Ema: Okay… HUM… First question, Can you tell me about

your first few days abroad?

Alex: Okay. Yeah. HUM So I moved to London in the first
days of September and, HUM well, it was it was not that nice
as I thought because of course it’s very hard to be you know
HUM far away from your house. And it was my first
experience abroad. So I’d never been that much HUM for that
long, you know away from my family and my friends and my
boyfriend and everyone. So it was I was afraid I wouldn’t
make friends and you know it was hard. I didn’t know if the
family I’m I’m with now was nice, if the kids would
eventually like me or not. So it was, it was kind of stressing.
But so, yeah, the first, like the first week was like that. I was
afraid and I cried a lot, but eventually it was it was okay.
Ema: HUM What are your living arrangements now?
Alex: Well, now I live with my host family and HUM there’s a
house and I’m on the last floor of the house. I have my own
bedroom and my private bathroom and and it’s actually a very
very nice bedroom and a very very nice thing.
Ema: HUM When you’re not studying, what do you do?
Alex: Well, I live in London, (laughing) so what I do, it’s
HUM actually not that much. I just go for walks because I
really love the riverside. There’s something very romantic
about it. So if I want to stay like where I live in, I just go for a
walk on the riverside. Or if it’s the weekend, for example, I
just take a bus and go to the center with my friends to hang out
and eat something, have a brunch, or you know just relax and
chill together.
Ema: What do you do on your weekends?
Alex: Oh, that’s it. I take a bus or a tube because I’m in love
the bus, but my friend seems to love the tube because it’s
faster (laughing). But I love the bus because you can see you
know everything. Also, if it’s a sunny day, oh, I love being on
the second floor of the bus and go to the center of London and
I usually prefer to go out in the morning, like at noon actually,
and to come back home at like ten or something because I love
spending the day outside during when when there’s daylight.
So I love you know we just have walks and have brunch
together and or we just go in some parks if it’s nice weather,
and yeah basically there that’s it. It sounds boring, but it’s very
nice.
Ema: Are there places in London that you particularly like?
Can you describe one of them?
Alex: Okay, well, I think my favorite place in London, its
Nottingill and I love I don’t know why I love it, but maybe it’s
just the atmosphere there, like, it looks like you’re in a movie
and yeah, you basically feel like the you know the star of an
an important movie. Like you walk on the streets and if OH I
love London when it's sunny and there's lots of people in the
street. And that's Portobello Road, full of people because
there's a market there and yeah, all the houses are so colored
(laughing) and you know everything's colorful. When I When
I picture Nottingill, I feel like there's lots of color and lots of
people and lots of happiness.
Ema: Can you name the three people you spend the most time
with?
Alex: Okay, HUM well, there's Ema. (laughing) We basically
hang out every day. And it's weird if we don't see each other
for HUM like the week and. If we're going back home, we just
need to have a coffee first thing on Monday morning. Then
there's Altea. HUM I really like her. We see each other on the
usually on the weekend because she lives far away from here,
but she's very nice and I really like her. HUM And then there's
my host family. Like all of them, like HUM I just I hang out
with them during the week and sometimes during the week.
And it's very nice to just have, sometimes at the end of the
day, a dinner together and yeah. So that was the people you
see the most in real life.
Ema: Can you tell me about the people you spend the most
time with? Virtually?
Alex: Oh gosh, yeah, HUM I spend lots of time on the phone
with my family, so my sister in particular, HUM but also my
mom and dad. And yeah, basically we have to call each other
at least once in the morning, once at at lunchtime, and after I
finish with the kids in the evening. And then (laughing) I feel
like annoyed, but like I seemed annoyed, but I really like that.
And HUM because I feel like I'm part of their day still. And
yeah, then there's my boyfriend. Sometimes when I can't
sleep, I we just sometimes HUM video call each other on the
computer and we mute ourselves and we watch a movie. And
it's very nice because I fell full asleep in like 5 seconds. And
then there are my two best friends, Kiara and Laura. Yeah, we
also have to call each other at least twice a day or you know
we can't go on with our with our day.
Ema: Can you tell me a little bit about each person, HUM as
well as what languages you use with each one? And also what
is your connection is to each person?
Alex: Okay, well, since I talk a lot, I already did that a bit.
What I didn't do is HUM telling you a language I speak well,
HUM I usually speak English with Ema and Altea, even if
Alta is Italian. But when we hang out, or the three of us
together, of course, we just speak English, and HUM I speak
Italian with my family and with my friends from home and
with my boyfriend, of course, even if sometimes I speak
French or English with my boyfriend because he studies HUM
English and French, so sometimes we want he wants to
practice a bit, and that's what we are. HUM And, yeah
basically these are and of course,HUM also I speak French
with Ema sometimes yeah because I want to practice it a bit.
And, yeah, so I'm just like, okay, Ema, now we're gonna
spend, like, an hour speaking just French, and that's it
(laughing)
Ema: Are you satisfied with how much you’ve been able to
use French of English, maybe in your case, so far? What are
your next challenges HUM regarding learning French or
English?
Alex: Okay. Well, I'm very satisfied about using English, and
but also French, actually, because I started French Hum I
started studying French in middle school, and then I studied in
high school, and then I felt like I was a bit losing it, but then I
was able to you know choose French as an exam in the third
year of university, so this year, and so I really, like sometimes,
just as I already said, like, asking Ema if we can speak French
together or speak French with my boyfriend, so you know you
can remember a language, because if you don't practice it, it's
very hard to you know remember the language. So, yeah, I'm
really satisfied about using French again, finally, after two
years of not using it. And HUM English, of course, because I
wasn't really able to speak English when I was in Italy,
because you know in university classes are so big, and it's
very hard to to speak English a lot, you know to have the
chance to speak English at least once a day. And now it's the
language I usually use, so I'm very happy about it.
Ema: And I’m sorry for the next question.
Alex: Oh there it is…
Ema: That would make me cry but HUM… Do you miss
home?
Alex: (laughing) Okay, well, yeah, as I as I told you, HUM I
really missed home like in in kind of a sick way when I was
here the first weeks. Now, it's already been a a bit that I'm
here, and I miss it. But like when I found out being here is that
I kind of think that I belong here. So I really miss home,
because there’s where I grew up and where my family is and
where my boyfriend and friends are. But like if I have to think
about myself, this is the place I I belong. So I'm really happy
to be here.
Ema: Okay, that’s all the questions. Thank you Alex.
Alex: Thank you, Ema. It was very nice.