1 Week Down!

CIAO family, friends and students ~ we are officially one week down in Florence creating art and many memories. The week has been jam packed with culture activities, a lot of delicious food, art and drawing, karaoke nights, candy salad, and so much more. I feel incredibly grateful to be a program leader of such a wonderful group of students who are ready to learn, eager to create art, and are incredibly courageous and brave. I say this because we have challenged the students to navigate the public transit system on their own without the help of an adult. The first few days of the program, we spent time with the students to teach them how to read the bus schedule, use Google Maps, and look at landmarks to make sure they are on the right track to get back home to our "casale" (farmhouse in English). I am impressed that each student was able to accomplish this without any mistakes and the only setback being the delay of the public bus system! Families, you should be so proud of your students bravery and ability to live and learn in a foreign city and to become so immersed that they are like the locals riding the bus and train system. Speaking of the train system, on Saturday, we took a TrentItalia train to Roma for the day. Many of the students found the European train quite relaxing and all of a sudden we got off and were plopped in front of the coliseum. When we arrived in Roma, we met up with our art instructor, Fabio, who is a professor of art and architecture at Temple University (an American university) that is housed in Roma. Fabio took us to parts of Roma that were less known to tourists as the students embarked on sketching what they were looking at and taking it all in. We averaged about 20,000 steps walking that day and our kiddos were troopers as they navigated both the crowds and the heat. After having lunch at a famous market, students were given the opportunity to have free time in Roma and explore on their own. As a surprise to none of us, students were able to use the metro and bus system in Roma to find their way to different locations and then to meet us back at the train station to head home to Florence. As someone who studied abroad in high school as well, I am so impressed by their ability to be independent and take a risk in navigating a new city. The type of skills the students are learning are so valuable and will serve them well in many aspects of their life. 

This upcoming week, we will be doing a gelato tasting (although we have been getting gelato every single day!), an Italian cooking class, more art drawing classes at different 

locations outside of the casale, museum trips, structured free time, Italian language and culture class with Professor Marta, a scavenger hunt in a grocery store with Italian peers / students. I am so excited to be on this journey with this wonderful group of kids and I encourage you to follow my instagram account @MsAubry_Art where I post daily updates and photos of what we are doing together! 

Ciao for now.