Getting to know Siena

Well because I missed the train to go to the weekend trip, I decided I would spend the weekend getting to know Siena as best as I could! Its starting to feel like fall here and Siena looked so beautiful. I woke up this morning to Peirina and her daughtor yelling, and I knew it was time to wake up! I got dressed in a sweater, boots and wore my Italian scarf from Rome. I felt pretty European, and I decided I would get a Kebab for lunch. The Kebabs are an indian meat covered in whatever you want on it. It was the best thing I have had here by far. It was the closest thing I could find to Mexican. This means I have lost my love for Gelato and will now be eating Kebabs everyday.

After lunch, I went to the train station and went to the mall. It was tiny, and pretty useless, so I took a train back and came to Piazza Gramsci. As I was looking through the stoors, I started to here drums going off in the compo. I went over there, and noticed there were little boys dressed up and marching through the streets. It was a Contrada game today!

The city of Siena is split up into 17 different districts, each named a Contrada. 2 times a year they compete against eachother to the Polio. It is a small horse race only 3 laps in the compo. It is a fast race but means everything to them! Everyone goes. Only one rider and horse can compete for their contrada. The contradas all have different names and mascots like, the Elephant, Owl, Snake, Dragon, Duck, Snail, Giraffe and so on. Some times during the year they have other competitions and they like to battle against eachother. Today it was the boy's turn, and the little boys were playing the drums and flags to represent their contrada. Because I live outside the city walls, I don't have a contrada, but I decided that if I am going to be here, I need to have one! Everyone picks a Contrada and they are loyal to it. I did my research around the city and decided that my Contrada would be the Owl. They have not won recently, but they did 2 years ago. Giraffe won the Polio in August and Duck has the most wins overall. I am excited to finally have a contrada.

But today has been really nice. Really relaxed and it feels really good. Arriverderchi!

Fun times in Siena

So I decided to have a crazy night last night. My roommate and I live around 15 minutes away from the city walls, so because of that reason, we live in a neighborhood of old Italians, where no cars are. The buses that leave our neighborhood stop at 9 so we never get to go out at night and enjoy the night with the rest of our group. Last night, we just didnt care and we took the last bus to take us into the city knowing that we had no way home.

We met a couple of the girls in the Compo and we went to the Tea Room. The tea room is exactly what it sounds like! It is a room that is covered in Tea Sets, musical instraments and ties. You can order any drinks or cakes that you would like and you can stay as long as you want to. A couple of the girls ordered some Tea and they give you an entire pot. I didn't order anything, but it was a really cute place. Because I am sick, I got really tired, and wanted to go home at midnight. Luckly for us, there is a bus that leaves Piazza Gramcshi at 12:20. I finally got home and went I got back, my "mom" was already asleep.

That next morning I was having a bad day and sick, so I slept in until around 12. My other roommate had already left for school. At twelve I got out of my room swollen, drugged and tired. My host mom looked at me and started busting out laughing. ( This lady is like 80 years old). She wouldnt say anything to me and was laughing as hard as she could. I gave her this look and told her that I wasn't feeling good. She laughed even harder and then looked at me and went "Discotecca!!". So apparently she thought I got drunk last night at a party and woke up in the morning with a hangover. She still doesnt believe me. She even was gonna bring out alcohol at dinner the next night.

For dinner we were able to spend it with Peirina and her son! ( Don't worry he is like 50). He was a really nice guy and was explaining to me that he owns a winery. He told me I could come whenever I wanted and help make the wine and see how it is done. I was really excited. He also brought out something to eat that was a little strange.... He offered us his favorite meal which is a cows stomach. I told him I would try it, so for that night for dinner I had the lining of a cows stomach. It wasnt that bad, just rubbery like eating a vein in a piece of meat.

Anyways thats the end of my fun!

Bleh

I'm officially sick. It finally happened. I think it's because I have been running off of 4 hours of sleep and gelato. I'm getting more today... I can't help it. I tried a flavor yesterday called Biscocrok and it was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. It was yellow creme flavored with huge chunks of fudge. I was so happy that I ate that. Today I am going to treat myself to 3 scoops and I'm just going to do it. There is no turning back now!

So I have realized that I am missing out on a lot of Italy. I mean hey, I might as well have some fun right? I'll never be here ever again! I decided that sometime this week I am going to go out with the girls instead of going to bed. Maybe I will get an Italian kiss eh? Just kidding Mom. Anyways, not much to share for today! Just enjoying the day!

The pictures are of Porta? I think is what its called. It was ment to be "The perfect city". But after the pope died, they gave up making it. The town is really small. i am standing next to a sign that says Love! They have a kiss one and a luck one. We all walked down Kiss street. We are definatly girls.

The Monastery

Yesterday we went as a group to visit a Monastery. It was actually pretty cool. It was out in the middle of no where and we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. I took some notes, so this is what I learned about Monks and the Monastery.

things I learned at the monestary

women wore one dress for their whole lives, only changed the sleeves

monks were seperated from the world. only prayed and

worked. friars work in the city. it is rare to see a monk

make their own beer ( I bought a bottle to bring home)

they have the right arm of st. john. only show it on the 24th of july

the artist for the church worked for lianardo di vinci. loved animals. in all his pictures he added random animals

Mary Magdaline never died. Was lifed in heaven in her sleep, while she was going up to heaven she dropped her belt which john the beloved kept

back in the day. small talk/jokes and laughter was banned from the monestary. teacher seemed to like that idea

st. benidict started the monk way of life

the artist for the church was good, but was not considered a famous artist because the monks did not like him. they said his brush "moved to the sound of money". if he did not get paid well, he did a bad job. was switched out for another artist later

monks are called to one mission their whole lives

different colored sacks for different missions. blue/black/white/brown

isolated from the world

if the people in the city do a sin, they can be forgiven by building buildings for the monks

my teacher has a pet snake named lady marmaduke- snakes are depicted as satan in art....hmm...This is starting to make sense

Pretty much my daily life

I feel like I have been sick for the past week. Every day I am exhausted and my eyes burn, .No matter what I do it doesn't go away. It's funny because I go to bed at 9 wake up at 7, eat more than I should and I take a vitamin every morning. So no matter what I do, I am constantly tired. Maybe it's because I am finally living the life of an Italian. They never sleep! The stores open at 10 in the morning, close for lunch and then open up again around midnight. It seems like no one ever cares about getting sleep for the next day. Their lives are always busy.

