Grosseto Beaches

This weekend we had it free! We were allowed to do whatever we wanted and we didn't have to do any homework or go to any school trips. A couple of the girls including my roommate went to Lake Como and Milan, and the rest of us stayed in Siena. Thursday we all relaxed and went home and planned on meeting at the bus station at the next morning at 9:30 to go to Grosseto. Grosseto is about an hour and a half away and is a little town next to the coast. We were planning on going to the Italian Hot Springs nearby, but there were no buses that could take us there, so we decided to take a different bus to take us closer to the beaches. It ended up being a really long bus and we had no idea where the bus was taking us! After a long drive we ended up at this deserted beach. It was beautiful and we had it all to ourselves! It was really windy and there was a lot of fog covering the water but it was so pretty! We ran up and down the beaches and took a ton of pictures. It was really fun to be away from the city and to enjoy being at the beach all alone. After a while a bunch of old men came by and were sailsurfing. They were really good and it was fun to watch them. After a couple of hours we started to get cold, and wanted to get some food. Because the beaches were deserted, there were no places to get food around that area, and had to take the bus back to Grosseto to eat. We waited an hour and a half for a bus and when it came, it almost missed us! We had to run to catch up to it. When we got to Grosseto we found this little pizza place that had huge 5 euro pizzas. We were so hungry that we all ordered our own pizza and ate all of it in 10 minutes. The owner could tell we were a bunch of little american students, so he started speaking in gibberish with his tounge sticking out pretending like he was mentally ill. He thought it was really funny and kept messing with us. After our food, we were so tired, so we came back to Siena. That night my host mom had made pizza and I was already sick from eating an entire 14" pizza by myself. I ate it though and we got to talk a little bit more than we usually do. It was a fun day, and the next day I stayed in Siena and me and two girls studied for school, watched an American Movie and got lunch together. It was really nice. I also got to skype with mom and Dad! Love you :)

Seriously??

OH MY GOSH! You are never going to believe what just happened to me today. A man followed me all the way into my bedroom. Not even joking. It was scariest thing that has ever happened to me, and I'm still freaking out about it.

So, I got on the bus this morning to get to church, and I guess a guy came and sat behind me but I didn't notice. I pushed the button for the bus driver to stop at my stop, and the guy came off a couple of minutes behind me, which is normal. But I walked across the street, and around the corner to walk towards the church, and he was right behind me. I got a little weirded out, so I took the small street to the church. He stopped me and asked me some questions, but I didn't know what he was saying. I told him I didn't speak Italian, and he started to ask questions like, where do you study, where are you going, are you meeting up with friends. I told him I was meeting up with friends right now and would just be taking the bus home after. After I told him I didn't have a phone, he said ok, and then told me goodbye. I went to the church, and didn't think much about it.

After church, I walked to the bus station, and he was there. I had just been in the OVS store, and he had an OVS bag. I walked past him and sat on a seat that was surrounded by a ton of people. When my bus got there, I got on at the front and then sat down. He had gotten on the same bus as me. I acted like I didn't see him, and decided that I would take a stop earlier than the one I usually take just to see if he really was following me. When I stood up to push the button, he stood up too and told me this was his stop too. He got off at the same time as me, and told me that he lived in Via Columbini too. I said ok, and he walked the same way as I did. He seriously followed me down the street...up the road..and to my front door. I looked at him, and told him that I was tired and I was going to go to sleep and that i would see him later. He said, "Io?...." which means "and me?".... but I didn't know that. He seriously came inside my house and then followed me into my bedroom. I was freaking out. Pierina was there, and I made sure she saw that there was someone there. I tried to look at her, like i didn't know who this was, but she had no idea. He came into my bedroom, and put his stuff down and then just stood there. I got really creeped out, so I asked him if he wanted to go on a walk with me to get him out of there. He said ok, and I asked him if he was going home. He said that there were too many people there and so he didn't. He kept talking to me and asking me questions. i guess he studys here too..or maybe he doesnt. I don't even know. He's from Egypt and 25. I finally told him I would meet him at the bar tomorrow because I had to go home. I am not planning on going, it was just the only way to get him to go away. Everytime I told him I was going somewhere, he told me he was going to the same place. I'm so freaked out right now. Now this guy knows where I live, and even came into my room! I told Pierina that he followed me home and that I didn't know who he was. She laughed and told me I did a good job for getting him to go away. She doesn't seem to worried, so I feel like I will be fine. It was just really scary. I'm only nervous that if i don't know up at the bar, he will come to my door. Oh my gosh. ... Only in Italy right? Scary

Holidays!

Well its November 2nd!! The past two days have just been fun and festivals! Obviously October 31st was Halloween, and then Italy celebrates All Saints Day on November 1st. It has been a lot of fun, and then today we have FHE. So it has been good to have been really busy.

