Last Day of Class

Yesterday was our last day of class and today we had our last chapter test. Looking back on it, I can’t believe how far we have all come with the language. I got here the first day and all I knew how to say was ciao. Now at the end of the eight weeks I am able to have conversations with people. We have all learned so much and have worked so hard this summer and it definitely feels rewarding when looking back on the entire summer. 

Picnic

Last week Abbey and I decided to have our own dinner instead of eating with our host families. We went to the market and picked out our foods and took them to the boardwalk. We sat on the ledge, enjoyed our food, and watched the sunset over the beach. It was so perfect and relaxing. It was a bit windy that night so I had to run after my trash a few time and we had to watch out for some of the waves crashing up on the rocks. But it was a very relaxing evening and it is things like this that I am going to miss about being in Grado.

Boating

Today my host mom took me, Elise, and abbey on her brothers boat. We went later  in the afternoon around 4:30 and it was so much fun! We were able to see more of the small islands off of Grado. We drove around for a while and then anchored the boat in shallow water where we were able to swim. I noticed that in this area most of the water was very shallow. We walked up to the beach from the boat and wandered around looking for shells. It was a perfect afternoon with my host family!

Amsterdam

This past weekend Abbey, Quincy, Joe and I flew to Amsterdam for the weekend. We had a blast and we all came back a little exhausted. It was a weekend full of walking. We went to the Heineken Museum, walked through a few of their parks, wandered around the many different parts of Amsterdam, went on a tour of the Anne Frank House, and enjoyed the wonderful food. I would say my favorite part of the weekend was the Anne Frank House. It was a very historical spot and I found it all so interesting. I also loved all of the canals that you could walk along. Overall, Amsterdam seemed like a very happy and friendly place to be!

My host brother

Over the past few weeks as I am continuing to learn Italian, I have found it to be much easier to communicate with my host brother. He is such a sweet and funny 10 year old boy. I have never seen all of the harry potter movies and my family happens to have most of them, so I have been watching them with him in Italian. I also realized they have a Wii so it has been a lot of fun playing Wii with him and getting to know him! I have really enjoyed spending time with him and will be so sad to leave him next week.

Croatia

This weekend a group of about 11 us went to Croatia. It was a very very relaxing weekend and it was so nice to have a small break from class. We bused from Grado to Croatia and we stayed in a small city called Rovinj. We got there pretty late in the afternoon on Friday so we just stayed by the pool. That evening we all went to the market and made our own meals but then spent the rest of the night on our porch laughing and having a such a great time. The next day we booked 2 boats for all of us and we spent the day swimming, snorkeling, and jumping off of cliffs. The water was so blue and clear that is was perfect for snorkeling. Overall, the day on the boats was my favorite part of the weekend!

Dolomites

We spent the weekend in the gorgeous Dolomites and I was definitely sore from all of the hiking but it was probably my favorite trip that we took as a group. It was awesome to have some fresh cool air compared to the heat in Grado. We spent the weekend hiking and on Friday me and four others decided to walk part of the way down the mountain that we had been at the top of after our Gondola ride. We thought we knew where we were going and I still think that we went the right way, but this walk ended up being a 2 hour walk completely downhill. There was lots of running involved because we were almost late for dinner but we made it in time. It was a very comical few hours and I was exhausted but I had a great time with the others and trying to find our way back to Cortina.