Dallas International School students with their Italian "correspondents"

Dallas International School students with their Italian “correspondents”

The students at Dallas International School (DIS) have spent more time in airplanes than many adults. As a class, they visited Canada in the third-grade, Paris in the fifth and Washington D.C. in the eighth. Most recently, a group of five sophomores returned from a four-week study abroad program in Florence, Italy, where DIS has a sister school. Each student was paired with an Italian “correspondent” of the same age who served as both friend and tour guide. Now, the DIS students are returning the favor. Their Italian peers are currently in Dallas, learning about life in the United States. We caught up with all ten students recently. Here’s what we learned.

Caroline Wolfe, a DIS student, said she began chatting with her Italian correspondent, Livia Bufalini, “about four months” before flying to Italy.

“I mainly asked questions about the school uniform,” she explained. “Their uniforms are not as elaborate as ours — just jeans and a shirt with a logo.”

The casual uniforms apparently mirrored the relaxed atmosphere in Florence.

“They have more liberty afterschool to go places,” DIS student Annaliyse Bowden explained. “You don’t need a car.”

Gaia Aviloff, one of the Italian students, agreed. She said it’s not uncommon for her classmates to walk “to the center of Florence” when the last bell rings.

“The lifestyle is very different,” she admitted. “The first thing they said was, ‘You guys walk so much!’ We walk everywhere.”

But during their stay, some DIS students visited places they couldn’t get to by foot. Anaelle Serna and her Italian friend, Evelyn Cavagnari, spent a weekend in Milan.

“We went to Milan and saw some models that we both follow on Instagram,” Cavagnari recounted excitedly.

Chase Fitzpatrick, a Preston Hollow resident, has been brainstorming ways he can make his Italian correspondent’s trip to the states similarly epic.

“To take them from Florence … it takes a little creativity,” he admitted. “[My correspondent] likes fishing so we might take him to Lake Texoma.”

Other ideas included a tour of the Arts District and visits to Six Flags and the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Most of the students from Florence are pretty comfortable with English and some of the neighborhood students know a bit of Italian, but, for the most part, the teens communicated in French. Thanks to their “international” education, all are fluent. And that’s the goal, according to DIS Communication’s Director, Lorraine Gachelin: “We’re creating global citizens.”