On Halloween, we decided that we would have a mini party because all the other parties Italy was having...was not the best. We invited the missionaries to party with us, and we rented out the church building. We all got to dress up, and we made caramel apples, played musical chairs, games, ate candy and played a mummy game. I think the missionaries had a lot of fun, and it was good just to all be together and to laugh. I forgot to bring something to dress up, so Michelle wrote on my arm and everyone thought I was trying to be a pirate... I guess that worked. It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad that I got to do something to celebrate the holiday. One of the girls in the group Natalia and me have gotten pretty close. She's super nice. I told her I didn't have a Halloween costume, so she told me that we would go to the party without costumes and be adam and eve. It was hilarious. she put a soccer ball under her shirt, and she told everyone she was pregnant with Cain and Able. It was pretty fun.

For All Saints Day, I didn't notice that Italy did anything, but they do have Christmas decorations up already all over the streets. It's really pretty and I can't wait for them to turn on the lights! Anyways, I am just once again letting everyone know I love them. This picture is for mom :) I took one with the teddy bear that sits by my mirror every single day. Love you Mom

10/27/2011

I'm just sitting in the student lounge right now with nothing to do..... Everyone has class, and I only had one class today in the morning. Tonight we are having family night at our Professors apartment to make pumpkin seeds, banana bread and to get together. I am really missing the Halloween decorations and candy corn! Save some Halloween Candy for me! They already have Christmas decorations hung up all over the city. It looks really pretty. I was just talking to my professor and she told me that after this week, we only have four more weeks of school. Four more weeks? I just got here! This went by way too fast!

Well, I will add some more pictures, just for fun. The first one is the Cathedral of Florence, the next one is me and the polo players and the last one is of one of the best pizza's I have had! Love y'all :)

Camping in Florence??

This last weekend was one of the craziest weekends I have had here in Italy. On most weekends, we have scheduled activities planned out by our professors. We were scheduled to travel to Florence by bus to spend the weekend in the beautiful city. Our plan was to go to a museum to visit artwork by Michelangelo, go explore on our own then go to a local opera. It sounded like it was going to be a really fun trip! We took the 8:00 bus that morning and sat on the 2 hour long bus ride to arrive at the Train station in Florence. It was windy and cold but we were all excited. We met up with the Humanities 201 professor, Professor Giorgi to have her show us all the famous artwork. She is from Florence, so she knew all the amazing places to show us, and where all the good places to eat was. We first went to a large museum that was full of bronze and marble statues made by Michelangelo and other famous artists. We got to see Michelangelo's first piece of artwork made when he was a young boy. I am not sure what the name of the peice was, but it was depicting Cupid. Back in Michelangelo's day, if you found Truscan antiques or exevated something, you could make a ton of money. Michelangelo was needing some money, so he made a marble statue of Cupid, buried it in the dirt and then pretended that he found it the next day. He sold it to a buyer and got a "billion" dollars for it. That buyer then had an art show where he was showing off all of the artwork that he had found. Someone noticed that the Cupid that Michelangelo made was not an antique and the buyer was embarrassed and wanted to kill Michelangelo. He found Michelangelo and Michelangelo begged him to let him see his other work before he killed him. Michelangelo made him another piece of marble art, and the artist was more impressed and then started to show Michelangelo off instead of killing him. I have learned that Michelangelo was an amazing sculpture, but he knew it and was kind of a snot. He knew that he was better than anyone else, and he would break the rules and he would do things differently just because he knew he could.

After the artwork, we were given a break, so me and some girls went to go get some Kebab's for lunch and then we walked around the markets, went to H&M and Zara's. When it started to get dark and cold, we crossed Old Bridge and met in a little church chapel to see a local Opera. It was the Marriage of Figaro. It was so good! They explained the scenes to us in English, so it made sense, and it was cool to see an actual Italian Opera. After the Opera was over, it was dark, colder and 11:30 at night. We had to run to the bus station to get our bus before the station closed down. We ran there and found our bus right before it left. The bus was long, and was supposed to take us to our hostel to spend the night. When the bus got to our stop, we got off and realized there was nothing there. There was no hostel and the gate that we were in front of was locked and it was dark. By now it was past midnight and we were freezing in our thin jackets, and just wanted to get warm and sleep. The gates were opened by someone at the front desk and brought us in. Instead of getting to a warm hostel....we had ended up in a Camping Spot. Our professor didn't do enough research I guess, and we had ended up in a camping ground and we were not prepared! We were given one blanket and were taken to a tent. We were all so cold and just slept in what we were wearing that day. It was pretty miserable, but a good memory.

The next morning we went to Stake Conference and then were given the day to spend in Florence or to go home. We stayed in Florence until 3 and then I traveled home to get warm and to eat dinner. It was a funny weekend.

Contrada info...

It's another cold day here in Italy! Every wednesday they have a huge market that wraps around the city wall. Today I am going to go to the market and see if they have any cheap jackets or sweaters. You can get anything at the markets, and they are actually really cool to see. It's a really big deal, and it closes in one hour so I have to hurry fast!

