A Summer in Siena: Life in Siena and my Impending Gelato Addiction

It's hard to believe that a week has already passed since I left home - it some ways it seems as though so much has happened in the last few days, but in other ways I can't believe how quickly time slipped by.

On Sunday, Annie and I ventured into the center of town for second time. Our plan was to attend mass at the Duomo (pictures to come - my camera ran out of batteries that day!) and then grab lunch. Surprisingly, mass was pretty easy to follow. They printed out everything in a little booklet, and obviously it all follows the same order as in the US. The only part that was over my head was the homily, but the priest was old and the church was large and echo-y, so I'm going to blame it partially on those things. We grabbed hot sandwiches and a glass of Spumente (fizzy wine) at a local restaurant and then window shopped throughout the city. I did end uppurchasing one item - see photos to below to find out what :-)

Finally, I'm feeling settled in here. Everything is unpacked, there are groceries in the refrigerator, and I know how to get on and off the bus. Also, our villa has become much more crowded - a whole slew of people moved in on Sunday for class on Monday and then a group of 40 Brazilians who are starting at the beginning level moved in yesterday. I tried to talk to one of the Brazilians, but he literally knew NO Italian and only a little bit of English. When he asked my name and I said "Brittany," he said, "OH, like Britney Spears!" I just nodded and laughed. I also attempted to talk about soccer with him, but that got no where. Luckily, I have met some people I can communicate with - I've become close with three girls in particular - Camila from Argentina, Maja from Macedonia, and Marie from Belgium. What I like most is that they aren't great at speaking English, so we speakly only in Italiano - it's been so nice to practice outside the classroom.

As far as school goes, I took my placement test yesterday and was put in the highest level offered - it was so nice to know that 50 credit hours of Italian at OSU have actually made a difference! My first class was today, but it was abbreviated - only introductions and such. I LOVE my professor already - she's short and round and told us that she used to love skiing before she "became fat." Camila, Maja, and Marie are also all in my level, and after class the three of us wandered around the city eating gelato and peaking in stores. Seriously, I think I have a gelato addiction. It is SO delicious. Already, my favorite flavor is strawberry - but you can get more than one flavor in a cup so I keep trying different combinations - strawberry and banana, strawberry and mango, strawberry and lemon - they're all great :-)

Other than buying gelato in town, I've been doing most of my "cooking" - aka eating nutella and fresh mozzerella cheese (Dad - it's seriously $2 here). Tonight, Annie and I are making pasta which should be interesting given we don't have collander to work with and at least one of our burners doesn't actually get hot. No worries - we have full access to the villa's main kitchen if something goes wrong!

Here are some pictures from the centro (center) of Siena:

Annie, Maja, and I