Since I started university, I have always wanted to do an exchange to Europe somewhere; to not only see the artistic masterpieces and look at the history, but to experience a different culture and a different way of living from that of New Zealand. In the past I have learnt a bit of Japanese, German, and French, but it was not until university that I began to study Italian and have fallen in love with the language and the culture, and it is to Italy that I would give anything to live for a while. The university I am at currently supports direct exchanges to Università di Bologna, and for the past two years or so I have been looking seriously at going there for a semester after my fine arts papers are finished and I only have arts papers left. The University is considered to be the oldest in the world, the institution having its beginning at the end of the eleventh century, and boasts students such as Dante Alighieri and Albrecht Dürer who are two of my favourites. It all sounds so perfect and amazing to live in Italy, but I'm scared to be by myself and so far away.
It's such a weird feeling to want to move away and to leave home, but I feel like I need to do it and do it fully; to take myself out of the safety of everything that I know so well, and to immerse myself into something different. It's all a little bit terrifying and completely up in the air, but I really pray that it will happen. There are so many options and so many opportunities; sometimes I feel so overwhelmed and so small in comparison to the world that I don't even know where to start.
