Tanvi Maniar, 20 years, India
Development Internship in Italy, Torino
October - December 2009

Responsibilities: work in "Torino Without Borders" project, run presentations of indian culture in high schools and lessons of english.

"I am 20 years old from Mumbai, India. This internship in AIESEC Torino was my 1st trip to europe and i was going all alone to a country where i didn't speak the language. But the warm hearts of the italians won me over. I had a life changing experience and discovered myself again. I made new friends and i found love. Even now when i think about all my experiences i have tears in my eyes because they were the best 8 weeks of my life.

The local committee of Turin is awesome and has many crazy and fun people.

One of my best memories of italy is of falling in love. Sharing my experience with a handsome italain boy was a dream come true. I would love to go back to turin and meet my friends. Many of my friends have also visited me in india.

I learnt how to speak some italian and my students in the schools also taught me so much about the beautiful country called Itally. I was a person who hated pizza cause of dominos and pizza hut. But in Italy i ate pizza and gelato almost 3 times a week. Even now i miss the authentic italian food. The grocery store near my house and the polite "grazie" of the sales staff.

I was crying every morning a week before i had to leave. All i wanted was to live in Turin for the rest of my life. After being pampered all my life by my parents and grandparents (indians have big families) being alone was refreshing. Despite all the silly things that went wrong it was perfect in my eyes.

If only i could rewind and go back to those two months. See my friends, meet my love and eat lots of pizza.