What were you grateful for this week?I was grateful for my host mom and her patience with me and all of the very kind people that helped me in little ways coming home from my weekend trip. 

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?The most difficult part of this week was getting sick 🙁 and my long trip home this weekend. 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. A “wow” moment this week was I offered to learn how to put Bianca in her car seat and my host parents were so surprised. Said that no au pair has ever done that and they were so happy!

Tell us about your week! This week was unforgettable. A bunch of girls had planned to go to cinque terre this weekend. I wanted to get there when most of the girls arrived so I took a night train Friday. This train was crazy…there were tiny little rooms that you got to stay in with 3 bunks. I was on the very tippy top bunk and it was so claustrophobic and literally 90 degrees in our little room. I couldn’t breathe so I just laid out in the hallway for most of the trip. I finally got to Levanto and met up with K, M, B, and C! 

We had such a fun weekend on the beach and enjoying the beauties of cinque terre. After our weekend was over, it was time to make the trip home. My experience coming home was something kept going wrong. I was flying home instead of taking a train and when I get to the airport I realized I didn’t have my passport so they wouldn’t let me on the plane. I frantically called [my host mom] and she found me a night bus that could bring me back to Martina but that didn’t leave until later. So I took a taxi to the bus station and sat next to one of those street vendors and he let me charge my phone. I talked to my mom and she helped me realized that this is what it is. That I can’t be upset but just try to make the best out of this situation.

So I decided to get up and walk around. I made it to the leaning tower of Pisa and it was amazing! There I got some lunch and this big group of foreign ladies saw me and begged me to come sit with them. They bought me ice cream and made me feel so much better. They then took my touristy picture of me holding the tower up and we parted ways. I made my way back to the bus station and looked at the time on my ticket thinking my night bus left at 9…but really it left at 7. I missed the bus too!!! I couldn’t believe how or why all this was happening!! I felt so dumb and still so sick that everything I was doing was the wrong thing. I called my host mom again and she was so patient with me and found another bus that left later. Finally got on that bus and 15 hours later I made it home to Martina Franca. THE worst experience but also the BEST. I am learning so much already and wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything.