One part of this journey that I overlooked was who I would be living with when I was in Italy. As soon as we arrived we were all assigned rooms. My room is the smallest room on campus. There are four of us, two upstairs and two downstairs. This has been one of the best aspects of this trip because the girls in my room have become very close. Each room has been given a different name.  The names are the Italian names for different cities- Roma (Rome), Siena (Siena), Firenze (Florence), and my room Venezia (Venice). We have an award that is given to a different room each week based off of different things such as cleaning or helping out around the palace. This has created a little competition among the rooms. Venezia has won it once and it is looking like we might win it again this week.

It is easy to bond with people when you are living together but even easier when you are living in a foreign country. We bond over losing wifi, hot water and heat. We are assigned different tasks together such as cleaning the kitchen for a week or having trash duty. We have been able to get to know each other because not only are we all in the same room, but we also listen to each others conversations on the phone or with other people on the trip since there isn’t really any where to be alone. I have loved this incredible program and the way they do things such as the rooming situation. I feel very blessed to be part of such a great legacy.
 
Emily Parker