my life experience

When I first arrived in Italy I was extremely excited, nervous and worried thinking the worst because I had never left the United States before. But after a while I got to meet the other students and the staff and I can honestly say that this experience has changed my life forever. I am extremely grateful for having the opportunity to come to a country that I have wanted to visit since I was a little girl. I love being able to walk outside of my apartment and immediately be surrounded by art and history. Everyday you discover something new while exploring the streets of Florence. While here one of my favorite experience’s has been getting to know the family I live with. Being able to see an Italian family and how they interact with each other over the past few months has been a wonderful addition to this semester. I have a new opinion of family meals and have been given the chance to try many new foods while living with them. It was a great comfort to be able to talk with a family and get to know them each individually over the months. Their daughter Simona published her very first book “Secretum vitae” in October. It has been a great experience to witness the excitement of the family and to have the chance to be one of the first to read the book. The book is in Italian so I am slowly reading it and it is helping me learn Italian. I believe that every student should experience living in a home stay while studying abroad. When applying to the Richmond program we are warned not to create high expectations. I agree with this because when you get to Italy and experience Italian life you realize any expectations you could of came with were wrong. This is because Italy is different in a way you could never imagine.