Goodbye, Siena!

I leave Siena in less than five hours! I can't believe it. This week has been very good though. I had classes both Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was a really fun day. There are two main tourist attractions in Siena: the Duomo and Piazza del Campo. We decided that it was pretty pitiful that after two months we hadn't been inside the Duomo yet. So we did that on Wednesday. After that, we enjoyed lunch and some gelato. I went home after that to finish writing a paper and then I went on a run. Daniela came home and we had dinner together then had our own little Family Home Evening (it had been planned for Monday, but we had to reschedule because of my class). After opening exercises, I shared a scripture and thought and then we enjoyed our refreshments (pears from dinner) and watched Harry Potter. It was a very fun night!

Yesterday was my last day in the kitchen. I had two different sessions, one with each cook, so it was pretty nice. The morning session wasn't a class, we just prepared a going away lunch for a group of students (from Utah, actually) that are leaving today. So it was just me, Nando, and Marqious (the man who dropped the chocolate cake). These kinds of lunches are fun because there aren't students to teach or anything so I get to do a lot of cooking. (The picture above is of me, Nando, and Letizia!)

Last night Luisa and I had a class of 8 students. I mentioned to her last week that I had really loved one of the dishes we made about a month ago, so she made sure to put it on the menu just for me since it was my last night. It was a good dinner! My dish is called Malfatti Grattinati (I think). It's a very good spinach and cheese dish, topped with two different sauces. Mmmmmm. The dessert was delicious, but unfortunately is had raisins soaked in brandy. I had been in charge of preparing the ingredients for the dessert, and Luisa had pointed out the cupboard that had the brandy in it. I was hoping the it would be clearly marked, but it wasn't. None of the bottles had the word "brandy" on them. I just stood there trying to figure out the Italian names. Luisa saw me and started laughing because I looked so clueless. Then when she realized the dilemma we would be facing when I came time to eat the brandy raisins, she got worried. I asked if she could do a part without brandy raisins, but she told me to just spit them out when I tasted them. Unfortunately, I don't know what that taste would be, so I just dug around all of the raisins. When the class was over, I asked if we could take a picture together. She insisted on sitting down for the picture because I'm so much taller than her (she actually compared me to the letter "l" last night because I'm so long and tall, apparently). She gave me a hug and a kiss as I and as I was leaving I said, "Vi voglio bene!" (I love you guys!) Luisa hadn't heard, so her friend, Mariella, told her what I had said. I was almost out of the building when all of a sudden I heard someone yelling, "Anch'io! Hillary! Anch'io!" (Me too! Hillary! Me too!) She came running after me with her arms wide open to hug me. She told me to email her when I got home and tell her that everything went okay getting home. She is so funny, and I definitely learned a ton from her. Every time she'd teach me something new she'd say, "Did you get that Hillary? You have to do that when you go home. And you have to tell everyone you had a really good teacher!" She was definitely an excellent teacher and I'll miss her!

When in Rome...

I finally got the chance to go to Rome last weekend and it was amazing! It was beautiful and it was so cool to see all the places that I’ve seen so many times in movies! I thought about Gregory Peck a lot while I was in Rome. While I was walking around I thought of Roman Holiday because it’s one of my all-time favorite movies! And while I was at the Vatican I thought of The Scarlet and the Black, a World War II movie he’s in that Mom loves. And then I had a professor that looked like Gregory Peck and he told us a story about il Campo dei Fiori, so while I was there I thought of Gregory in a round-about way. My train got into the Roma Termini Station at about noon on Friday afternoon. Friday was really great because my cousin, Alan Whitacker, was also in Rome with two of his sons so we spent the day together. Their train got in after mine so I made my way to the Spanish Steps and ate the sandwiches Rita had packed for me there. I met Alan at il Campo dei Fiori (a piazza) and we made our way to the Vatican. I absolutely loved the Vatican! It was incredible! We went through most of the museums and the Sistine Chapel first. That was so, so cool. I love seeing the works of art that I studied in my humanities class last fall. My favorites were School of Athens and the Sistine Chapel. We made our way to St. Peter’s after that and it was absolutely amazing. The basilica is huge!! It’s beautiful inside. Probably my favorite part of my entire trip to Rome was seeing Pietà. It is incredible. I loved it so much. On Saturday I had extra time and I considered going back and waiting in the line again just so I could see it one more time.

