forrest is really really hilarious. And not to mention all the "Run, Forrest, Run!" jokes he must hear on a daily basis. He just takes it in stride though. XD

Then later that evening we went back to our color groups and talked about our problems, positives, strange things, and what was most important in our host families. Boring but important.
Some kids have problems with their host families I didn't even imagine... from jealous siblings,  mistrust, drunk mishaps, and over controlling parents. I kind of feel lucky. One girl from Germany can't even get on the internet in her house because her parents automatically assumed that she would be on the internet all day. And her little sister is jealous of all the attention she gets, so the little sister tortures her on a daily basis. Also, a girl from China had already changed host families because they didn't want her anymore. Some families in Italy you just don't know about sometimes. =/

Then we played we talked more in the gym about what more would happen in the camp later. The volunteers announced the Talent show would be on Saturday evening and that is when I learned I was the only one who had prepared for the Talent Show in advance. So proceeded to pairing up with other people from different countries to create something in two days for a Talent Show. That would be interesting. ;P

Day 2

Basically the same as the first with a few differences. We talked in our colored groups about school, how boring it is, and what we can do to improve our social lives...etc. Seriously we need these tips because it truly is hard to have some fun as a teenager in Italy with other Italian teenagers. Italian teenagers have no lives. All they do is study.  Then they only go out on the weekends when the foreign exchange student's time schedules are booked with boring local chapter meetings and family time. It's a vicious cycle cause even during the week day, Italian kids are still studying.

So after we all talked and complained and found out how similar our lives were going, we practiced in our free time for the Talent Show, talked to kids about their countries, and played like normal. It felt good. I could communicate with other people going through the same situation I was. And thank goodness there weren't any babysitting like rules you have in your daily life of Italy. We were free to do what we wanted most of the time, besides the fact of AFS wanting to get personal interviews with us to see how our lives were going.

But those types of things are needed. AFS actually scheduled the camp at least one month in during our experience because apparently our exchange trip is (oh cliche) an emotional roller coaster.  Usually around the one month time mark, exchange students kids are coming down from their highs of being in a different country and realize that things around them are truly different / can't cope with being in a different place.

AFS just really helps us get away from the stress by planing such camps and activities such as:

Pizza Baking

I learned how to make a professional delicious pizza with my color group. It was so fun! We rolled dough, put on sauce and cheese, all the good Italian traditions to making a pizza. I would like to do it again sometime. Oh but being the cool AFSers we are, we got into a flour fight in the middle of the lesson. The younger volunteers were cool about it. I bet if they were the older ones from my local chapter they would have had hissy-fits about how immature we were.

The Runaway Kissing Game

It's not everyday you wake up at an AFS Orientation and you're told  you have to kiss somone.

AFS had us play this game at the end of the day just to have some fun from our prior converstions. This particular game is like an intense version of spin the bottle, just without the bottle, more random, and in Italian.

All 55 of us students had to sit in a circle, gender randomnly spaced as much as possible, (boy-girl-boy-girl) with one person in the middle and we each got an identity. There were fewer boys than girls, so the boys received letters of the English/Italian alphabet. The girls  received numbers. I was #7.

The object of the game is to kiss the person sitting in the middle of the circle on the cheek.

Now this game has two scenarios:

1. If there is a boy sitting in the middle of the circle, a girl's number is called and she has to run as fast as possible to the boy sitting in the middle to kiss him on the cheek. But at the same time, a boy's letter is called and he has to try to kiss the girl who is trying to kiss the boy in the middle before she reaches him. If the girl reaches the boy in the center first and kisses him on the cheek, she wins. If the boy captures the girl while she is trying to run to the middle to the other boy and kisses her first then he wins.

2. If there is a girl sitting in the middle of the circle, well the situation is vice versa.

Usually during this game it ends up with hilarious matches between the boys and girls.

But before I get to my round of Runaway Kiss, I have a quick note. I was speaking to a boy from Chile prior to the game in my color group, and he was so cool to talk with. Very cute, too. He already had a girlfriend though he met with AFS from Germany. I think we left our conversation as good friends. Until the round of Runaway Kiss.

I was just sitting in the circle laughing and having a good time at all the boys trying to kiss the girls and them running away, girls trying to kiss the boys, people shocked when their number was called, and all the scrimmages. It was hilarious.

My friend, Palm, from Thailand had kissed the boy in the center before the other boy had gotten to her so she was now the girl sitting in the middle. The AFS volunteer had called the next combination letter and I wasn't expecting anything.

