Bang! I run-up to the door and bang it as I want to be led inside. My excitement has been leaning towards this moment as all three of us peer into the window and see my mom come to the door. We continue to bang and shout. As my dad hears the door being opened he rushes out into the family room and tells all of us to sit patiently on the couch. We drop our bags and get comfy on the couch. 

My brothers and I are so excited to hear what the big news is. Is it going to be some candy, or go out to dinner? As my dad walks through the hallway into the family room he grabs a seat next to my mother. We all sit patiently while we tell him to hurry, hurry, hurry! He looks at all three of us, Oliver (my twin brother), Henry (my younger brother), Hugo (me). “ I can tell all three of you have been waiting a while for this time to come, your mother and I have also been looking forward to telling you guys this.” Says my dad. Come on we don't have all day as I say and my brothers shouting yeah hurry up! We… are… going… to……. Italy for 1 year! “As my dad says in excitement and my mom smiles. All of us just sit there and ponder what? “Yes we are going to Italy for 1 year, I got an incredible job at the American Academy In Rome where very important people work on various things like art, music, and archeology like myself.” As my dad says in excitement. I question so many things in my head, am I going to have no friends. I'm going to be living somewhere else for 1 year. I thought that was crazy and impossible because I would miss my friends so much. I tell my friends and they don’t believe it either. I pack up my bags and dump them into the car heading to the airport. I say my last goodbyes to the house and my friends especially. Goodbye Cincinnati for now.

As we touch down we get off the airplane slowly. My dad says to us “Are you guys ready to learn a different language?” All of us stay quiet and realize in our heads that the language isn’t English, it's ITALIAN! I shouted to my dad “wait what?” Did you guys forget that the world doesn’t just speak English? We all sigh and wonder how in the world we are going to learn a different language. All disappointed and depressed, we walked outside to get a taxi to the American academy. We get in the taxi and tell us all to look outside the window and take in all the beautiful smells and wonderful views. As the windows are down the breeze passes by us as we continue to our destination. We pass by a lovely fountain named the trevi fountain and in front of it, there is a spectacular view of the lovely city of Rome. As we pass by it my father tells us “we are almost here, get ready.” “Will there be any Americans here?” I say to my dad. “Yes!” All excited my dad says, everyone is American except for some of the workers. A big sigh of relief came out when I heard that because I thought everyone was going to speak Italian here but thankfully not. We turn the corner and see this massive building and I thought it was just for us but unfortunately not. Next to it was this apartment building that was pretty nice where we stayed. We pull into the driveway grab our bags and head to our room. We get to our room and fight over who has which bed. We figure out which bed we all have and I take a big long nap after a long day of traveling.

It’s the first day of school. I’m excited but very very worried because I have no friends and I don't know a lot of Italian. We have an apartment neighbor that lives right next to us that goes to the same school. His name is Rafi and he’s a bit weird and disgusting but oh well. He’s in the same grade as Henry so we all won't be alone because I got Oliver and Henry’s got Rafi. The easiest class I’ve ever taken definitely would have been English so I was a pro at that. A couple of days in I didn't have anyone to talk to but one day I met my best friend Alessandro. Alessandro was my best friend in Italy. He was very funny and always fun to be around. He was the only friend I could talk to because my Italian was pretty bad so I couldn’t talk to anyone because some people didn't know English that well. Alessandro knew English pretty well but when my Italian got very good I was really good friends with everyone in my grade. I could talk to all of them, I could talk to the teachers, I could even show it off to my mom and dad. When my Italian got good I could do everything a normal Italian kid could do like order from a cafe and I could meet random kids playing soccer against a wall.