After the Vatican we were hungry so we made our way to the Pantheon because Alan had read about a restaurant near there that we wanted to try. It was very good, but the best part of the evening was dessert. On our way to the restaurant Ethan, one of Alan’s sons, noticed a store with a huge wall of candy, so naturally he was drawn to it. We went inside and found that it was gelateria. Not just any gelateria. There were TONS of flavors and they all looked delicious. Every flavor you could imagine! They had at least 15 different variations of chocolate! There were at least 100 flavors (probably about 110 including all of the soy ice creams) and I really wanted to try every one of them! It took us forever to decide. I got kiwi, banana split, and chocolate coconut. It was incredible. It was pretty late at that point and Alan wanted to go to the Trevi Fountain. It was really cool at night. After seeing the fountain I made my way to my hostel which was pretty close and they went to their hotel which was in the opposite direction.

The hostel was alright. I met some really nice people there and I actually talked with some of them for a long time. I didn’t sleep very well because it was sweltering in that room and the window was open to try to cool it down a little bit, but all that did was let in the noise from the street. I ended up waking up pretty early and leaving. I bought some little pastries and ate them at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. I then made my way to the Colosseum. It was awesome and I loved it! It was a very hot day so that wasn’t very fun but I got to see tons of cool things so it was alright. From the Colosseum I went to the Forum and explored that for a couple hours. When I saw the Pantheon the night before, it was closed, so I went back so I could see inside. After that I took a bus to la Bocca della Verita (the Mouth of Truth). They go there in Roman Holiday so I just had to see it. That was cool, but it didn’t take very long. In fact, nothing took nearly as long as I had anticipated. I had planned to be in Rome until Monday. At that point it was about 1:00 in the afternoon and I had been to everything on my list of places to go in Rome. I was all alone and I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. It was kind of nice to be on my own because I could go at my own pace (which happened to be very fast that day), but at that point I decided I didn’t like being along. I decided that there was no need for me to stay overnight on Sunday since I’d already finished everything I’d wanted to do. The next day, Sunday, all that was on the agenda was to go to church and then to the temple site. I was really excited to do that. Now Rome is an amazing city and there is tons to do, but I was alone and extremely tired and I just wanted to be back in Siena. I kind of alluded to that fact at I talked to my mom and she suggested that I just go home then. It made sense, so I did it. First I went back to Della Palma for one last gelato. I got apricot, kinder bueno (a candybar with milk chocolate and white chocolate), and strawberry. I asked for the flavor grape-strawberry and I was so excited about it but it was loud and the guy only heard the strawberry part. I wasn’t in a mood to be critical so I just let it go. It was delicious. I stopped by the Trevi Fountain, threw a coin in, and then went to the station. There was a train leaving for Siena in 10 minutes. It was perfect. I got on and made it back to Siena before the sun set.

Chocolate Disaster

Last night I had the best pasta I have ever had in my entire life! It was so good!! We had home-made pasta (I don't know how I'm going to go back to eating store-bought noodles) with a creamy asparagus, shrimp, leek sauce. It was incredible! I would never have thought to put shrimp and asparagus together, but it was amazing! I could have eaten it all night long. I probably would have if I didn't have a stomach ache. Our dessert was going to be incredible. Everyone was so excited about it. Luisa kept telling me how delicious it would be. We made a crust that had ginger in it, and then melted chocolate and mixed, among other things, orange zest with it. Then we cooked pears and Luisa arranged them in this beautiful fan pattern on the top. One of the students is here in Italy with his wife to celebrate his birthday. Luisa got so excited because she found a little candle in the dining room and we were going to surprise them and go sing to the guy.

