What were you grateful for this week?The mountains! 

What was the most challenging part of this week?I had a lot more free time this week than typical so just figuring out things to do!

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.Saturday night the families in our little neighborhood were having a party and all the parents were dancing, so us au pairs joined in and we showed them some classic American dance songs haha it was a blast 😉

Tell us about your week! this week went by so fast!!! Every day was nice, good time spent with [my host family’s son], worked on some English homework from school. He’s so good at English! My whole host family is so good at English it’s so cool. Makes me feel kinda bad that I didn’t try harder to learn more Italian! But Wednesday we met up with my host dad’s brother, his gf and her mom. We went to the most beautiful outlook over Ticino national park. And the sun was setting it was so pretty. [My host family’s son] really wanted sushi for dinner so we went to Wen, and the sushi totally was good. I have only eaten sushi once my whole life, so having it twice in one week is crazy. But I love it!! It was such a nice night full of stories and laughing and just having fun translating things for me. Thursday was good! Riccardo went and played basketball at one of his friends houses so I had free time in the afternoon. Filippo had gotten this game from his uncle the night before… the name roughly translates to “don’t step in the poo” and basically you’re blindfolded and you have little play dough poos placed in your path and you’re supposed to get across it without stepping in it. So we all played it and it was hilarious. Friday was nice, Riccardo went to his friends again so I walked around gallarate and stopped at the store. Saturday I met Abbey in Lake Como! It’s such a beautiful place. We walked around, got lunch and just enjoyed the view. We of course got gelato and went shopping. And then went back to gallarate for the night. On our walk home from the train station we stopped at the neighbors because they were having a birthday party. Jaidyn was there so we hung out all together. They fed us and it was delicious! The parents were all dancing to classic American songs and they wanted us to show them some line dances and it was so much. Probably one of the best nights I’ve had here so far. I love dancing so it was so fun!!! It was so fun to see our host parents in a different element, letting loose and having a good time. It’s awesome.

Sunday, J, A4, and I headed to Stresa to go to lago Maggiore. this place was incredible. We walked around and the lake is so beautiful. We took the cable car up the mountain. Each stopping point of the cable car we walked around and just enjoyed the forest. We then went up a ski lift to the very top of the mountain, super fun! The views were breathtaking. I am in love with this place. We got sandwiches and hung out for a while. We went back down the ski lift, and then abbey left to go back to bra. J and I decided to hike down to the next stop of the cable car. It took us like 2.5 hours and it was about 3-4 miles. But so beautiful. We could find the train so we just walked down the road for the first part and it was so pretty. We had so much fun. It was so nice to be in the mountains and just reconnecting to this beautiful earth! We were both in need of it. We ended up finding the trail and hiked the rest of the way to the cable car. We found strawberries, raspberries and blackberries just off to the side of the road/trail, so yummy! I figured if we got stuck out there we would survive with the berries haha. But we made it to the cable car and rode it to the bottom back into Stresa. We went to a beach and relaxed until our train left! I made it back home in time for dinner and it was a nice night. I woke up this morning, so. sore. We walked/hiked about 13 miles yesterday and I can totally feel it. My body is exhausted but it was so worth it!