Our last full month in Prato has started. It’s amazing how fast the time has flown by this semester. This week was, like all others, fun and full of events the staff set up for us. On Monday,we had students come from another study abroad program located in Florence, instead just having our regular soccer game. The students were from The University of Wisconsin Madison and they came to our field to play against UNH students. It was a lot of fun and a great way to mix it up and see other U.S. students studying close by.
Tuesday night we had conversation exchange again. It’s always a lot of fun to talk to the local Italian students and try to improve our skills. Some groups are teaching each other card games and even hanging out on other days of the week instead of just for conversation exchange. It’s a great way to learn about Prato from the people our age who live here. After conversation exchange this week, I went to a family dinner with a group of students. We got picked up at the school and went to the family’s house for an amazing home cooked meal. The house had a beautiful view of the mountains, so when we got there we walked around for a little bit just asking questions and seeing a completely different area of Prato. We had such a great time eating and talking to the family and laughed so much. It was such an amazing experience.
There was no movie on Wednesday night this week, so instead we had a local beer and snack tasting. It was really interesting to get to taste different beers to see which went best with each snack; I never thought about how much it mattered what you eat with what you are drinking until I came to these tastings. After that was over, the school had arranged a Skype session with the campus back in Connecticut to answer any questions anyone had about registration— which was extremely helpful since all we have to rely on is email to figure everything out while being here.
On Thursday the finale of the card game tournament happened after our classes were over. The tournament has been going on for weeks, and there were four teams left, but only one could win. By the end of the night there was a winner and prizes were awarded. The excitement in the room was great; everyone really got into the game.
Unfortunately, the hike they had planned for Friday was cancelled because of the rain, but that didn’t stop them from getting everyone together. They held a Ping-Pong tournament in the morning at the school and later a press conference for Prato Campus week coming up in May. The conferenec includes UNH, Monash University from Australia and PIN, a local Prato university. There are different events and programs set up that include all of the schools and the community in Prato to get everyone involved. As it gets closer they are getting everyone hyped up for it. We might only have a month left, but it will definitely be a fun filled one in Prato for all of us!
