What were you grateful for this week?My time here in Italy with my little Italian family. I’m also very grateful for the opportunity to do this and experience so much.

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?I feel like my answer is always transportation, but yet again, the trains in London stopped working. Which cut into our traveling time, luckily we were able to find a cab and split the fare with some other friendly travelers.

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. I brought my family little gifts from London.

Tell us about your week! On Friday my host family invited me to go out and have dinner with them at a friend’s house. My host dad’s friend lived in Asti so it was quite a little drive to get there. But it was nice because we had to drive through the little mountains and hills to get there. So we were able to see the stars and even spotted a fox! Dinner was nice, the friend had a lovely home and I enjoyed spending that time with my host family.

On Saturday I took off to meet T2 and K in London. When we got there it was rainy but it wasn’t too bad, we were still able to walk around under our umbrellas. On our first night we visited several Christmas Markets, including Borough’s Market and the one near London Bridge. We also came across London’s big Christmas fair called Winter Wonderland. It was really fun and K and I were able to get onto a ride! We visited Kings Cross and took a photo on Platform 9 3/4 which, was also a lot of fun. Later that night we had dinner, some drinks, met some cool people and danced the night away.

Sunday morning we joined our hostel in a free walking tour of London. It was really great and we had an amazing tour guide. Our guide took us to all of the major historical sites and I learned a lot about London. We finished Sunday by strolling through London and Westminster. 

Overall, it was a great last trip for me and ended my weekend trips on a good note. I only have a week left and I’m still not sure how to feel about it. I am mostly sad because I want to stay here but I also really just want to be back at home. I’m sure the feeling will hit me later on this week, I guess I just have to wait and see!