Host Family

I have not written in awhile, I have been studying for midterms and getting organized for a week of actual school work. Tonight I am going to meet my host family. I have been waiting for this since before I came to Italy. I applied to get a family and was placed on a waiting list since there was such a high demand of students looking for a little extra emersion into the Italian culture. But alas, I am meeting them.

I have been told that I am meeting with a family of three; father, mother Elizabetta, and the 19-year-old daughter Beatrice. I am assigned to meeting them Tuesday nights for dinner at their home, and because this week is the first week, they have so kindly offered to meet me at my university and show me how to use the bus. As you can imagine, I am very nervous. I am about to go into someone else’s home, sit at their table and enjoy a home cooked meal cooked by one of them. I am however, mostly excited. I know I am going to feel uncomfortable the first time, but I this is good for me, in fact, it is everything that I wanted from this experience abroad.

Obsessed is an understatement. They are better than I ever anticipated. The daughter is the only one who speaks English so she does a lot of the translating for the parents. She is very embarrassed by her parents English and always apologizes when they do it. I do appreciate, however, the parents trying to communicate with me. I try and speak Italian too but I too know very little. It is interesting because the daughter and I have a lot in common and I really enjoy talking to her. She told me about the Italian school system and how they attend high school for 5 years. She told me about how she has to take an exit exam to graduate and move onto university. And how the students within the classes are ranked from 1-10. She taught me how to make traditional tomato sauce with a pinch of sugar and vinegar. She said it was to make the sauce a little bit more savory. We had spaghetti and she recommended I put chilly flakes, olive oil and oregano on top (definitely recommend this, it was fantastic). I had the best meal at their while being in Italy and they barley put any time or effort into preparing it.

I am very excited to go back next week and get to know this family even better. I think this is going to be an incredible experience that I am going to remember forever. Definitely the highlight of my study abroad experience thus far.