This week was my first week of teaching, which I have to say the Italian children are for some reason 10 times cuter than American kids. I work at two schools Bonello and Fea. I rotate every other day. The kids at both schools are so welcoming and adorable. They are between the ages of 7 to 10. In one of the classrooms the kids just kept running up to me and hugging me saying that they love me and how beautiful I am, and I was not sure if that was the only english they knew but I took the compliments. They also asked me so many random questions about myself that I did not even know the answers too. For example, what is my favorite American football team (dont have one) and what is my favorite band (they were all obsessed with one direction). They also love Coca Cola and they do not have any other sodas that I have seen at least. Also one of the teachers asked me how many stars are in the American flag, and I blanked for about 5 seconds then was like oh ya i think 50 and then 13 stripes. I think the teacher was a little worried when I did not know the answer immediately. The other day three of the little girls took me around the school trying to teach me italian by pointing to things and saying it in Italian, and the entire time they spoke to me I just said non capisco, (which means I do not understand) which is one of the few italian words I know by heart. I had no idea how difficult learning italian would be.

This past Tuesday my friend Heather and I decided to try this Italian course that she had heard about from one of her teachers. Well to say the least it was extremely difficult, and I was so lost during the entire class. Whenever she called on me or directed a question to me I would just smile and laugh. She only spoke in Italian the entire time, which is basically my everyday life now. When I would ask her what the meaning of a verb was that we were conjugating she would act it out, so the entire class for me was basically italian charades. Heather thought it was too easy cause she took italian in college and knows the basics, and I thought it was the hardest class of my life so we opted to not sign up for it. Now I have been doing italian lessons with my host brother, Andrea. He has a lot of patience because I cannot pronounce anything for the life of me. One of the teachers Anna has also been helping me. She gave me an italian book that she uses with the kids and lets me sit in on her italian class with the young ones. Those who say italian is so similar to spanish are so wrong. They’re pronounciations are so different, which is what makes the transition so difficult. I constantly find myself responding in spanish instead of italian.

On the other hand I am having an amazing time. I went to dinner this week with one of my teachers, Anna and her family. They were so welcoming and the food was incredible per usual. I had my first limoncello in Italy with them as well as finding out that this area of Italy is known for their honeys. They had three jars of different types and I have to say at first I thought it was strange to try it but it was the BEST honey I have ever had and I am not exactly a honey person. Her husband teaches at the University of Turin and spoke english very well, since he goes to California a lot for business. Her two children Francessca and Riccardo were so sweet and kept trying to teach me italian which I swear is impossible.

This weekend I went into Torino, Friday night to meet up with Heather. We went to Eataly. They have one in Chicago and New York as well. It is this awesome grocery store and restaurant too! We sat outside and ate and had a bottle of wine, while the people around us stared as we spoke english. Even when we were walking around people were staring and trying to listen into our conversations.

Now onto the amazing trips I have planned so far! Heather and I booked our trip to the Amalfi Coast, Capri, and Positano. We will be flying into Rome this Thursday night then using the program bus2alps to go into the Amalfi. They will be having many activites planned for us some include, taking a boat from Amalfi to Capri, getting in small boats and going through the blue grotto, doing a limoncello tasting, and many more! Then sunday we get back to Rome late in the afternoon, which leaves us with enough time to explore some of Rome, since our flight does not leave till Monday morning. We also booked our trip to Bologna and Verona for the weekend of October 17th. I literally cannot wait to start exploring!

Stay posted, more adventures to come!