This week I watched Sabrina on television. It's not that funny when you can't understand what they are saying. I also watched an Italian soap Opera with Peirina. I was going to get up from the table and get ready for bed, but she told me to sit and watch until 9. She constantly has the TV on and every time I see her, she is watching it. It's either on the news, a soap opera or Sabrina. She likes to watch the news a lot, and from what I can tell the President isn't doing Italy a lot of good. Not a lot of people like him, and I guess he is making choices people don't approve of. I got to visit the Presidents Palace in Rome and it is huge! They have multiple guards carrying these huge guns in front of the building. It was pretty intense.

So about the food I have been having here....It's pretty good. Italians make a big deal out of their food and it's because food is their life! Every meal is an event and if you miss it, it is a big deal. They take around 4 hours to sit and have a meal and even close shops just for lunch. They have two dishes and a dessert, so there is a lot of food. I havn't had anything too weird, except for some of the meats I have been having. I never know what I am eating cuz I can't understand what they say. I just eat it. I ate bone marrow last night for dinner and it was so gross. I had to tell her I wasn't feeling good so that she wouldn't feed me any more. I also have apparently had rabbit a couple of times and I actually like it. I found a hamburger shop down the street that I want so bad, but the burgers are 7 euro! Their is also a mexican shop that apparently is so gross,but I don't care. I'm going there tomorrow for lunch.

So in the Dante Alligheri school the doors randomly open and then slam shut during the day. There are no windows for wind to pass through, so it is a little weird. I learned today that this school used to be a school for the deaf. They would live and sleep here while going to school. So apparently they roam around during the day and open and shut the doors. Pretty creepy.

Anyways, time to go back to homework! Ciao

Shopping...

So I went shopping one day and was bored so took pictures of all the clothes I tried on. They were all too expensive, but one day I will own one of them!

I had this outfit on for maybe...10 minutes trying to decide if it was worth buying. Don't worry mom and dad, I didn't buy anything.

This was like a 1000 euro outfit. I felt very facy.
This is at Scout. A store where either boys or girls can wear their clothes. They don't
have a girls or a boys section. Kind of weird, but hey, its cute stuff.This is at United Colors of Bettiton. My favorite..store...ever. I go here almost once a week

This.... To be honest I have no idea what it is. But i tried it on. It's at OVS. the "american store"

Livin' the Fancy Life

The past couple of days have been pretty much normal. I am down in school mode and actually enjoy doing most of my homework. I get my assignments done way before they are due and hopefully I'll be getting grades that I want to have. The only class that is causing me a lot of trouble right now is Italian 101. I can not understand a word he is saying! He goes on and on in Italian, stops. and then points at me. So I just respond with "Non Lo So" and he just goes on again. Italian is such a hard language, and its gonna take me a long time to get used to it.

But I'm pretty much getting comfortable here and I am enjoying having this be my "temporary home". I have memorized where all of my favorite gelato shops are, my favorite shops and where all the good food is at. Pretty much 5 out of the 7 days of the week, I get gelato. I

pretty much put gelato on the same list as sin. You know you shouldn't do it, and you know you will regret it later, but you still do it. My favorite flavor that I get every time is Straccatella which is creme with chocolate chips, and Pistachio. They give you so much of it and every time I finish, I feel like I need to walk up and down the streets to feel better. But I always know the next day I'm going back for more. It's a bad habit, and It's gonna be hard to come back to old american icecream.

So I pretty much just go everywhere on my own. A lot of the girls go to parties and I am just too lame to do that, so I just go into fancy shops and pretend like I can afford the stuff they are selling. There is this fur coat I walk by every single day that calls my name. It's only 450 Euro and it is so tempting. It's so fun to pick out expensive clothes and just try them on. It's pretty much what I do if i'm not doing homework or not eating gelato. While I am window shopping, I usually stop at the Irish pub to get some free wifi. It stinks so bad in there, but apparently everyone in there knows me now. Last time I was in me and the owner got to know eachother, and they are nice. So don't worry Mom and Dad, I don't kiss any boys, but I make friends with drunk people.

I wish I could share some cool information, or something I have learned, but so far not yet. :) It's just school, school, school for right now, and then this weekend we are going on some trips so that should be a lot of fun. Attached are pictures of my gelato, and the Duomo. The Duomo is the famous Siena Church that was built to compete against the one in Florence. It is the one with zebra stripes and zombie priests inside. I want to go back in so bad.

Oh here is a fun story. Yesterday I was at the bar on the computer and I forgot what time it was and realized I was going to be late for dinner. (Pierina doesn't like when we are late). So I run to the bus station and wait for my bus to arrive and it never did. I was waiting in the dark for a half in hour while this guy started asking me questions and talking to me. After a long time my bus showed up and then the bus ride was an extra 15 minutes. When I got online, my roommate had posted a search party for me on facebook. It was pretty funny....Other than that, life is good!