First impressions

---

Despite having jet lag that lasted a couple days after the 9ish hours of travel to Italy (with thankfully no flight problems), I jotted down some of my first impressions of the people I live with and of the Italian culture because I knew I'd regret it later if I didn't. So looking back to those first few days when I was hungry and sleepy at all the wrong times, I'll start off with a description of my family (aka my employers) who will be housing me in a small apartment beneath their own house for the next six months and paying a small salary to teach their kids English and nanny them for about 20 hours a week...

The Franchini/Durlo Family-
Andrea (pronounced here like the girl's name; we'd call him Andrew in the States) is the dad. I'd stick to my initial impression of him when I say that he's the funny guy in a crowd with a sarcastic humor; my tour guide of Italy (he rattled off political and historical events for me on the ride home from the airport and insisted to show me a brief view of Padova); rather an anxious person sometimes.

Cecilia is the mom. I'd describe her as a great mom: sweet and loving to her kids. She's the one I have been in contact with since February and who hired me- and she was so welcoming to me as part of the family. She's a bit distracted and ditzy at times, but couldn't be nicer.

Gioia is the 5 year old girl I'll be teaching English too; we've already established a nice bond I like to think. Within minutes of meeting her we were going over all the Disney princesses (yay, haha).

Gabriele is the adorable, usually tolerable 1.5 year old; a momma's boy already. After spending 2 weeks with the fam, I like to say that the best way to describe him is "cute on the outside, cunning on the inside". Cecilia actually found a kids t-shirt on our vacation that said that in Italian and bought it for him. Couldn't be more fitting 😊

---

Photos

Franchini and Durlo Family
Andrea, Cecilia, Gioia and Gabri in Siena- our first short trip together on the way to Tuscany.