The Homestay Experience

Buon Giorno, Tutti!

Seeing as we'll be leaving for Rome on Friday morning, I thought I'd give you two more entries, today and Thursday!

When your child returns home, you can probably have a week's worth of discussion about their homestay family, experience, and communication lessons. I know that I have a LOAD of them, just from my own homestay, and I thought I'd share a little about my own with you!

My homestay mom is generous, loving, caring, and hospitable. She wants every person who stays in her home to be comfortable and well-cared for. She's also an excellent Italian teacher, always wanting to help us improve in our speaking (seeing as that's our biggest goal here). She has had a blessed life, but not without difficulties - her husband passed away around 11 years ago (I think), and she just lost her son - who is just a little older than I - about a year and a half ago. Seeing as I have stayed with her for five years out of the past six (took one year off to get married to a WONDERFUL, UNDERSTANDING husband - I love you, Jay), I have seen her life go through changes, and appreciate her even more now that I did at my first stay. And she has seen me go through changes, too - going from single and dating, to married (and graciously inviting my husband to stay with me and enjoy living in her house and eating at her table). She's been with me through many challenges with students (I haven't said enough about how wonderful your kiddos in this group are), and with my inability to communicate with her as well as I wish I could.

Just as in any house, there are quirks with the house. The shower head leaks if you don't push the handle all the way up against the hot direction, or else the hot water drips out and is wasted (miscommunication on my part the first year - I took cold showers the entire time, thinking that she didn't want me to WASTE the hot water), and the button on the upstairs handle needs only be pushed a few millimeters to work, or else the toilet quits working (not good, when you have post-travel tummy fun). When, in my third year there (and my husband's first year), I thought she was upset about our both taking showers every day, but it turns out she just wants to be able to clean the shower between each person's use, to assure good cleanliness in the house! Even this year, I have had more misunderstandings, all on my part, but care for Dina so greatly that I want to make sure there's always peace in the house.

When we eat, well, it's a beautiful and miserable experience, all at once. Dina is a great cook, and her food is always delicious. She generously serves us HUGE servings (cracks me up to see our roommate get served the large bowl of pasta - and he eats it all!), and talks about the fact that if you don't eat well, you can't study and learn well. At the end of dinner, every night, we have to go for a walk after dinner, because a human can't sleep well with as much good food as is on our stomachs (Jay learned that in his first year).

While I'm really happy that we're going home on Sunday, I do leave behind a little myself with Dina every year. I care greatly about her, and wish her well, hoping that I get the privilege to stay with her again the next year. She's my mama Italiana. ;)

L ;)