What were you grateful for this week?
Soccer. 

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
The language barrier. 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. 
On my first real day of the weekly schedule, the little girl in my family wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home from school. I stayed home with her and we played and painted all day. 

Tell us about your week! 
I have been in Italy for 4 days and it has been wild. The language barrier was definitely something I wasn’t expecting to be so difficult but it has already gotten easier. With the language barrier, it was taking longer for me to feel like I was connecting with the kids than what I had originally thought. But on the first day, we played soccer outside and we were having a blast. We may not speak the same language but we all understand soccer!

The next day the family took me to the city center and showed me around. It is beautiful and full of shops and places to eat. We got appetizers and then went somewhere different for lunch right after, which is a tradition I’m not used to but can definitely get behind. The food was great of course. That same night the family had some friends come over for an Italian style barbecue. They all tried to talk to me with the little English they spoke and made me feel apart of the group and very welcome! I listened to them talk in Italian for the night just wishing I could understand them (and I may have gotten an app to help me learn Italian).

Sunday was just a day to relax and I ended up taking a walk to the city center by myself just to get familiar. I walked around and sat on the steps of a cool building and people watched for awhile. There was even a band playing in the center where a lot of people stood to listen. It’s so cool to be able to be in Italy without rushing from place to place to see all the hot spots. I can just sit and relax and take it all in!