What were you grateful for this week?
This week I was grateful for the chance to go on a small trip by myself.

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
The most difficult part of this week was having to say goodbye to a new friend that is done working here in Italy. 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.
This week my host mom had a surgery and I ended up having to sort of take initiative to help out more than usual. I picked up my Italian brother from school and ended up bathing him and even went and picked up food for the family. Those are all things that are not normally in my list of daily duties for the family.

Tell us about your week! 
This week was very good because I got an extra long weekend due to my host brother going to Rome with his dad on Friday. During the week I got to go out with my new American friend that just finished working as an au pair on Saturday. 

 

On Tuesday we went to Eataly, which was my first time being there, and then we went to eat sushi one last time. It was really nice to sit and chat about life and what our next life plans were. On Wednesday she took me to my first aperitivo here in Milan and despite the downpour outside we had a good time together eating all the food. It was surprisingly cheap due to it being a weekday; we only paid 8 euros each. 

 

On Thursday due to my host mom’s surgery I picked up my host brother from his bus stop and we ended up going to the park together. While we were at the park we passed a ball back and forth and got ice cream from a bar inside the park. When we went home my host mom had arrived and she asked if I would go get us pizza for dinner since she wasn’t well enough to make food. I went to a pizza place nearby that she likes and got each of us our own pizza. 

 

On Friday night I went out for the last time with that same American friend because she left on Saturday morning. On Saturday I went by myself to Lake Como and explored the town a little bit. The weather was amazing and almost too good because I was dying of heat. Yesterday I went to the park with my other American friend who is also an au pair here and we luckily found a wifi that allowed us to watch netflix! I brought chips and candy and we watched a movie in the nice summer night air.