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!

Michelangelo's David.

Today was a really amazing day! Today we woke up early as a group around 7:00 and traveled by bus to Florence. Florence is only a little more than an hour away, so we got to spend the entire day there. The city was huge and reminded me a lot of Rome. It was crowded, dirty and had a lot of old buildings everywhere. There was also a lot of beggars which was really scary. They get really close to you and don't leave you alone. We went to Florence for my HUM201 class, and we got to go to an archaeological museum that had a lot of the egyptian statues and things that we have been studying in class. I got to see the famous portrait of Nephratiti and lots of mummies. I learned that the coffins you see that are shaped close to the body and covered in paint is only for the rich, or upper class. I got to see a lot of coffins that were made out of cheap wood or something like that. It was really cool to see how life was like for the people who lived in that era. It was really interesting. We also got to see an old Renascence Baby Hospital. I guess what they would do, is have the women come in to have their babies, and then take them away from them to clean them and stuff like that. They would leave a coin with the baby and then give a matching coin to the mother so that they would know who's baby was who's. A lot of the times, the mothers would just leave their children there. If they had a baby with a man they were not married to, they would get in a lot of trouble, so they would leave their babies with the hospital. They could come back years later and bring the coin to see if they could see their children they left. I guess it turned into an orphanage after a while. It was pretty sad to hear about.

After that we had lunch, and then we got to see Michelangelo's David. It was one of the coolest things I have never seen. I have never appreciated it before, but I was suprised how amazing it was. It is 15 feet tall of pure marble. I guess marble is really hard to carve out of. We think it is hard, but I guess marble is really soft. It was amazing to see. It is against the law to take a picture of the David....but I took like 5. You can get kicked out of the area for it. I felt sneaky. Recently the country cleaned the David statue and they found 3 letters on the left calf of David. The letters are MNL. We believe that those letters are the signature of Michelangelo. It is weird because he never signs any of his artwork. He believed he was famous and a good enough artist that people would just recognize his work and he wouldn't have to sign it. I guess he was a snot. But he was really good.

Anyways, Today was really cool!

Feelin like Christmas is comin!

I'm supposed to be doing homework right now, but I am having a hard time concentrating. I figured I should probably take a break. Today is really cold! I only brought one jacket and it is so cold. The TV only tells the weather in Celsius so all I know is that it is 8 degrees outside. My host mom brought me out another blanket and I still had the hardest time sleeping. I am hoping that it doesnt get too cold, and that it doesnt snow over here. ( I am pretty sure it doesn't)

So I have been missing America pretty bad. I miss just knowing what a bottle of Shampoo is ( or if it even is shampoo), having things actually cost what they say, and being able to have a normal conversation with someone. I was on the bus the other day and heard people speaking English, so I came up to them and told them thankyou for speaking English and that I was so happy to see someone else from America. I think they thought I was crazy. Speaking of Crazy...there are a lot of really crazy people here. Its hard to tell who is drunk and who is mentally insane. There is this one guy here that runs up and down the bus station everyday. I never see him anywhere else. He wears these huge bell bottoms and he just walks up and down the area with his cigarette looking at everyone. There is this other guy that I think is schizophrenic. He just starts mumbling and then will point at things telling the "person" that he doesnt want what they are offering him. I feel really bad for him, but I tried smiling at him once and he stared at me with this really creepy face the entire bus ride. I decided its a better idea just not to talk to him. Other than the drunk/mentally insane people, everyone is pretty nice. They either like you, or hate you. I've noticed that. If they know you are american they either treat you nicer than everyone else or treat you really badly. Most of the time I don't think people can tell im American except when I start talking. What I have noticed about the families here are really interesting. A family of 3 is huge. You never see the parents taking care of their kids. The kids are always with really older people. I think that the grandparents take care of the kids for the parents. I am not sure. I also have noticed that there aren't a lot of "kids" here. Once they turn like 6 or something, they act like adults. They dress the same and act really old. There are a lot of younger girls in some skimpy outfits, smoke and wear a ton of makeup. Its really sad. It's the same with the boys. They dress older and you can tell that they drink. Being a teen is the time to go crazy. I think people just expect that here. I'm so glad that I don't believe that. Phew, it is such a relief. It's sad to watch people here. I think my host mom thinks I am really religious. She laughs that we go to church every sunday, and she doesnt get why we don't go out at nights, or why we don't drink. Whenever we meet someone, the first thing she tells them is that we don't have coffee or tea, and she will start laughing. She thinks we are pretty weird I can tell. She must have had some pretty crazy host kids before us. There are a TON of students here. Some from Asia, Britian, Scotland, or America or Italy. They pretty much come from anywhere. There are a million colleges up here. The main one is the University of Siena, but then they have a bunch of little ones. There are a lot of younger kids, like in their 17s or 18s and they are everywhere. It's crazy. I wonder what it would be like to grow up in an area that had so many tourists. I don't think i would like it.

Anyways,I better get back to work. Ciao

THE COMPO

ISNT IT BEAUTIFUL

MY CONTRADA