Yesterday we went to a Contrada dinner. ( yeah, I know I talk about it alot). But they wanted us to know the real reason why they have them, and the purposes. Each contrada is split up for different purposes. It was first started in 1460, and there were over 60 contradas that now have merged into 17. Back then, the city was split up by professions. The blacksmiths would all be on one side of the city, the judges on the other, the bakers and so on. It has just stuck and now the people still do the same thing. The purpose of the

contrada is to unify the people, to clean that part of the city, protection of the fountains and of the neighbors. Each Contrada also has an enemy. Because they have been fighting for such a long time, they know their strengths and their weaknesses. Owl's enemy is the Unicorn. ( lame... ). The animal also symbolizes a virtue or a belief. Because the people could not read or write back then, they would use animals to portray a certain feeling. The owl is intellegence obviously. Anyways yesterday we went to the a Contrada dinner with the people of the "Tower" Contrada. They won the palio back in 2004 and they are still celebrating that win.

When you win the Palio, you don't win money or riches. You win a flag portraying the Virgin Mary. Back in the 1400's Siena was involved in a war with another city close by. They were praying to the Virgin Mary that she would protect them, and that day, the sky turned bright blue. They won the war, and from that moment on, the virgin mary has become the symbol of the city. The Palio is a symbolism of that battle. The Palio is held 2 times each year and EVERYONE goes. Seats sell for over 300 euro. They also hire jockeys to race for their team, and they are usually brought in from another city. Each jockey is paid 2 million euro to race, and even more for the horse. When the horses prepare for the contrada, they are blessed by a bishop and told to "come back and win". Each horse is pulled out of a hat, and you are lucky if you get a better horse. The jockey is not the winner of the contrada, it is the horse. They celebrate the horses win.

Anyways, I'm sorry I talk so much about it, its just so interesting to me and im catching on to the Siena spirit here. I just don't want to forget anything I have learned. Today marks one week of no gelato, and I am celebrating by....having gelato. I am so excited. Love you all! BY THE WAY...the picture attached is for dad. I got the email about dad talking about how he was concerned I was looking at too many naked men, or that I was "looking" at them or whatever. SO this is me showing my love for naked men statues, haha. Just kidding dad, I actually can't stand them!! Love you Dad :)

Wheres Waldo!

This past weekend we went as a group to visit Torin! Torin is part of Northern Italy, and it is where Lorenzo Snow and Joseph Torino came as missionaries to share the gosple! We went on a little "LDS History Tour" and got to see where the Church had an impact on the country of Italy. It was actually really interesting. Back in the day, everyone was Catholic, and you could ONLY be Catholic by law. There were a couple of people who did not like the Roman Catholic belief system, so they ran away to the alps! The man who started this Revolt was named Waldo. He said that when he was reading the scriptures one day, he came across a passage that said, " Abandon all of your money and follow me." He took that literally, and gave up all his possessions and went to preach the gospel. Because it was against the law, they hid themselves in the alps of Italy and started to make their own city. They call themselves Waldensians and are a Prodestant Religion. When Brigham Young was deciding where to send missionaries on the first International Mission areas, an idea of Italy came into his head, and he knew to send the missionaries, Lorenzo Snow and Joseph Torino to preach to the Waldensians. Because they were in poverty and had bad living conditions, they knew they would get the most success of missionary work. When they got there, they were welcomed by the people, but they had very little success. One night, they were told by the villagers that a little girl was sick and dying. They prayed to use opportunity as a way to get into the people's hearts. They gave the little girl a blessing and the next day she was healed. Word spread all around the area, and then they had better success. I think in the first 10 years in Italy they only baptised 172 people, but work here is getting better and the wards here are very big! Suprizingly, the religion we have the most success baptising is Catholic! I don't know why. Oh, I also saw Christopher Columbus house!

After we were able to see all of that, we got to stay in that city and spend the night. It was really cold ( because we are in the alps) and all I had was an Aeropostale Jacket. I was so cold. The next day we climbed the alps and got to see where the Waldensians had school and where they hid. It would have been a horrible place to live because of the weather. RANDOM COOL FACT! The people back then were not allowed to read or write. Only the priests or the pope could, because having the people be "ignorant" made them more humble. The waldensians would teach them reading and writing in the schools, which was Illegal. Back then all you could write was a circle to sign your name if you were a woman, and a cross if you were male. 150 years later, and now more than 90% of all Italians can read or write. Crazy.

Anyways, after the AMAZING hike, we took a trip to another city. We came to this HUGE monestary,( which is the picture attached to this). We got to learn all about the building and the popes that live there, and then we got to stay the night there. Isn't that crazy? We stayed in the pilgrimage building and it was so cold. I slept with 2 wool blankets on. At night, we were scheduled to have dinner, so we were trying to find the third floor. We ended up on a random floor and it was the creepiest thing of my life, I'm still scared. The elevator randomly opened on this floor to a room that had flickering lights. There were old paintings on the walls which candlesticks and a set table. We walked into the room, and I got scared so I ran back to the elevator. On our way back there was this old man just standing in the dark pointing at us telling us we needed to get off this floor. He was drooling and shaking. ( And then he tried to get in the elevator and it started to shut on his head. haha, it was funny, but scary) . I am still scared of that building, it was really weird. Not a holy place at all.

On sunday we spent most of the day driving home. It was a 7 hour bus drive. We went to Sacrament meeting and now I am getting ready for bed. Anyways, it was a crazy weekend!