What were you grateful for this week?
My awesome host family for helping me with transportation to and from the trainstations during my trip to Venice. 

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
Lack of sleep, almost missing a train connection, delayed flights, and not being able to speak Italian when I go to restaurants or supermarkets.

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. (A “wow” moment is when you went the extra mile to do something nice for your host family.)
I’ve only been here a few days and I can’t say that I’ve had a wow moment with the family yet, I did try to help tidy up the kitchen a bit before the maid came over. 

Tell us about your week! 
I arrived to Malpensa airport after 2 flight delays at 2:30 AM 🙁 when I arrived to the home of my host family at 3:00 AM the mom greeted me and showed me where I’d be staying. The next morning I slept until 2pm came upstairs to find something to eat and the maid was here, she was the second person I’d met in Italy and we couldn’t communicate because she only spoke
Italian so yes I was a little bit bummed about that. Finally at 5:15 PM I met the rest of the family! Yay! 

 

The little girl was very scared of me and she didn’t even want to be in the same room as me so she sat outside while I was in the living room haha. This first evening with the family I learned that Italians must separate their garbage a certain way or else the garbage man will not take it.

On Saturday morning I took the train from Milan to Venice to meet up with V and A! My host mom took me to the Milan Centrale station and I was on my way to Venice! However in Verona I had a connecting train to venice and my train coming from Milan was late so I had to run to the train platform to catch my connecting!

I finally made it Venice, I had no place to stay and had no idea where V and A were so I wandered around venice for a bit and it was seriously a dream! Everything was so beautiful and I felt like everything you’d expect in Italy can be found in Venice! The canals, architecture, gondolas, cobblestone walkways surrounded by little Italian homes, clothes drying on lines, pasta, pizza, wine, and of course gelato! It was all so fun and I’m so glad I got to experience Venice so soon after being in Italy and I can’t wait to see what else Italy has to offer!