Life with Florentines

Yesterday I moved in with my host family and they are the most amazing people in the world. My friend, Lisa Giusti, went on this program last semester and somehow got paired with the most amazing family in the world. Lucky for me, she gave me their name so that I could request them, and I got them! They are even more amazing and loving than I imagined. They loved Lisa though, so I have a lot to live up to as a member of their family for the next 3 and a half months. First of all, there is a mom, Ada, who is a typical Italian mom and is just the most loving and giving person. She was formally an architect and now she is working for a non-profit organization as a volunteer. She barely speaks a word of English, but we are still finding ways to communicate. The Dad, Giancarlo, also used to be an architect but now he is a professor at the University and teaches City Planning courses. He can speak a little bit of English. Then there is Despina, who is my 24 year old host sister. Luckily, she speaks fluent English because she is an English Literature major. This is extremely helpful so that she can help me communicate with the rest of the family. She is so sweet and has been so helpful so far. Teresa is the younger sister who is 15, she is a tennis player and goes to the secondary school for science because she is very good at math. She can also speak English pretty well. I love having this family because they are very similar to my own. I get caring parents, the Dad who works very hard, and the mom that works very hard at her volunteer work. I have an older sister that is less than a year age difference from Amanda, and a younger sister who is pretty close to Steph's age. They also love food, family (They are Italian after all) and although I was expecting a Catholic Italian family they are not very religious and don't attend Church.

So, now I have to tell you about the food. When I got there we had tea and cookies, and the California chocolate I brought them, apparently they love California chocolate and the giant box I got them is almost gone. Then we ate dinner around 8:45. There were a few things that surprised me about dinner. First, they don't drink wine with their dinner. I don't know if they do on certain nights and don't on others, but we just had water. Second, the dinner wasn't as long as I was expecting, it was pretty much the length of the dinners I eat at home. Last, I was the slowest eater at the table! I am almost always the fastest eater out of everyone I am ever with. When I came to Italy I thought I would get better about eating slower, but compared to their family I am a slow eater! So for the first course we had the most amazing pasta with broccoli. It was so simple but so flavorful! One of the best pasta dishes I have ever had. Then we had a spinach tart type of thing, which was also very good. For our protein I was told we were having fried chicken. I was very confused about this because I was thinking of KFC and I thought fried chicken was an American food. However, I was served the best friend chicken I have ever had, and far from the type of fried chicken that Americans are used to. It was just little pieces of chicken that were cooked in a frying pan with olive oil. For dessert we had fruta! or fruit. Although my goal is to not gain 75 pounds while I am abroad. It might be difficult with this amazing food. So if you don't recognize me when I get home, this is why.

Lastly, our house is a 15 minute walk from campus. Which is one of the closer houses, but I am glad it is a bit of a walk so I can get some exercise in. It is on the top floor of an apartment building and is a two story loft. It also was different from my expectations because I was thinking that it was going to be tiny. They also watch the first season of Glee, they watch Dexter, and many other American shows I love. They have a cat named Hermione because they love Harry Potter, and Teresa is obsessed with Twilight and Robert Pattonson. That is all I have to say for today! CIAO!