In his youth, during ...

In his youth, during some summer weeks scattered across three consecutive years, he was duly sent to England as a result of a wise parental decision. Or so he's been told. The official, ultimate purpose of those visits was to learn English. The goal, though, was far from being successfully accomplished, as the places he stayed in were time and again overcrowded with foreigners, supposedly behind the same aim, with even quite a few of his fellow citizens among them. The places were Eastbourne, on the very first visit, and then Brighton, on the next couple of times which followed. A typical stay lasted for about a month, during which he lived (and sometimes struggled to get along) at some native family's, a family whom he didn't know in advance.

Right after arrival the bunch of kids from the same trip were taken to the English school they would be attending thereafter. A flight to London, either to Gatwick or Heathrow, and then a coach ride to the touristic resorts in the south. There at the school, the kids waited in a large common room, stealing glances out the window while a continuous yet slowly unfolding parade of families in search of their temporary roomers proceeded. There was a sense of excitement in the air, and large amounts of poorly disguised anxiety towards the upcoming encounter topping it all. He used to gaze at the faces and evaluate the appearance of everyone coming to pick them up, pretending he was not in the least concerned. The truth was quite the opposite. That hour of waiting, which seemed to stretch out endlessly, was one of the most intense moments of the entire visit, and the most disconcerting episode the kids had to go through. An experience impossible to escape. Secretly, just as anybody else, he was rapidly choosing and rejecting faces from the window, hoping strongly to be lucky enough to end up in a nice place ran by some decent hosts. Twice he was lucky. Once, however, he was not.