Carlo Geat, a 17-year-old Rotary Youth Exchange student from northern Italy, spoke to Osoyoos Rotarians last week about his experiences. Presenting him with a shirt was Brian Rawlings, president of the Rotary Club of Osoyoos. (Richard McGuire photo)
Until Carlo Geat arrived in Osoyoos and Oliver on a Rotary Club exchange, he had never tasted fast food.
The 17-year-old student from Trento in the north of Italy has been adjusting to the different way of life in the South Okanagan since he arrived here at the end of August. He’s here until July.
“I had never eaten fast food before coming to Canada,” said Geat. “That was because we have only two fast foods in my town of 100,000 people. Only two. So it’s not really an Italian thing, but I’m getting used to it. It’s not really the best thing.”
Instead, as with other continental European countries, the midday and evening meals are a family social occasion, meant to be enjoyed over a longer time.
“In Italy we have a big conception of lunch, so we eat lunch for one or two hours and have a small breakfast,” he said. “Here it’s the opposite, so big breakfast and a small lunch. The meals in Italy are much more important, so we stay at the table for more than an hour usually. Both for dinner and for lunch.”
Geat has been attending Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) in Oliver for the first semester, but will switch to Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) for the second.
He’s staying with different host families between the two communities.
Despite the grandeur of SOSS, nothing can compare to his school in Trento, in an old monastery, which he showed to Osoyoos Rotarians during a lunch talk and slide show last Thursday.
There were gasps of awe from several Rotarians as he showed a photo of the Liceo Scientifico Galileo Galilei with its classic architecture and columned façade.
But as previous Rotary exchange students have commented, school in Europe, where hours are long and the emphasis is on academic subjects, is much tougher than in B.C.
Students go to school six days a week from 7:55 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., but their afternoons are spent on homework.
They don’t get to choose their classes and any non-academic learning must be done by students on their own time outside the school environment.
Geat, for example, loves the violin, but he has to pursue his passion for music privately.
Those whose image of Italians as effusive, demonstrative people who hug a lot will be surprised that this southern Italian stereotype isn’t the norm in Geat’s more Germanic corner of Italy.
Trentino, his province, was part of Austria-Hungary until World War II. Although Italian is the dominant language where he lives, the neighbouring province to the north, South Tyrol, is, in the majority, German speaking.
Geat, who also speaks English well, studied German in school as it is the second language of the region.
Besides violin, Geat enjoys climbing and hiking in the Dolomites, an Italian extension of the Alps.
His parents are both doctors.
Although this is Geat’s first time in North America, he has previously travelled with his parents in North Africa, South Africa and the Middle East.
So far, he’s been to Vancouver twice for events and has seen some parts of the Okanagan, but he hasn’t been outside of southern B.C.
“The Okanagan wasn’t really what I expected for Canada,” he said. “I thought Canada was much more about cold and snow and when I first came here it was very warm and dry and not really what I thought it would be. It wasn’t what I expected, but it’s even better.”
In recent days, Geat has seen that the Okanagan can get cold too.
Geat finds his home city of Trento a little closed to the outside world, despite being a beautiful place that attracts tourism.
So he’s grateful that the Rotary Youth Exchange gives him a chance to immerse himself in a culture quite different from his own.
He’s made friends at school and he’s had a chance to go skiing several times, both at Silver Star near Vernon and at Mount Baldy east of Oliver.
His family misses him, but he confesses that he hasn’t had a chance to get homesick.
“Not yet,” he said. “I feel a little bit bad about saying I don’t get homesick, but here it’s so much fun and so much a good experience for me. I like it so much that I am often very busy so I don’t really have time to be homesick.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
