Bridges from Udine to New York
All the wide range of exchange programs our school offers have also been affected by the pandemic. Since all the trips have been cancelled, we have decided to remain in contact with the American students of Scarsdale High School in New York, one of our partner schools, virtually, hoping that next year we will be able to see them in person.
For this reason, on the 19th of May ten girls had the opportunity to speak and discuss about the strange situation we are living with a class of students from Scarsdale High School. For us, this was the first contact with the American school and we knew little about them.
Before the meeting, we had a session of preparation to exchange ideas on the questions we’d ask. The American students in fact have very short lessons of 25 minutes and we couldn’t waste any time.
The meeting was set up on the Zoom platform and at first everybody was feeling a bit tense but, with the help of the teachers, everyone managed to talk and ask a question. We were very sad because unfortunately we could not see the American students in person but despite the screen that separated us it was a really educational and amazing experience.
Different topics were covered, but we spoke mainly of coronavirus. All the questions were really interesting: they asked us about our patriotism and about the Italian governments decisions, while we asked more about themselves and how it is to live at home all day sharing spaces with other people 24/7. As it is a tough topic, we also asked each other questions about how our life has changed and compared daily aspects of our lives.
Something that really surprised us was their interest in politics: even though we had been warned by our teacher not to go into that, it was the Americans who did. They wanted to know about our approach to climate change and our opinion on President Trump!
Their teacher told us another interesting fact: since the pandemic put a stop to the lessons and so to the graduation exam as well, the senior year students received a visit from their teacher who had prepared banners to cheer them up. Also their prom was cancelled just as ours which was an event that all of us, Americans and Italians, had been eagerly waiting for. Luckily, our seniorshad at least the Maturaball!
We also asked if they had been feeling more or less productive since the pandemic started and the answer was positive although a really touchy moment for a lot of us was when an American girl said how much in this time she realised she needs to be with other people to feel “charged” and motivated. A lot of us feel the same way. In fact, for some students it might be very difficult to attend school without having “a human contact” mostly for teens like us who chose a school where your friends are by your side twenty-four hours a day.
In this time, and here we can see how, even if we live in different parts of the world, we really are similar and need to feel together to get over this.
This experience was really helpful not only to practice our English, but also to take some time to think about how this whole pandemic situation in one way, keeps us apart, but also keeps us together and witness how it is managed by a different country. This change of perspective was really refreshing after these long months during which our contacts with the outside world were so limited.
We all really enjoyed having this international chat and hope we will keep in touch with them.
Gioia Calderon, Benedetta Dilena, Virginia Gomiselli II^C
Veronica Guion I^C