In a continuation of our past article with Angie Reedy who works with the International Cultural Exchange Services, The Mail was able to sit down and speak with Mackinaw’s current exchange student and her host mother. Clarissa Colombini is an outgoing 18 year old from north east Italy who arrived in the U.S. in January and stays with the Kaiser family: Derek, Meaghan, and their 3 young children. I didn’t expect to be greeted by a shy student, as I doubted that an introverted 18 year old would be willing to travel halfway around the world to stay with a family for the better part of a year; however, I didn’t expect to be greeted by a such an outgoing and gregarious young lady whose host mother was equally as extroverted. It took about 2 minutes to realize that this was going to be an incredibly fun interview.

Clarissa started off by telling me how she made the decision to come to the U.S. for a school year. Like most Italians, she started taking English lessons at a young age, however, she says that those lessons mostly covered basic conversations and in small town Italy, those skills aren’t practiced very much. Once she entered the Italian equivalent of high school she became a bit more dedicated to learning the language and the thought of being an exchange student first crossed her mind. She described to me how she reached out to ICES and wrote a “brochure of myself” that eventually reached the Kaiser family. After a waiting period, events were set into motion and it was time for Clarissa to commit. Laughing, Clarissa admitted to me that she did have some reservations about leaving her family and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was also not so excited about the prospect, but eventually changed his mind and told her “if you don’t go now, you likely won’t ever go”.

Naturally, the conversation turned to the cultural differences between central Illinois and her home in Italy and Clarissa was very open. I was surprised to learn that American pop culture is so prevalent in Italy that Clarissa was very familiar with American music. Though she was surprised that American movies portray American life so accurately. She didn’t believe that we actually have big yellow school buses like our movies show, and described being a little shocked to learn that we do actually have them. Moving on to food, it didn’t take long for Clarissa to tell me that Taco Bell is her favorite fast food so far. Laughing and shaking my head, I inquired whether she had been to an actual Mexican restaurant in the area, and both ladies assured me that they have been to La Fiesta in Morton. When it comes to food and eating, the biggest surprise to Clarissa is that Americans don’t tend to have more formal dinners at a set time every evening. I would normally shy away from using the word “stereotypical” in this context, but what Clarissa described to me as her normal, was actually the stereotypical large Italian family sitting down to eat and talking with each other about their day. She seemed to miss that and it isn’t hard to understand why.

While at school here, Clarissa participates with the choir. The school choir just got back from seeing the opera “Figaro” in Champaign-Urbana, which was Clarissa’s first opera. Without prompting, she commented on the irony of an Italian teen traveling to midwest America in order to see her first opera. She had also considered joining the track team, but laughed and told me that she realized she really isn’t “the type of person to run without reason”. Back home in Italy, Clarissa enjoys roller skating and told me about participating in competitions that involved a sort of timed obstacle course. For her future plans, Clarissa plans on pursuing higher education and hopes to become a physical therapist. While she has enjoyed her time here in the U.S. she is also looking forward to returning home in June and seeing her family and boyfriend. I asked her if her boyfriend has a big date planned for her when she returns and she quickly replied “I hope so!”, so here’s to hoping that he sees this article and that he can take a heck of a hint.

Clarissa still has a couple months left here, so if you see her around do yourself a favor and say hello. You’ll be rewarded with a lively conversation with an intelligent and out-going young lady. I’d like to thank Clarissa and Meaghan for their time and for welcoming me into their home. This interview was a lot of fun. Everyone at The Mail wishes Clarissa the very best.