When the school year was about to end I wanted to stay, I wanted to stay because all these new friends I just made were such great friends that I wanted to have for the rest of my life. I wasn’t ready to go back to America after this year to see my old friends because I love Italy. It was the last day of school and my best friend Alessandro stuck beside me for that whole day because he knew I was leaving and he didn't want me to leave nor did I. 10 minutes left in the school day I was finishing this last assignment and Alessandro started to try and convince the principal and my teacher for me to stay because he loved me so much and I did too because we were best friends. The bell was about to ring so he hugged me and never let go until the teacher grabbed him off of me and we both went outside. I shouted “Ciao Ragazzi” to the teachers and friends as Alessandro and I left the building. Alessandro started to cry and I was close to crying because I didn't want to leave him either. My parents saw us both hugging and him crying but we had to go. I said my final goodbye and it was truly heartbreaking. Trying to learn Italian and this kid wanting to be my friend when I did not speak his language was probably very hard for him because he was trying to learn English so he could talk to me. I see him standing outside of our car and see him crying with his mom to the side crying as well because she was great with my mom too. We got into the car and started to drive off slowly peering my head out the window and seeing him one final time. I get my head back into the car as the cool breeze flows through to the back of the van. I start to think will I ever see him again or am I ever going to see him again. I start to cry and wish I will see him again.

As we pass the fountain and take the corner my tears start to go away. We pull into the driveway get to our apartment and start packing straight away with limited time for the morning flight. We wake up early and start to pack the taxi with our suitcases and backpacks. The last sunrise of Rome was a colorful, and chilly one. As we get to the airport I get my backpack and hunch it onto my shoulders as I try to get my crammed suitcase from the bottom. We get in and check-in and start heading towards security. After we pass security we get to our plane and wait outside until they start boarding. As they say, we can board the plane we immediately get onto the plane and I got the window seat. I could see the mixed colors of orange and yellow on the coast. As we start to take off the breeze from the plane makes me have goosebumps. All the emotions started flooding my face that we are leaving my favorite place in the world. Leaving all my friends, food, places, especially Alessandro. He helped me learn the language, Italian. 

After all, we get back onto the plane and as we lift off I start thinking about all the memories I had during this wonderful time. I had funny and boring moments there and all I could think of were the funny moments. As we start heading towards the light blue sky, I look all across Rome one last time. I see the city and the suburbs’ beautiful landscape and all the buildings, parks, rivers, and lakes. Ciao Roma. I put the window shade down as cold air moves down the plane from row to row. I put my head on my mom's lap and go to sleep to pass the time.

Suddenly, I wake up as the wheels of the airplane pound on the runway. We are back home. I look outside and its pitch dark and can only see lights from the planes and the airport. I get up excited but half asleep and get our bags and get off the plane. We drag our suitcases and hunch our 1 million pound backpacks on to our sore shoulders as we head towards the exit. It’s chilly as we try to find our car in the parking garage. We find it and all race to it. “I call shotgun!” As Henry screams all exhausted. We got our bags in the back and I got in the car and I went right back to sleep. I wake up and I see my house as we pull into the driveway. “We’re home, finally!” As I scream to try and wake the others up. I get my stuff as quickly as I can and run to the door. “Hurry, hurry, let me inside,” I tell my parents. All three of us stand at the door as my parents lock the car and as they start going towards the door. They unlock it and backup and we all run in. I jump right onto the couch and sit there for a bit until I start getting ready for bed.

I wake up, take a shower, and get dressed to surprise our friends. Oliver and I bike to the Frye’s house and we ring the doorbell and pound on the door. Tucker and Will both rush to the door and see us and scream in excitement. “You're finally home!” They tell us they let us in their house. As we hang out for a bit on the trampoline. We go back home and get our bathing suits. We come back and all 4 of us bike to the pool. Other friends like Finn and Max also see us and we all hangout in the pool and tell all the stories. Oliver and I both tell stories about Italy and I show them some italian. They were so intrigued about how we learnt italian. I told them that my friend Alessandro taught me Italian very well so I was very good at it. Being bilingual can make the world so much different in a great way. Learning new cultures and talking to new friends was very hard to do at the start but Alessandro helped me out. Being bilingual is not common in the world today, but being bilingual is more than learning a new language; it's about learning new cultures and that’s what is so special. People are here for you and that’s what brings the world together, being nice and showing how grateful you are to other people is what life is all about.