Most memorable time of my life

I never would have imagined when I boarded my plane to Italy that I would come back to the US a year later a totally new person. From day one, my host family took me in as one of their own. They were amazing. I really do feel like I have a second family that would be there for me at the drop of a dime. My experience was extremely interesting too because I was the first exchange student at my high school, ever. They did everything they could to help my immersion into the Italian culture and language as easy as possible. I had private language study time with teachers, I was able to jump around classes so the material would be easier to understand. By Christmas my Italian was better than I would have ever imagined. (It was 100x better than my French, which I had taken 3 years of between middle and high school). Come February, I was able to translate for a group of American students that were in my valley for a week exchange program. I would never trade this for anything. I grew so much as a person too, while I was there. I grew into someone I do not think I would have become without this experience.