Last week, every student in the JSB program got adopted by an Italian family to experience a real Italian-style family dinner! The way it works is that JSB invites families to the palace that are interested in “adopting” a student and having them over for dinner one night.  As the families come in, everyone seems nervous. Some students start to talk to the families while others wait until they are officially “adopted” to start talking to the families. After each Italian family arrives, everyone gathers around as Linda, Roberta and Cinzia randomly draw names from a bowl stating the name of the students being adopted by each Italian family.  As soon as they called out my name, I got to meet my new host family!  I got to know them and discuss when I would have dinner with them over some food called appretivos.
I was paired with one other student in the JSB program to be adopted by an Italian family, and we love our family! Our Italian family has a mother, a father and two daughters. It turns out the parents are taking an English class with the same woman who teaches us Italian, the parents speak English very well and so do the daughters so it is easy to communicate with them. One of the daughters did a foreign exchange program in Mobile, Alabama last year and has been to Auburn University! Also, the daughters are around the same age as us so it was easy to connect with them. I connected so well with them that they even invited me to go to Pompeii with them next weekend. Since the mother is a high school science teacher and I am an education major, I can’t wait to talk to her more about Italy’s education system.
Between being invited to Pompeii and having dinner with my Italian family on Thursday, I can’t wait to be fully immersed in an Italian home to see more of the culture and practice more of the Italian language. This might be one of my favorite activities that JSB has to offer.
By: Courtney Self