My Brother Who Lives in Italy

When I first learned about this project, I was really hesitant about whether I should go or not. A part of me was warning me that it is the time I should start focusing on my classes more seriously and stop spending time with travels. On the other hand my traveller spirit desired to explore new countries, learn about different cultures and meet new friends living on the other parts of the world. 
Finally, my traveller spirit won and I applied to the Erasmus+ Youth Project. There was a limited time ahead of me, so I arranged everything as fast as I could and on the 12th of November I began my journey to Romania. I was extremely excited, since this was going to be my first time abroad. When my plane landed on Bucharest, the adventure was just about to begin. I directly went to Bucharest train station and took the first train to Busteni, where the project was held. When I arrived at my hotel at night, I realized that the rooms were already assigned and I was going to share a room with Alessio from the Italian team. However there was a little problem; Alessio did not know any English at all, he could neither speak nor understand what I was saying. Since I did not know any Italian, there was a complete silence in the room throughout the first night. When I woke up in the morning I had an idea in my mind, which would help me communicate with Alessio. I downloaded an application to my smartphone and started to translate my English sentences to Italian through the app. He did the same thing too and he was translating his Italian sentences to English through the app. In the end of the day, we started to communicate pretty well despite my broken Italian accent and despite his broken English accent, as we tried to read the translated sentences to each other. After we solved this little communication problem with the help of technology, I got to know Alessio better and started to like him as a very good friend. He always had a warm attitude towards me and I was enjoying the times with him, as we tried to speak each other’s language. 
In the first couple days of the Erasmus+ Youth Project, I was so exhausted with all the activities we were doing and I wanted this project to finish as soon as possible to get back my home. However, as my communication and friendship with Alessio grew stronger I even started to enjoy our busy schedule and the tiring group activities. I was very happy as I was trying to talk Italian with Alessio and as we were trying play and sing Italian music together. In the end of the second day, he gave me a local musical instrument from his country as a gift. It was really touching for me to receive this gift, because this instrument was very similar to the musical instrument I used to play in Turkey, which is called Ney, and even more important than that it was a sign of his friendship to me.

As a lucky turn of the events, I got into the same group with Alessio for the Romanian traditional dance activity and we started to spend more time with him in these dance exercises. Since now we were constantly together, our friendship grew even stronger. I started to learn Italian phrases and words from other people in the Italian team, to surprise Alessio and communicate better with him. Now the days were passing by so quickly and I was very sad about this, since the Erasmus+ Youth project was only ten days long. The only thing I could do was to spend my time there as full as possible and enjoy every minute of this program.
As the program came to an end, the communication between Alessio and me had grown to such a level that, when he was talking to me in Italian I was able to understand what he was saying with the help of his body language. I was even able to translate his Italian sentences to other people in the program and they were really surprised to see that, honestly I was also surprised for my ability to do so. By now we had a completely different level of conversations with him and we really enjoyed this.
During the time we spent together he also started to feel himself like a Turk. When we were telling about Erasmus+ Youth project to high school students in Busteni, he wanted to get onto the stage with the Turkish group instead of the Italian group. He was constantly asking us questions about our culture and trying to learn more about it. He said that in the region he lives in Italy, which is called Calabria, there are local songs and phrases about Turkish people. Maybe this was one of the reasons why he was really interested in the Turkish culture. 
I realized that Alessio was a very talented musician too; since there was not a musical instrument in the world he could not just start playing after a couple minutes. He was also very good with the local dances and he taught me how to do some of the local dances from his region, Calabria. I was very happy, because with his help I was able to get to know the Italian culture, a culture that I always wanted to learn about.
Once, Alessio had told me about a festival that he organized in his hometown and it sounded so nice that I wished I were there to join that festival. Probably he saw my passion about taking part in such a festival and he told me that he was thinking to organize the same festival again this summer and he invited me too. Since getting that invitation, my major plan for the next summer is to visit his hometown and join this exciting festival. Furthermore I will also get a chance to travel around Italy, which is something I have always wished to do. 

When the last day of the project arrived, I really did not want to leave, since I had a really friendly environment there and I was enjoying every moment in this project.  When I was packing up my luggage, Alessio made me emotional again by giving me a cup of his festival as a gift. I was almost going to burst into cries at that moment. The thing that saddened me most about the end of this Erasmus+ Youth project was leaving a friend like Alessio.  He was not only a companion, but he was like an Italian brother to me. Although we did not speak the same language, we shared the same feelings and emotions. During these very short ten days, we had a friendship bond that is as strong as ten years of friendship and it is always sad to leave such a good friend.

Although I was initially hesitant to attend this Erasmus+ Youth Project, it turned out to be the best ten days of my whole life. Now, I am so glad that I attended this awesome project and I got to know such a good, precious and talented friend.