What were you grateful for this week? Sunshine, good food, and better friends.

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?Feeling tired and overwhelmed.

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. I taught my host brother more songs on the piano and started taking him to an extra after-school lesson.

Tell us about your week! This week was pretty standard since I didn’t travel anywhere outside of Milan. Italian class this week focused on the past tense and imperative verbs, meaning I can now understand my host mom when she keeps telling my host brother to finish his meal! I’m still making a lot of mistakes, but it’s been fun to see myself understand more than I thought I would by this point in my lessons. And my teachers and I now get along really well, so I’m hoping this progression keeps up.I spent the weekend with M, who took me to Milan’s Navigli district. This little spot has a canal that runs through it and is very popular on the weekends, so we went for late-night aperitivos, Milan’s version of “happy hour.” We snacked on some tasty food and watched the hundreds of people looking for some Saturday-night fun push past us and ate some very delicious crepes, so I thought it was perfect. Sunday we met up again for lunch and toured a bit of the Brera district, which is home to art students and street vendors who sell handmade jewelry, stationary, and art. It was so neat to see tourists and locals alike taking to the streets to enjoy the beautiful weather.I’m looking forward to the next few weekends since I’ve got some fun stuff planned, so stay tuned!