What was your favorite part of this week?One of my favorite things was definitely getting to experience Rome at night. Makayla and I were introduced to a homemade popsicle stand in the outskirts of Rome by a friend of my host family. They were made with real fruit and I’ve never had a Kiwi/Mango popsicle before. It was amazing, I can only think of going back. 

My second favorite was my weekend trip to Vietri Sul Mare. 

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?The most difficult was learning that [M3] was going home. My travel pal when it came to all things including weekend trips, tourist days in Rome, nighttime meet ups, and even my little go to house buddy. Basically having her leave me completely. I’ll really be alone here and after having someone to turn to when language barriers get hard I’m a little scared about how these next weeks will go. It’ll be an all new introduction to the way things have been going here.

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.My host family invites a lot of their friends over who happen to also have a lot of children. I don’t mind and I always try my best to involve them in whatever I’m doing with [S, the host daughter]. A lot of the children that come over are in the process of learning English too and are just as interested in au pairs. I try to help them as much as I help Sveva. Hopefully, I give them a good experience and help my host family spend longer and fonder times with their friends.

Tell us about your week!My weeks are always a run-around. We have many places to go, many people to see, and many things to do. The days go by a lot faster than I ever anticipated. There have been a lot of children that come around to play with [S, the host daughter]. Almost this entire week has involved me watching over [S, the host daughter] plus one or [S, the host daughter] plus two. The children are always excited to meet me and I’m constantly bombarded with the Italian word carina [little dear, or darling]. It’s something else entirely to win the love of children so easily. I’ve never thought that children could actually enjoy me, but everywhere I go here all they want to do is have me play with them. I’ve been teaching them all how to play Go Fish. It really surprised me that no one here knew what the game was considering it was taught to me when I was very little and is considered common knowledge at home. Even my host family and their friends didn’t know what it was. [S, the host daughter] always begs to play and when the other children come over I can’t get her to stop asking to bring out my cards. 

I’ve also learned this week just exactly how hard the train stations are here in Italy. It’s a mess of chaotic people, unorganized train slots, and trying to understand signs you can’t really read. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced something so foreign and mind bending in my life. It’s extremely overwhelming and I’m pretty sure [M3] and I asked at least thirty people on a three hour trip to Vietri Sul Mare if we were on the right train or where to go to find this or how are we going to get to here. It was very much worth the headache though to see the coastline and spend a day with my feet in the sand.