What were you grateful for this week?
Meeting new friends!

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
I had a lot of money problems [withdrawing money from an ATM].

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. 
I found out [my host family’s daughter] enjoys painting so I gave her a little water coloring paint book.

Tell us about your week! 
This week was full of fun for me. I was able to go on a short overnight stay at the family’s vacation home in Sabaudia and we spent a day at the beach. 

 

The big highlight for me this week was my weekend. I traveled to Florence for a day and then the next day we visited Siena and Pisa. We rode a train to Florence and once we got there we spent the day exploring the city. 

 

The first thing we did was go to the academia museum and saw the David statue. When we walked in the room and saw it, I was a little breathtaken I did not expect it to be so large. 

 

We saw the Uffizi museum, we purchased a pass and were able to see the baptistery, museum of the dome, and the bell tower. The baptistery was beautiful and we took a moment to sit there and I thought it was nice to ponder while we sat there. 

 

We of course bought gelato and I found my new favorite flavors melon and nutella with cookie. Mmm it was delicious! We went up to a view point and could see all of Florence it was gorgeous.

 

My friend and I met up with the other girls in Florence and we all ate dinner together. I tried a yummy ravioli. After dinner we all bought another gelato and hiked back up to the view point to see the city again. That night I experienced staying in my first hostel. I was nervous about it because like most people I have heard horror stories about hostels, however it ended up being pretty nice. They even had free snacks and breakfast for us. 

 

The next day was a lot of traveling from city to city but it was fun to see things that I have been seeing pictures of my entire life. 

 

Seeing the leaning tower of Pisa made it so much more real and it was fun to see how it truly does tilt. It’s not an exaggeration from all the pictures I’ve seen it really does tilt. 

 

This week was so amazing and I just kept reminding myself I am living in Italy and it is just crazy to me, that for this short time I get to call this place my home.