Confessions of an exchange student

by Thaís Souza (Brazil)

I didn't expect to find Brazil

Her eyes didn’t believe that he could be real, polite, kind and with the most catchy smile she had ever seen. In July of 2019, I made the biggest adventure of my life until today, it was 8,673 miles and more than 13 hours away from the flight, when I left my comfort zone and embarked for an unknown place that would soon become my home. Since researches, Dublin had completely won my heart, but when I stepped on Irish soil I felt like an alien in a completely new and different sphere. The real thing made me pay even more attention on the streets, buildings, people, conversations, moments and unique records. Find people made me created connections that will always be forever, and among all those that across my exchange, once activated. Perhaps you are reading imagines that is about a boy, who was already hinted at the beginning. Do you know what? You're right. But before reveal his identity, you need to know the beginning of how it all started. After disembarking, the transfer from the airport took the longest 30 minutes of my life, and when I stopped in front of a blond woman, in her fourties, speaking too fast that I could trace the information, I realized that I was arrived in my host family. A single room on the second floor of the comfortable house was my vanishing point, or rather, the place of processing and absorption everything that was happening. After two days living there, a new exchange student arrived in the house, and I discoverd that he slept in the room next to mine, but the host mother didn’t tell me this fact before. At first sight I didn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. Tall, black skin and like I said, with the most passionate smile, right there in front of me: "Pleasure, I'm Mahmoud" And I was there trying to remember my name. The days in the charming city passed so quickly, with no time to miss Brazil. Every day we had a different program to do and how the weather took time to get dark, there was no problem walking home late. On one of those sunny afternoons in Dublin, at around 4:30p.m, my friends and I got into a party, which out of curiosity was full of Brazilians. Over the hours, my best friend encouraged me, and I resolved to send my real location for the incredible boy, telling him that he could show up there to distract if was possible for him. "Maybe I can go in a while" This was a phrase that I received after 20 minutes, and that made my heart accelerated a little, I confess. I Keept having fun and dancing, until I saw in the front of the entrance door the most stylish boy of the night, trying to find some way to find me. For a moment I found that I could tell I was with an asthma attack and with that found an way to escape from that place, but I took a deep breath and went to meet him. We talked for hours, ate potato chips, like a movie scene, and when our eyes met and our hands intertwined, we stayed too close. No, it's not what you're thinking, as much as I wanted it to be. We were so close to the point of knowing that we will have a connection forever, even if it is not the same as the fairy tales that occur the kisses between the protagonists. That day, on the way back home next him in the silence of the cold and dark streets, I registered that moment as one of the most special. A trip will come to an end and in flight back to Brazil, with travel memories still recent, I just hoped one day to be able to find him again. Until then, I keep the news of him from Brazil, and he from Italy. And who would imagine, two rival countries in some ways, can create unexpected connections in a hitherto unknown place.