Dinner Time is Family Time

Ciao everyone!

I promised you what it is like to live with an Italian family and here it is. It was the best decision I could have made with my trip here in Italy.  My host mom is named Susanna and her daughter Sophia. They are a very nice little family and I was lucky to be chosen to live with them. Already arriving a day late, my family greeted me with a nice home cooked meal. It was so good. I’m not sure the name of it but I know I had a couple plates of it. I have been in my homestay for three weeks now and I have been eating so well I feel like after this last month when I fly back to America, I will be much heavier than I was when I arrived.

Dinner time is my favorite time of day. My host family works a lot and are gone for most of the day but we all wait for everyone to come home to eat dinner together a the table.  Most of the time I don’t know what is being said at the table but sometimes I just laugh when they are all laughing so it doesn’t seem like I am clueless. But dinner after dinner, I have learned a lot around the table. It is like our time of bonding and learning about the family. Sometimes it is hard for the to explain a word to me because they aren’t sure how to translate it so they usually resort to acting it out then dinner turns into a game of Charades. It is funny watching them make noses or moves to explain something. It usually ends with us all laughing. I sometimes to the same or if I am really stuck, Google translate becomes my friend.

In class my professor gave me a recipe to take home and make for my family so I made them spaghetti Carbonara. It is pretty much just pasta, zucchini, Pancetta (a type of ham), and egg for the sauce. It was easy and fun to make and everyone loved it. My host-mom Susanna is a really good cook. There hasn’t been a dish she has made that I haven’t liked yet. That was something I was worried about because I am a picky eater but I have even liked things that I normally don’t like that she has made. I promised that I would a least try everything because the ingredients in Italy are very different from what I am used to in America. So far, I haven’t been disappointed.

The only struggle I have with living in a homestay is the language barrier. Sometimes it can get overwhelming not understanding each other because communication is so important and not knowing the language makes it a lot harder. It can be imitating sitting at the table and not knowing what anyone is saying or wishing you could partake in the conversation. But with the help of the IES staff, each day I learn more and more on how to communicate better with my family.

I have only four more weeks left with my family, and I am sure when that day comes to leave I will be really sad but I will be able to thank them for the unforgettable experiences they have given to me.