Meeting Marika Treffen mit Marika Encuentro con Marika Rencontre avec Marika Incontro con Marika マリカとの出会い 마리카를 만나다 Susitikimas su Marika Spotkanie z Mariką Conhecer a Marika Встреча с Марикой Möte med Marika Marika ile Tanışma Знайомство з Марікою 遇见玛丽卡 遇見瑪麗卡

We spent a month in Northern Italy, which was amazing! I love Italy and I love the Italian language, and now I love a certain Italian named Marika. We met on a language learning app Hellotalk when I was learning Italian and she was learning English. She mentioned coming to see us from Sicily and I thought in my head, “oh yeah sure you will.” We weren't great friends at the time, so I didn't think she would come. But. She. Did. We were shocked because it was a 12 hour travel day for her to get to us, and she even came bearing gifts, some beautiful journals because she knows how much I love writing and language learning. We only spent a few days together but we took advantage of our time using our languages to try to communicate. We hiked around the beautiful Lago di Tenno, which has the most unreal aqua colored water that I have ever seen. We took a day trip to the beautiful Limone Sul Garda where I tried the best dried lemons in my life, before that, I didn't even know dried lemons existed! Of course we ate lots of pizza and gelato. I mean that's a given, right? My family was pretty sick in Italy and Marika went out of her way to help us find a clinic that was open and affordable. She constantly gave of herself in the 3 days that we were together. I even got all teary eyed when she left. I'm happy to say that it was just the start of our friendship and she is one of my dearest friends that I have to this day. I love you Marika. You never know who you will become friends with and I for one NEVER expected to have such a dear friendship with an Italian girl.

**Keywords**

**Bearing gifts** bringing gifts.

**Aqua** a light bluish-green color; aquamarine.