This week, when meeting with the Italian university students, I met Matilde. Matilde is a third-year student like me. She is from Mantova (where I recently visited!) and is studying chemistry. She is fluent in English, but since I am studying Italian we spoke in a mixture of both languages.
"Matilde Rovere, but I go by Maty most of the time."
"I live in an apartment in the city center with three other university students. Almost everyone in my building goes to the University of Siena. Like everything else in Siena, the building is old, but my apartment has been renovated on the inside, so it's new! Originally, I am from Mantova, though, and there I live in a small village outside of the city with my family."
"My family is the traditional Italian family. My dad is a butcher, and my mom is a teacher in the city. My mom loves to cook, and my sisters and I always try to help her. My food never comes out as good as hers. I have two sisters, both of them younger than me. Cecelia, named after the saint, is fourteen, and Giulia is sixteen. They both still live with my parents, but I see them on breaks when I go home."