"Acca! Sette!"  H! 7!

It struck me that my number was called and I was in scenario #2. I had almost gone the whole game without being picked, dang it! Plus,  I almost didn't even stand up because my brain was so apprehensive I forgot my Italian numbers.

When I did stand up I was so confused on what to do, "Ah crap! Do I go kiss Palm or wait, who do I have to kiss?! Which boy is letter H?!" There were many cute boys in the circle, psssh I'm not going to lie I was too scared to kiss them on the cheek, but at the same time I didn't want to lose the game. Darn me being so competitive!
The boy with the letter H's brain must have been on stun, too, because it took him a good three seconds later to stand up.

"OMG I HAVE TO KISS THE CUTE BOY FROM CHILE?!"

We were both so obviously confused. He ran towards me and tried to kiss me and all the boys and girls were laughing and screaming as I squirmed away.

"No, Zakiyya, you have to kiss him!" He finally realized that too and he tried to get away but I tackled him.  Then ensued the biggest scuffle of all the rounds. He attempted to claw his way to my friend Palm in the center of the circle after we somehow ended up on the ground wrestling. Everyone was laughing so hard many people succumbed to tears.

He was so close to my friend Palm in the center and his lips were almost to her cheek when I  kissed him on his cheek also. I could have sworn it was tie! But I guess he won. lol I felt kind of bad I had to wrestle a kiss from him in front of his girlfriend though. I guess that's the only time it's okay. Haha

That game was a comical mess. xD

Day 3

The day of the Talent Show.

We wrapped up different discussions about stereotypes, and personal interviews. Another fun day! :)

During the free time we praticed and finished our talents. I had nothing better to do at camp  on top of what I was doing for the Talent Show. I joined a Mexican/American Ho Down dance, Terrible Lyric Reading, New Zealand and Hawaiian Hula/Dance, and a sing along.  It was fun although I felt like such an over achiever.

But the Talent Show had come around and everyone was surprisngly ready.

The list of Acts:

1. USA (Me)- Animated Drawing Video - dedicated to my Treviso and USA friends. Everyone loved it! :)
2. Brazil - Brazilian Dance (Very awesome dance. I'm still looking for the song! All the Brazilians were born with the Sexy + We know how to party genes. *fumes jealousy*)

EDIT: I got the two songs they danced to. I love them.

3. Iceland - Hair Braiding
4. USA + New Zealand + Dominican Republic - Singing
5. Japan  - Origami
6. Serbia + Finland + Paraguay + Bosnia + India - Serbian Dance
7. Mexico + Germany + Portugal + USA - Mexican/USA Ho Down
8. USA - Terrible Lyric Reading (Took songs from everyone's country and my friend Forrest read them wrong purposely to make people laugh.)
9. Columbia + Honduras + Peru + Venezuela - Singing
10. Paraguay - Beatbox
11. Thailand - Thailand Tradition Dance/ Korean Girl Dance Group (This surprised everyone. The Thailand kids were so secret about what they were doing the whole camp, then they come out of no where with an epic dance of Korean Girl bands and hip hop. It was too much awesome!)
12. France + Canada - Guitar Singing Song
13. France + Chile - Double Guitar Improvisation
14. Russia + Finland - Russian Ballet
15. AFS Volunteers - Italian Song dedicated to AFSers
16. Germany + India - Soccer Ball Gut Kicking (One boy kicked a soccer ball and the other boy caught it under his shirt with his stomach, too.)
17. New Zealand + USA + Dominican Republic - Hula/Dance
18. China - Singing
19. Germany + Guatemala - The First Wedding Night Game. (Basically recreating sex positions. The German kids seemed so innocent, but they had a very unusual, yet hilarious sense of humor because no one expected it. They took six volunteers {who actually had no clue what they were volunteering for} and recreated a, ahem, first night on the Honeymoon. I was laughing so hard. It was such a Bachelor party game I never thought it would show up at an AFS camp. Even the volunteers were laughing.)
20. AFS Volunteers - Acting out one scene in different styles of Normal, Happy, Tragic, and Sexy.

Oh AFS you're awesome. :D

Even better, after the Talent Show, we set the clocks back an hour, and we got to party for one more hour and we gained an extra hour of sleep because breakfast was set up to be later.

Day 4

Final evaluations of camp.  Our goodbyes, getting people's number/ facebooks pictures. I want to show many pictures but my camera died at the most convient time. I'll just wait until I am tagged in the images on Facebook. XD

Halloween tomorrow with my family. No time for studying!