There's a student at the school named Marquious. He's from Brazil and when he speaks it's a big jumble of Portuguese and Italian. When I first got here I thought he was a worker in the kitchen. He seems so familiar with it and with everyone here and he never really mingles with the other students, he often eats with us in the kitchen. I recently found out that he is, in fact, a student. Sometimes he kind of gets in the way because he's been here so much that he just does his own thing and he sometimes causes Luisa grief. He also tends to leave knives in the soapy water. I cut myself on one once. So last night when it was time for dessert Luisa, Marquious, and I went to the dining room to sing to Stephen. Luisa and I went in first and she turned off the lights. Marqiuos was carrying the cake. As he entered the room we were ready to sing, when all of a sudden there was a SPLAT! Somehow the plate slipped right out of his hands! Pear went everywhere and the chocolate masterpiece landed face down on the floor. Everyone was speechless. Marquious looked like a little boy that had done something wrong and was afraid of his mom finding out. Luisa was so sad. Everyone tried to make her and Marqious feel better, but we were all sad we weren't going to get to eat it. It looked SO good. We ran to the kitchen to get paper towels to clean up and when we got back to the dining room Marqious was gone. He had fled the premises. It was so sad and Luisa felt terrible about Marquious running away, she wasn't mad, but had probably given that impression at first. Luckily we had some really good strawberry baverese (a type of cream) in the freezer that was left over last week. Luisa served some of the up with powdered sugar and it was delicious. We actually ended up carving some pieces out of the bottom of the cake that hadn't touched the floor because all of us really wanted to eat some. It was delicious! But poor Marquious. It was actually really funny...to everyone but Marquious and Luisa. I kind of ran into a corner at first so Luisa wouldn't see me laughing. The picture above is Luisa with the remains of our chocolate/pear masterpiece after we'd tried to salvage the part that hadn't touched the floor. Luisa is so funny, she looks kind funny because she was in the middle of saying "Yoo Hoo!" as I was taking the picture.

A Rainy Ride Home

The first time we ever attended the branch was a fast Sunday and ever since then it has been my goal to bear my testimony in Italian. Sunday was my last time attending the branch in Siena and it was also a fast Sunday, so I did it! It was cool to have one of the missionaries stand up there with me and translate what I said into English. The branch was mainly comprised of tourists and other visitors on Sunday. I think there were only about 5 actual members of the branch there. During church, though, it started raining really hard. The rain reached its climax during sacrament meeting, and Daniela and I got really discouraged because we had to ride our bikes home immediately after. By the time it got over, the rain had died down a tiny bit, but the ground was still really wet and our bikes were soaked. One of the missionaries offered us plastic bags to put over our backpacks so the water splashing up from our tires wouldn’t get them too wet. Instead, he came out with garbage bags for us to wear over our clothes and backpacks. We fashioned makeshift ponchos out of them and then embarked on the wet journey. It wasn’t too bad. I was wearing a white skirt though and it kept brushing against my tire, so the hem was filthy by the time we got back to Rita’s. It was definitely an adventure. I had my camera in my backpack and some of the branch members insisted on taking pictures so that we would always remember it.

Fish, Eggs, and Eri

Friday night was kind of a disaster in the kitchen. It was another private lesson with that really nice Argentine couple (the one that can’t eat cream), and they had made special requests for the menu. They said they wanted to learn how to make pane del rosmarino (bread with rosemary) and pesce frittata. Now, some clarification needs to be made. There are two words in Italian that are kind of similar. Frittata and Frittura. They are very different things. A frittata is like an omelet, cooked with some oil (of course), various vegetables, basil, and other herbs. A frittura is a fried dish. They meant to ask for frittura. But instead of requesting fried fish, they requested a fish omelet. Luisa thought this was kind of strange because it’s not an Italian custom to have fish in your eggs. She tried her hardest to be fancy and inventive with it. It was definitely creative.
First we made the bread. We made the pane del rosmarino, focaccia, and ciabata (a long, hard roll). I’m not entirely sure why Luisa had them make three different types of bread, but I love bread so I didn’t complain. Then we started the egg creations. They said they didn’t want any pasta or any dessert, so in order to make the first course more substantial, Luisa had them prepare three different egg dishes. Luisa was shocked that I had never made a frittata before. She asked me how I ever expected to find a husband without knowing how to make one. From that point on, everything we did was going to help me find a husband. Luisa and Miriam kept telling me which dishes to make in order to secure one.

