Three students visiting from Milan have left their hearts in Melbourne.
Anna Pignapelli, Eleonora Merlai and Giulia Boniardi have just wrapped up a school exchange visit to Braybrook’s Caroline Chisholm Catholic College.
Teacher Linda Bracco said the girls were in Braybrook as part of the college’s ‘language concepts’ program, in which the three Italians and two Japanese exchange students joined classes where visitors and hosts improved their language skills and learned about new cultures.
Giulia, 18, said Melbourne was very different to what she’d expected.
“The only things I knew about Australia were the kangaroos and things like that,” she said.
“Coming here was completely different; people are very different from in Europe. I’m very sad to be going home.”
Anna, 17, said the time had passed quickly and she, too, was saddened to be leaving her new friends. “I’ve been meeting people I will remain friends with for my entire life,” she said. “It has been great seeing how people live in a different country. I hope to come back one day.”
Eleonora, 15, said she enjoyed activities such as visiting Ballarat, Circus Oz, the aquarium and the zoo. “People have been very friendly. It’s very different between us and Australia; here nearly everyone at the school has a job.”
Caroline Chisholm college student Frances Raymundo said having the visitors in the Italian language classes had been especially useful for language students.
“They helped us with our work and also with a lot of informal expressions; it really helped us in our development.”
The Italian trio returned home last Saturday, the Japanese students having left a few days earlier.
