So….first post from Europe. I have to say, I’m quite
overwhelmed at this point, but everything has gone relatively smoothly. When I
arrived in Florence, I got on the bus with the rest of the group to Siena…and
right on time I might add. They said that the bus had to leave, and two minutes
later, we would have missed it. But we took the bus to Siena and all was well.
The bus pulled into a parking lot and there were people standing there. We were
all quite confused, but we were met with the friendly smiles of our host
families.
Florence from the plane.
There are only 14 of us in this group. 14 girls. We have a
meeting later on this evening where I will start to get to know them, but in
the meantime, my host mom whisked me away and brought me to her home. It is a lovely
apartment and this is my view out of the window.
So far, Siena is gorgeous. I’m so anxious to learn as much
Italian as I can so that I can communicate better. I have 3 host sisters and
they don’t know English. I hope they will help me learn to speak Italian! Until
then, I will get by with English words and lots of gesturing. Also questions:
lots and lots of questions.
Cara Nahoma,
ReplyDeleteYour experience sounds the same as mine when I was in college and went to Siena, even though mine was almost 50 years ago! We, too, took the bus from Florence -- there were 20 of us, mostly girls. I remember being in a parking lot and wondering which people would be my family, My host family didn't speak English either. I picked up lots of vocabulary, but my grammar wan't very good, which is why I've been taking Italian the past 12 months. Retirement has given me the luxury to do that. Maybe we'll be able to write each other in Italian at some point :)
Tua cugina,
Barbara