Personal and Professional Goals

Three personal and professional goals I have for this semester includes:
1.  Learning how children from another country learn similarly or differently compared to American students.
I have the stereotype in my head that children from another country are more motivated to learn and more dedicated to their studies. I would like to see if this is true or not. If it is true, I would like to get my future students to adopt this attitude somewhat. I will be able to use what I have learned from these students and apply it to students in the United States.
2. Learn how to navigate around a city/country that I really don't know very much about.
I have lived in Richmond, Virginia my whole life, so I am very familiar with how to get to places and I know where everything is.  Needless to say, I am very comfortable in Richmond. I also don't speak any Italian, so I think it will be very fun and interesting to determine how to navigate around a country that I don't speak the native language.
3. Discover how different or similar the Italian culture is compared to the United States.
I have never been out of the country, so I have no idea how people act outside of the U.S. I am interested to see what kinds of food they eat, the way they dress, and the way people act in public, and basically any customs that the Italians do that is different from the U.S.