"I am European"

Europe. Here in Italy this word makes some people think only about a geographical place and most of people about debts, economical crisis and "spread". So here in the "Bel Paese" what people think about the EU is far from what the founders wanted to create: a big fraternal community. Even I, an 18 years old girl, that has always been attracted by other countries and other languages, have always felt only italian and not european. Well, this was until last October. In fact, thanks to an European project, I had the chance to leave to Berlin and spend 3 weeks studying German, I had the chance to jump the physical and psychological boundaries. At first I was a little bit unsure because Berlin for me was just the German capital, a cold city, the place where Angela Merkel chastises Italy for its economic policy. Plus, imagine my fear when I learned that me and my friends would have lived in host families and not in a hotel all together. We would have been parted in an unknown city doing completely strange things to us such as taking the metro and check timetables. Obviously I was completely wrong because my journey turned into a wonderful experience that made me grew up and become more responsible.Besides I discovered a modern and beautiful city full of young people coming from all around Europe so that I could feel at the centre of a big dynamical life, a life that was miles away from the one of the little town I live in.
Psychological boundaries were also the prejudices about German people. Here in Italy where the welcome is always warm and passionate we expect people form the north of Europe to be cold and detached. Instead, in my host family, I found a young woman that helped me feeling comfortable under all the aspects of everyday life: she pointed me the way to get to school the first day, she showed me places where real Berlin people go, places far from tourist sites. She also prepared my breakfast everyday with every food possible treating me like a daughter and she helped me non to feel melancholy in those 3 weeks away from home that sometimes seemed eternity to me.
I changed opinion also about German. In fact I found that an apparently rough language could be as romantic as the Eiffel Tower at night.
This was the best experience ever as I met new people, I left the narrow-minded atmosphere of my little town in the south of Italy and especially I learned to be EUROPEAN.