We cooked the first two in oven. They were definitely the most interesting. The first had egg, onion, peas, and calamari. The second had egg, onion, asparagus, and shrimp. The third frittata was called frittata alla trippa. Trippa means tripe. Don’t worry, it didn’t have tripe in it. The egg was cooked on the stove and then rolled up and cut into long, thin, spirally strips. Those were then put into a tomato sauce that we made, giving the appearance of tripe, apparently. We had almost finished cooking all of the eggs and the couple mentioned that they thought a frittata was a little different. As they described what they had expected, the miscommunication was discovered. Luisa was so mad because a frittura would have been so much better! We did have grilled fish for the second course, so that kind of made up for it. But not entirely. It was an odd meal. We had three types of bread, three types of egg, fish, and a cake that Luisa and I threw together because the couple hadn’t requested any dessert. The bread was all delicious. The eggs were definitely interesting. The shrimp/asparagus one had a sort of brownish-green color. To make it even better, they had been cooked in heart-shaped oven tins. So we had two heart-shaped omelets, one with shrimp and the other with squid, and one that looked like tripe. The worst part was that the lady, Miriam, can’t eat eggs either! Her doctor told her she can’t have that much cholesterol. She waited till Luisa was out of the room to put her portion back on the plate. She offered me her tripe eggs, but I said no thank you. The fish, on the other hand, was delicious! I loved it.

Even though it’s a lot of work, it’s really fun doing private sessions like that. Usually the chefs and I eat in the kitchen and the students have a separate dining room. But this couple always insists that we eat with them. It’s fun. The cake that we made, was also good. Minus the eggs, the meal was actually quite good. Each type of bread we made was good. The pane del rosmarino had raisins in it and it was delicious! We put sweet onions on top of the foccacia this time and I loved it. We had made so much bread that I got to take lots home with me, so I was excited!

I have made a Japanese friend here named Eri. She is so nice. She is a student at the school learning Italian and she comes to the cooking classes twice a week. She’s so cute and after the first class she asked if she could have my email address so we can keep in touch. She always invites me to parties and stuff, but I can never go because it’s too late and I have to ride my bike home. Yesterday, however, we went out for some gelato in the afternoon. It was fun. She’s just full of surprises, though. Daniela and I had been talking about how well Asian people age and I was wondering how old she is. She looks like she’s my age, but I’m terrible at guessing age so I figured she was about 22 or 23. I asked her the other day and found out she’s 33! Then I felt really stupid when she asked me how old I am and I had to tell her I’m 19. She just said, “Oh…almost the same age…” and smiled.

Last week I asked her how she was and what she had done over the weekend. She told me it had been fun and then casually mentioned that she had gotten married!!! I freaked out. She had never said anything at all about being engaged! She showed me her ring and some pictures she had of their wedding, which took place in Florence. Her new husband is also Japanese and lives in London. She’s very nonchalant about the whole thing, it’s crazy. Anyway, it was just a really big shock going from my engaged roommate, Daniela, who sits on her bed at night saying “I love him! I love him! I love him!” and staring at pictures of her fiancé, to Eri who failed to mention to me that she was even engaged! When we were planning our gelato outing I asked if she could go last Tuesday, she said she couldn’t, but she never told me it was because she was getting married the day before!

Venezia!

Venice was wonderful!! I love it! It's definitely one of my favorite places so far!!! We woke up really early on Saturday morning in order to be at the station by 6 am. We got to Venice at about 2, so it was a pretty long day of travelling and we were tired. The first item on our agenda was to go to the island of Murano: a five minute boat ride from the city center. Murano is where they make murano glass, for which Venice is famous. We had talked about how fun it would be to get lost in Venice because everything is just so pretty—our wish was granted. We got lost right away and had to back track to the train station and start over with a map. On the way to the boat we passed a restaurant and one of the waiters started walking alongside me and whispered in my ear, “Free. Free food. I have free food for you. I have a free drink.” We learned in my prep class that you’re supposed to treat them like a telephone pole by walking past them and not acknowledging what they say. I kept on walking, but once I got around the corner, naturally, I started laughing.

