From October 21st to 28th, a group of 20 students from Greece, Germany, Poland, and France visited a high school in Palazzolo sull'Oglio, Italy as part of an Erasmus project called "Include Me" aimed at breaking down barriers between people of different cultures and backgrounds. The visiting students stayed with host families and engaged in social and educational activities together with the Italian students to get to know one another beyond language and cultural differences. Both groups found the experience to be unforgettable and a demonstration that people of different backgrounds can build strong friendships and understand each other through open dialogue.

1. My first Erasmus’s experience
“We may have different religions, different languages, different coloured skins, but we all belong
to one human race.” (KOFI ANNAN).
rom 21th October to 28th October my
High School Giovanni Falcone in
Palazzolo sull’Oglio had the oppor-
tunity to take part in an Erasmus Project titled
“Include me ” on our first meeting 20 students
from different countries (Greece, Germany,
Poland and France) came to Italy with the idea
of breaking down racism walls.
We students
hosted the
Erasmus peo-
ple at home
and the expe-
rience was re-
ally unforget-
table as we
learnt that language and culture are definitely
not barriers to making friends and building
contacts with new people. The host families
were really happy to welcome a student in their
own house.
A week before their arrival we decided what
we wanted to do with them: places to visit to-
gether, typical dishes to try and many other ac-
tivities to do in the time after school.
We wondered about what they might like and
we did our best to give them an excellent first
impression of families and school.
For us it was the
first meeting of
an unforgettable
experience, we
spent a week with
people who
quickly joined us
in spite of differ-
ent cultures and
language difficulties.
Difficult communication and shyness disap-
peared very quickly thank to the enthusiasm
and the wish to know each other.
Beside the afternoon school activities, we also
organized evening meetings to further
strengthen our friendship.
It was a fun-
damental
experience
because we
could see
that cultural
and tradi-
tional barri-
ers can be confronted through dialogue.
Our cuisine and our hospitality have been re-
ally appreciated. That fantastic activity has
been an opportunity to compare with one an-
other on many topics and show us that we are
all the same regardless the country of origin.
Many students have kept contact after the end
of the project and some will meet again during
the summer holidays.
Students have
faced problems
solving together
thanks to the
group activities
where even the
shiest guys
were able to ex-
press their thoughts without worring.
Indeed during this week we have done so much
together, we have improved our English skills,
we have become more independent and we
have grown personally.
F

2. It was amazing to realize that a beautiful group
like a real FAMILY was created in just one
week. We would like to end with a quote that
summarizes the purpose of the project, which,
we believe, has been fully achieved through
this wonderful experience.