What were you grateful for this week?
It can’t be stressed enough how much I love reading. I prefer physical copies, but I’m still exceedingly grateful for iBooks and the access it gives me to basically every piece of literature ever.

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
It’s been hard for me to realize that I’m missing my favorite holiday season. Thanksgiving is this week and then comes the Christmas season. I will miss all the special Christmas traditions that I will be absent from this year. 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.
I’ve been spending more time trying to come up with games to play with the kids that will help them more with English, but haven’t really had a chance to use them since the boys often have other games in mind that they want to play. Guess you can’t always win!

Tell us about your week! 
This week has been fairly uneventful. It has followed a routine which is nice but it’s not exactly what I came to Italy for. I’ve had so much time to myself which I’ve spent reading and creating. I have even started cleaning out my email inbox. This all reassures me somewhat since at least I am being productive with my time, especially considering I’m creating things for my college applications. Such a solitary existence makes me miss my friends and family but I figure it’s a time for myself in which I can learn to be alone and make the best of that.

I’ve been trying to go on trips but it’s been extremely difficult to find others to go with me. Other obstacles have also presented themselves and inhibited me from venturing far. I hope each of the coming weekends is drastically different. I will be furious with myself if I don’t see as much of Italy as I can while I’m here.

I also hope this lag in excitement ceases by next week. There’s only a few weeks left and I really want to have fun here. I better take advantage of the situation at hand, even if it means going across Italy and exploring on my own.