Giulia Bassignana is one of the many foreign exchange students we have at YC. She is excited to be here and can’t wait to spend the year in America.

Bassignana loves everything about America so far. She says everyone is really nice and friendly towards her. She said that back at her school in Italy, students aren’t very friendly; when they are, they want something. “Like I have people coming up to me and making compliments about the most random things and that’s something that you will never see (in Italy).”

Bassignana has her mom, dad, brother, and two cats back in Italy. She is very close with her brother because her parents work a lot. “… We had to stay home for like more than three months. And it was like me, my brother, and my cats.”

Bassignana also did gymnastics back in Italy. She likes having school sports here because it gives her an opportunity to make more friends and have a bigger social life. 

Bassignana loves doing gymnastics. She said it was the only sport she had ever done, and had been doing it since she was small. “And I’ve been doing gymnastics my whole life. I never touched a volleyball or basketball or anything.” 

Bassignana played volleyball for the first time for YC’s JV2 volleyball team. She liked how when she made a mistake, no one made her feel bad about messing up, and everyone was super supportive. “No one makes you feel bad about it. And you had like, support during games and stuff.”

School is also far more intense in Italy. Bassignana said that the school days go from 8am to 2pm, but the days were difficult to get through. She said that students don’t get lunch breaks, and that the teachers shuffle from classroom to classroom, not the students. 

Bassignana is very excited about being here in Oregon. She loves the people here at YC and she can’t wait to live out her time here in America.