We took the traghetto (ferry) out to Murano. I liked it a lot. It looked like Venice and had the same feel but it wasn’t nearly as crowded. And it was amazing because every single store was selling murano glass and they were filled with brightly and beautifully colored glass. It was so pretty! We walked around and shopped for a few hours and then headed back to Venice. We found Ponte Rialto (a really cool bridge with stores on it) and got some dinner then went in search of some good gelato. We definitely found it. This gelato was perhaps the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. It stands unparalleled among all of my past gelato experiences. I got a scoop of banana and a scoop of hazelnut with chocolate in it. The hazelnut chocolate was really good but the banana gelato tasted exactly like a real banana! It was so good! I still can’t get over how amazing it was. At that point we headed back to the train station so we could catch a bus to our hostel.
The next day, Sunday, wasn’t quite as magical. It was still amazing because we were in Venice, but there were just a few setbacks. I didn’t sleep very well at all. Daniela and I had to share a bed and she was snoring really loud because she’s had a cold. Whenever her snores would reach a crescendo I’d shake her shoulder or pull on her pillow and then hurry and pretend to be asleep in case she woke up. Usually that worked and the movement would mute her snores for a while until they started up again. We got up early and left the hostel by 6:30. There was a big boat race in Venice that day and there were hundreds of rowing teams from all over Europe there. It was really cool. It started at Piazza San Marco so we went to see the start of it. For some reason I was having problems with allergies so Daniela gave me some of her medicine. We bought it in Lucca a couple weeks ago because Daniela’s been having allergy problems. It wasn’t supposed to make you tired, but there was either an antihistamine in it or some other strange Italian ingredient because it kind of made me feel weird and a bit drowsy all day. It was really cold that day, too. All week it had been really hot so I hadn’t packed a jacket. I was wearing a skirt and short sleeves. The hostel we stayed at had given us a free T-shirt for staying there (I was so excited about it because I love free T-shirts!), but all they had left were extra large ones. It was really cold and that was all I had so I walked around Venice all day wearing an over-sized T-shirt. It was actually the same color as my skirt so I looked like a navy blue blob. I considered buying a sweatshirt and I even tried a couple on but there weren’t any with long enough sleeves and I didn’t want to get one unless I really liked it. We walked around for a few hours and we were both really tired and neither of us felt very good. We really wanted to go inside the Basilica di San Marco because it’s absolutely beautiful but on Sundays it doesn’t open until 2. We were going to wait until then, see the basilica, then head to the train station because we had to catch our trains at 5. At about 12:30 there was a line outside the basilica and we got really excited because we thought maybe they’d opened it early. It ended up that the line was for the horse museum. As cool as that would have been…we decided against it. We still had about an hour and a half before the basilica opened and I felt really sick. I almost fell asleep as we were sitting on the steps of the basilica. We decided that we would go see if we could catch any earlier trains. Daniela was heading to Milan to her old mission area because she had Monday and Tuesday off of work. I had to be at work in the morning so I went to Siena. Daniela was able to find a train that left about 2 hours earlier, but there weren’t any earlier trains for me. We found a bench and waited for Daniela’s train. I slept out for about 15 minutes and she woke me up when it was time for her to go. I still had about 2 hours to wait so I wandered around the station for a while and then went out and explored the little streets outside the station for a while. I bought a pear and an apple that would serve as my dinner until I got back to Rita’s because she said she’d have a fruit salad for me when I got home.

Finally, at 5:00 my train came and I had to say good-bye to Venice. I really loved it, even though the last day hadn’t been that great. It’s an incredible city and I’m definitely going back. I got to Bologna and had to switch trains. I got on the train, but we didn’t leave at 7:45 like we were supposed to. In fact, we sat on the tracks for an hour. You would think that I would have learned my lesson after my last experience with rail travel on Sunday. I had two other train connections to catch after the Bologna train so I had definitely missed them. I started getting nervous because trains don’t run very frequently on Sundays and it was getting late. Everyone on the train was really frustrated. I was getting really scared because I didn’t know if there’d be another train for me to catch and I didn’t have any way of knowing until I got to Florence. Right before the train finally left some random man and woman came and sat by me. I felt like I should talk to him, so eventually I got over my shyness and did. I didn’t understand what he said when I asked him where he was from, but the lady was from Romania. For some reason this guy was really hard to understand, he didn’t even talk that fast, but he kind of mumbled or something. He asked where I was going and so I told him I was going to Siena and I showed him the trains I was supposed to take but had missed. The boy across the aisle from us overheard and started talking to us. He was headed in the same direction as me and was going to have the same problem. He told me to wait a second and he made a phone call. He talked to someone for a long time and he found out what I needed to do to get back to Siena. I had one option and if I missed any part of it I would be stuck until the next morning. I had to get off at a different stop in Florence and wait for about an hour, take a train to Empoli, and take a bus from there to Siena. The boy, Simone, was so nice. He got off with me in Florence, showed me where my train would leave from, and helped me find out what time the bus left from Empoli. As we were walking he said, “Okay, you are in Florence, in the very center of the city. So if you have fear, do not worry because there will be tons of cops.” (Something to that effect, sometimes his English was a bit confusing). It ended up that he needed to take the same train as me because he was going to Pisa, where he goes to school. Neither of us had eaten and it was about 10:30 pm so we went to McDonald’s. He could tell I was nervous so he even spoke to me in English for a while before we switched back to Italian. We talked about food, school, Italy, trains, and President Obama. We got on our train and he needed to study because he had a big test in the morning. I tried to read but I was feeling really antsy and I was afraid I’d miss my stop and get stranded somewhere. I tried to act calm, but Simone kept saying “Tranquilla. Stai tranquilla!” (Calm down). Apparently I wasn’t that good at hiding my anxiety. In Empoli I got off and he kept going to Pisa. Before I got off the train, he pointed to a man out the window that I could ask about my bus. I caught the bus and finally made it back to Siena at about 1:30 am. Rita had waited up for me, so she came and got me. It was a very long day. The people on the train were so nice and they totally saved me, especially Simone. Everyone in Italy is so nice like that, they’ll always help you and it’s so amazing!

