This week’s midterms were a rude awakening for most of the international students.

Despite the fun and travel we get to do here, we still have school to do. As fun as the semester has been so far, it would be devastating for it to become a waste by the end because we didn’t pass the classes.

For me, I had less and less time to study because my family flew all the way from the states to visit me. And I don’t mean like two or three of them. Both parents, one brother, a cousin, two aunts, an uncle and my grandmother all made the flight across the pond to spend a week in Italy.

Needless to say, it was a great time, even though it was very stressful at times. Being the only one with any (albeit, very limited) knowledge of the Italian language, I had to do all of the talking in restaurants and stores and do all of the explaining.

On the first day they arrived, the pope spoke in a city outside of Milan called Monza and we were all able to go see him. He spoke incredibly slowly, which meant I could understand 45 percent of what he said as opposed to the regular 30 percent.

We all got to see the touristy things in Milan, like the Duomo, the Sforza castle and all that good stuff. Even luckier than that, my aunt snagged tickets for us to see the Last Supper painting, which was amazing to behold.

We traveled to Lake Como and to Verona. The weather was absolutely perfect for travel, which was quite the blessing. This week has been cloudy and rainy, which I suppose is perfect for test taking. The weekend will bring spring break, and that will be worth the wait.