Raspberry Fanta pt1

I have always struggled with social interactions and for some reason this especially rings true with the majority of interactions I have with my family.

for context I go to a boarding school and see them on most weekends. And though it may seem as if the school is the root of my problems, it isn’t or at least it hasn’t been for some time now.

this post is more to put into words how I became less awkward.

I in no way have a massive amount of confidence, for example I’ve rewritten the opening line of this post about eight times already. But last year in some weird boost of courage I applied for a school exchange to Australia.

Long story short I was accepted, and absolutely shitting myself. A few months and a roughly twenty hour flight later I had arrived in Sydney airport along with three other exchanges.

Only one would be going to the same school as me. For the sake of the story his name is Kevin.

the only reason I felt remotely confident travelling on the bus from the airport to meet our host family is because Kevin was not at all.

after an awkward handshake between my host mom and my exchange I hopped in the car. This is where my nerves were the highest of the trip.

they shouldn’t have been, my exchange family were some of the nicest people you can meet. The first thing I was handed after getting to their house was a chocolate milk, that’s how I knew I was in the right place.

I chatted with the dad, and later noted in my diary that I thought he was hilarious.

Jet lagged and feeling dazed and oddly comforted I walked into the bedroom that would be mine for the next month.

End of part one