Fun in the Kitchen!

Last night in the kitchen was really, really fun! It was different because there were only two students. I think they paid extra to have private instruction. So it was just me, Luisa, and this couple from Argentina. Luisa was really excited as we were getting ready because she thought we'd get done early, which is always nice.The couple already spoke Italian really well, plus their Spanish helped, so I didn't need to translate into English for them and we just spoke in Italian most of the time.

Things didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped, though. There was a miscommunication and no one told Luisa that the lady, Miriam, can't eat cream. The menu was already written up and we had everything ready. Unfortunately the appetizer had a cream base, the pasta had a cream sauce, and the dessert was panna cotta (cooked cream). It was awful, pretty much everything had cream in it! Luisa had to do lots of improvisation and she did marvelously. She's brilliant! We put more eggs into the appetizer to substitute for the cream. It was an asparagus and cheese gelatin-type thing served with grissini (they're kind of like the Italian equivalent of french fries...sort of). For the pasta Luisa threw together a tomato, olive, onion, garlic, mint sauce. It was very good and served over fresh-made fettuccini. The second course was veal cooked with finely chopped carrot, onion, celery, and garlic. And red wine...it cooks out, don't worry. The dessert was the toughest. Luisa asked if she could substitute caramel for cream but they told us that they don't eat sweets. So Luisa had to come up with something compltelely different. She had them make a crust, this really good vanilla filling, and then she topped it with fresh berries. The couple had also requested focaccia bread. I was really excited about that because I love focaccia and had never seen it made before.

It's kind of nice having only two students as opposed to the usual 15-20. There isn't as much to make so it's more laid back in that respect. But the down side is that it takes a lot longer. When we have big groups everyone is working on something at the same time so the food gets done simultaneously. With Miriam and Carlo, though, they made everything themselves, one thing at a time. So it took a really long time. Plus Luisa had had to completely change a lot of the menu. She was really irked. She was always smiling and sweet to them but then she'd mutter things in Italian under her breath about how we were going to be there till midnight, etc. Usually there are at least three of us to help with instruction and cleaning, but last night it was just Luisa and me. So we were really busy the entire time. Usually the students start eating their appetizers at about 7:30. Last night it was 8:30 by the time we finally started getting the plates ready.

Luisa and I were so tired and as we were cutting the focaccia bread she told me I couldn't eat any. When I asked her why she looked really serious and said, "C'e caffe'!" (there's coffee) We both started laughing really hard. She thought she was so funny. She got all read in the face because she was laughing so hard. Then she said, "No, no c'e vino!" (no, no there's wine!) She thought that was even funnier. On Tuesday night, for the first time, we had cooked with coffee. As we were getting everything set up I saw coffee in the recipe but I didn't say anything because this dessert was kind of complicated and I didn't want to have her doing something completely separate for me even though it looked really good. It had white chocolate. It wasn't until half way through the meal that Letizia, one of the teachers that helps in the kitchen. remembered that I don't drink coffee. Luisa couldn't believe it. She knows I don't drink wine because they have it every night and I don't take any. So now she delights in making fun of me for it. It's so funny. After the focaccia bread, everything had coffee and wine in it. And she thought it was so funny every time. But it's okay, she redeemed herself by giving me an extra piece of the dessert and putting an extra raspberry on it because she knows they're my favorite.

