Comune di Scandicci

Today, we had the opportunity to interact some more with the community of Scandicci. We went to the Comune di Scandicci cultural exchange, and got to hang out with people our age (and some older) for several hours. We had friendly competition in volleyball, basketball, and soccer, had fun little dances like the cha cha slide and some Italian dances, as well as just talking - in english and italian - with new people. We ate a nice meal together, and presented awards to the winning team from each sport (as you can expect, we only won in basketball).

I had the opportunity to meet Lorenzo Guiducci and talk to him for a while. He has grown up in Scandicci and will be attending Harding in the US starting in the fall so that he can improve his English and hopefully one day become a literary translator from Italian to English. He is also studying Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian, which blows my mind. It was really cool to talk to him, and hopefully we can help each other out in the fall with learning each other's languages.

I'm really enjoying learning Italian, although I wish I had started learning it sooner so I could interact more while over here. But hopefully I will be able to put myself in situations - even if it is out of my comfort zone - where I can pick up more of the language and how to communicate with people. But as it is, I may try and continue my Italian education when I get back to the States. We'll see how things go.

Ciao!
Taylor