9:30 a.m.
It's a cold November morning and we are somewhere in Italy.
Among the quantity of people that is waiting for their parents or friends at the arrival gate of the airport there is a blonde guy.
He doesn't wear particular clothes: just a long, grey coat, a pair of blue jeans and white Nike shoes.
The peculiar thing that everyone in the terminal notices is the placard that he holds: it's white like his shoes, and the words that are written on it doesn't say nothing to no one that sees it.
It happens that some people stop and ask him: "Who are you waiting for, lad?"
"Friends" he answers, politely "They come from a remote city in the U.S.A…"
"It must be really remote, 'cause I've never heard about it"
The boy smiles: "I'm kinda sad for you..."
And now you could say: where are you taking us?
Well, the boy that stands at the arrivals is me, the name that is written on my placard is "South Park" and this is the story of how I lived the best year of my life.
It all started a day of two years ago, when I discovered the fabulous world of school exchanges: I considered the idea of going to the United States and live the "American Dream" for a year as the best that I had in my life.
I applied for a place, and I surprisingly won it: you can just imagine my disappointment when I saw the name of an unknown "quiet, redneck, mountain town" in Colorado instead of N.Y., L.A. and all of those American cities that have a famous nickname.
But I decided that my exchange year was the occasion to become more mature and accept every challenge that the world decides to put in front of me.
A year and two months ago I left my city from the same airport that I told you about before: the faces of my parents were full of tears and made me questioning about my choice, but I resisted and took my plane.
I hadn't any idea of what to expect, but my questions were ready to be answered...