After a long few weekends of traveling, we decided to take this past weekend off and actually participate more heavily in the study part of study abroad. But that still didn’t prevent us from exploring all that Prato has to offer. On Friday, we attempted to work the public bus system in hopes to arrive at the mall.

Naturally, it was just one giant struggle. I am from a really small town, practically in the country to begin with, so public transportation isn’t my strong suit. We got on the correct bus just fine, but I panicked when it came time to hit the stop button to get off. I made Deanna and Iyana get off the bus a solid 15 minutes from the stop we were supposed to get off at. It was also down pouring at the time, so we were really wet by the time we got to the outdoor mall. Lesson from that excursion: never let Anelia be in charge of guiding everyone through the public transportation system again.

On Saturday, we went to our first Prato soccer game… also in the rain. It was definitely an experience. It ended in a tie, which was apparently good for the team because they usually lose. The game was filled with a lot of yelling and screaming, just like any other sports match in America; the only difference was that I couldn’t exactly understand what they were yelling. I ended up just yelling a bunch of sounds and trying to repeat what the Italian fans around me were yelling. Despite the rain, it was actually a really fun time. They aren’t joking when they say Italians love their soccer.

We have been here for a month now and I am getting used to the customs here, although I do miss the convenience of the C-store sometimes. Prato is starting to really feel like my home and I couldn’t imagine studying abroad anywhere else.