Not really what I expected

Have you ever had high expectations for something and in the end turned out to
be not as interesting as you thought it would be? This is how it has been for me when I
went on an exchange visit organised by my school.
I was really nervous when I first arrived and i had to meet the host family. I was
trying so hard to make a good impression. Although they were being so nice to me and
were happy to have me there, there were some awkward moments when it was an
overwhelming silence. You know what i'm talking about, when you first meet somebody
and you don't know what to say or how to act. So I erased my anxiety with the thought
that the tension will decrease over time.
The host family had this kind of tradition: every weekend they would do leisure
activities. When they introduced me to this I was getting excited because this was a good
way to make friends with them and to get to know them better. We played a lot of stuff:
basketball, voleyball and even golf, but the game I didn't enjoy at all was tennis. They
were so competitive and so happy when winning, and I'm not that good at tennis, so it
was very frustating for me, because I don't like losing. However, after seeing me upset,
they cheered me up and we went together to get some ice cream to feel better.
At school, it was hard for me to make friends because of the language, I could
understand them but they had a hard time trying to understand me. My accent was not
that good at first, but the conversations with collegues and teachers were a good practice
for my accent. I'm glad to say that after this trip my accent is almost the same as a native
speaker's.
You know, I'm not a lazy person, but I like my evenings to be free so that I can
relax after the tiring days at school. But there I couldn't do that: they were active all the
time. After school, they would do other activities that I had to do too because if I didn't
do them, I would have got detention and I would have been seen as a lazy and also as a
rebellious person. Who wants to be seen like that?
The most interesting part was when we went on organised excursions to local
places of interest. One of these places was near the sea. We stayed two hours on the
beach reading, drinking milkshakes and iced coffees. Then we went on a walk around
the water's edge where a guide has accompanied us and told us myths and legends about
the town. You can already tell that was my favorite part because I'm a very curious
person and I got very excited.
It was an average trip over all, I didn't do anything unusual. It did not live up to
my expectations. I also got a little bored and I started missing my parents and my sister.
In my opinion, three weeks is too long for such experience, because it's not like it is a
vacation. I still had to go to school, to do homework, activities and so on. It felt like I
was there for an entire semester. I don't think I would go for a second time, or even if I
do, I would bring a friend to keep me company.