My new "Italian Family"

Hello everyone!


Just thought I would share some exciting news with you! The school I attend in Florence sponsors a program named "Italian Family Club". It is basically a language exchange program where they pair a student with a participating family, and they are then able to spend time together at the families home, or out and about. It is a very popular program and I thought I would sign up a few weeks ago in hopes of getting a "family". I was interviewed and then kind of forgot about it. I received an e-mail on Friday saying they had found me a "match" and I was to attend the annual "pairing dinner" on Monday night. You can about imagine how excited I was!


So last night, I had my pairing dinner and met my new Italian family! I was greeted by the parents, and their 15-year-old son Tommaso (it kind of sounds like Tomato). They also said that they have twin 10-year-olds that were not able to come. I am so VERY excited to spend time with some kids finally! Both of the parents are pretty fluent in English, thank goodness! I was pretty worried about that! 


The family lives about 30 minutes outside of Florence in a town named Scandicci. They said it was pretty small, only about 50,000 people. Imagine their surprise when the next sentence out of my mouth was "Oh that is not so small, my town in Wisconsin is only about 300 people!". Their mouths pretty much dropped! I will have to take the tram-way out to their town from Florence. Hopefully I can figure it out so I won't miss our first official meeting. They invited me to go to their town carnival and have dinner with them on Thursday night! They said the carnival is kind of "lame", but very fun for the children. The mom said that they have a garden outside of their apartment and is very excited to cook with me! The one stipulation of the evening was that they said from now on, we will speak in only Italian. I don't think they realize I am not to that point yet, but Hey, its worth a try I suppose! I am very excited for the more cultural end of things that will come along with this experience. I am also excited to work on my Italian and maybe even get a little help with my homework, from the 10-year-olds ha ha. 


I will keep you posted and hopefully have pictures up soon! I am so excited! 


Hope everyone is having a good start to their week! 


Love,   Dana