What were you grateful for this week?My Host Families. 

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?Trying to please all of the kids. 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.This week, I had the opportunity to prepare and cook dinner for my host family because my host parents were super busy that day!

Tell us about your week! Another good week! This week, I got to spend a lot of time with my italian sister! We were able to do her hair, nails, and play with her barbies. Sometimes it’s kind of nice that the boys only want to play soccer, because it gives us some girl time. Towards the end of the week, I packed up all of my stuff to leave for a small beach town, south of Livorno, to stay with another Host family for a week!

I never really get that excited to leave my host family in Milan, so I wasn’t really looking forward to this upcoming week. BUT as soon as I arrived, I felt right at home! The mom is very fluent in English (half American), so we had a lot of good conversation! 

When I arrived to their home, I felt like I was in Hawaii! They have surf boards, fun art everywhere, and my host dad was barbecuing! I had only been at their home for 10 minutes before my host mom took me swimming in the ocean. Then when we came back, we ate good food, and had a dance party with the kids! It was a great start to this upcoming week! Since I am living so close to Pisa & Lucca, I decided to take a trip to visit them! First of all, Lucca is so underrated. The city is built behind walls, so you can only enter in the two main gates or go through the tunnels. Then when you get inside, the city is beautiful! It isn’t a tourist attraction, so it was quiet and not crowded. I LOVED it! 

Then, I went to Pisa. Pisa was quite the opposite of Lucca, very crowded and very touristy. I took a few pictures, then decided to go home for the day. However, going home so quickly didn’t happen because I took the wrong train and ended up in Florence, which meant that I missed my last train back to the beach town I was living in. However, thankfully, my host mom came to pick me up! I’m so so so grateful for my host families and all they do for me, especially when I mess up.