Day 106

--Let me tell you about one of the extra curriculars I was involved in this semester. It is called English for pasta. English for pasta is where you go to an Italian family’s house once a week and for the first hour or so, you talk to their kids and try to help them with English. Then, you eat a home cooked dinner with the family and try to (TRYYYY to) speak in Italian. I am with another student, Jeff, and we have a really sweet family. There is a 6 year old girl named Gaia (who loves the game “cookie mama”) and an 8 year old boy named Alessandro (who is going to be a champ skier one day).

In the beginning, there were lots of drawing and color between Gaia and I, but we moved on to other things. Some other activites that we did were teaching Gaia and Ale how to make Biscotti Americani (American cookies –chocolate chip, of course), the mom, Lisa, taught us how to make pizza from scratch, and we played some family wii games.

Today was the last time that I met with my English for Pasta family. For our last dinner, they graciously took us out for pizza. At this dinner, we joined up with two other students, Meredith and Krista, and their English for Pasta families. It was a lot of fun, a little loud, and delicious food. It was neat to meet other families as well.

Near the end of dinner, Gaia and Alessandro came up to me and gave me a little gift that was a Merano glass key chain. And in turn I gave them the thank you card that I drew and painted, and wrote in (broken) Italian. Ale (the 8 year old boy) read it to Gaia (the 6 year old girl), which was really cute. They showed it to Lisa (mom/wife) and to Riccardo (dad/husband), who seemed to really appreciate it as well. After dinner, my family drove me back to my pensione. We all gave hugs and baci (kisses), and I thanked them again for all 

ps photographs will be added laterthey did for Jeff and I. What a neat experience it has been.