What were you grateful for this week?I was grateful to feel like a part of my host family this week!

What was the most challenging part of this week?I had to say good-bye to good friends. 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. Twice I stayed home during my free time to hang out with [my host family’s son] so the mom could go out.

Tell us about your week! This week was good! I really can’t remember much of the first half, so I’m just assuming that it was pretty normal…I went out with my host family on Thursday though, and we went and saw an Italian film! I think my Italian is improving because I understood the whole story! So that was a bonus! It was also really nice because they expressed how they wished that I could stay longer with them, that I didn’t have to go home in May. In a way, I wish that I could too! 

Then I spent a fun weekend wandering around Rome with friends and going to the beach! We took a train to Santa Marinella on Saturday and spent the day at the sea, and it was absolutely beautiful!! The water was a bit chilly, but we couldn’t pass up the chance to swim out to a wall of rocks and explore — lots of shells and a sea anemone! And then we spent the day on Sunday revisiting old sites for some and a lot of new ones for others. We almost seemed to give each other tours of the areas in which we live, so that was fun. It has been a great week filled with time with my host family and some good friends, so that is always a good time. It was definitely a good, relaxing weekend and a great way to top off a good week!