What were you grateful for this week?
My friendship with my host mom.

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
Staying in a small hotel room with my family. (Everyone got up close and personal.)

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.) *
Staying in said hotel room lol.

Tell us about your week!
This past week was a short week at school, because there was a holiday in Milan on the eighth, and then a holiday throughout all of Italy on the ninth. So my family and I went up to the mountain for the long weekend. 

 

Unfortunately, seeing as they are in the process of moving houses, we had to stay in a small hotel room. At first, it didn’t seem like it was going to be that much of a struggle, and I have stayed in much worse conditions than those that we were presented with, but after a certain period of time, it became very obvious that we were not going to last all the way through to Sunday. Eliana’s parents also travel with us everywhere we go, so it’s never just us five; there’s always seven of us. And sure enough, on Saturday morning, Giovanni woke up with a fever. So we packed up and made the trekk home.

I know that I talk about this a lot, but it’s really important to me; my relationship with [my host family’s oldest son] is something that I didn’t know I desperately needed in my life until I had it. I really struggled with him in the beginning, but being where I am with him now is worth every single bad day that we had throughout the process.

 

I’m going home for a few weeks because of the holidays on Thursday, and I’m actually devastated that I have to leave my sweet little boys. I said to [my host mom] that I was nervous that [the family’s oldest son] is going to forget how to love me while I’m away, and it’s actually amazing to me that I am genuinely worried about leaving just because it’ll crush me if I lose the trust I’ve gained with them both. 

 

Although I know that I won’t, I’ve just become so accustomed to being around them all the time. I’m so grateful that I’m lucky enough to be able to stay longer than three months. It would actually crush me if I had to leave for good right now.