Week 4 in Siena

This last week has been really great. Nothing too exciting happened, most of my days proceeded as follows:

6:30 - Wake up

6:30-6:47 - Breakfast (corn flakes, yogurt, apricot-filled muffin)

6:48-8:00 - Read in bed

8-10:00 - Run*

10-11:00 - Read

11-11:30 - Shower/get ready

11:30-12:00 - Write in journal/read

12-12:30 - Lunch

12:35-13:00 - Ride into the city

13-17:00 - Explore Siena

17-21:30 - Internship

21:30-22:00 - Ride home from the city

* Some days, when a former leg injury is bothering me, my run is substituted with a bike ride. That is usually how my day is. It's quite nice and I love it. I love exploring Siena. I try to take different streets each time I go somewhere. I've found some amazing churches and there are some places with incredible views.

I have learned a lot during my runs. For instance, I learned that the yellow wildflowers bloom first. They had already bloomed when I got here, now as they've started to die, the red ones are taking over. They're beautiful. But in the midst of all the red, I can see the purple and pink flowers budding and I'm really excited about that. They're really pretty. Also, through observing roadkill, I am learning a great deal about the indigenous Sienese wildlife. Apparently there are a lot of snakes, hedgehogs, and rabbits. I see them quite often on the road. It always makes me sad though, I'm rather fond of hedgehogs.

Last weekend Daniela and I went to San Gimignano. It was only about a 30 minute trainride from Siena. It was a small city that reminded me a lot of Siena. It was gorgeous and I loved it! Daniela and I explored the city, went into lots of the little shops there, ate lunch, and sampled some of the best gelato in the world. There is a gelateria there whose gelato won the Gelato World Championship last year. It was very delicious.

Also, I thought I would comment on something I find really funny. Rita makes this ragu, a meat sauce for pasta, that is really good. It has a few different kinds of meat, tomato, and other good things in it. She's given it to us the last two days and each time we've complimented her on it, she replies, "Lo so." (I know). Today when I told her how good it was, she said, "Lo so, l'ho fatto. Fatto io. Lo so" (I know. I made it...etc.). Usually she hovers until we've taken a bite to make sure we like what she's made, and she usually asks us several times to make sure it's okay. But she's extremely confident with this sauce. It is good, but I just think it's really funny how she gets this little smirk each time she serves it to us because she is fully aware of how good it is. I'm totally getting the recipe from her.

Oh also, this morning I went on a really long run. I found a dirt road and followed it into the hills. I found an awesome church that was kind of hidden in all the trees. It was called L'eremo di San Leonardo del Lago. It was cool and I was quite proud of myself for finding it. I ran through a heavily-wooded area and got lots of mosquito bites, but it was totally worth it. Anyway, it was just really cool and I just thought I'd mention it.

Other than that, things are going really good! This week should be great! It has gotten really hot here. Extremely hot and it's made worse by the humidity. It's gotten really humid. Almost sticky. So that's no fun. Rita doesn't have air conditioning. She should take lessons from mom on how to keep a house with no AC properly ventilated and cooled. Because Daniela and I die at night. But it's okay.

Don't Travel on Sunday

Daniela and I decided that because we chose to conclude our weekend trip on a Sunday, we were chastened. It started out as an awesome day. We woke up early, really early, because some kid in our hostel was snoring horribly loud and we couldn't sleep. It was awful so we left at about 6 am. We took the train to Pompeii and got there right as it was opening. We were the first ones inside and actually had the city to ourselves for a little while. Pompeii was amazing! I’ve wanted to go there for a long time. Ever since I was little and I read the book Pompeii….Buried Alive!! that we have at home.

We explored ruins for about four hours and then took the train to Ercolano (Herculaneum). I was really excited about this city. But when we found out that it cost €11 to enter, we decided not to do it. We had already forked out €16 each for Pompeii and we didn’t have very much time for Herculaneum so we decided it wasn’t worth it. However, the walkway that leads to the ticket office goes along one whole side of the city from above and you can totally see everything. So we admired everything from afar and felt like we’d outsmarted the system and were quite pleased with ourselves.

We had about 6 and half hours of train travel ahead of us to we hurried to the Naples train station so we could catch the soonest train. We were anxious to get on a train because we wanted to spend as little time as possible in Naples. However, the next train wasn't leaving for about an hour and a half! So we waited. We had gone to a supermarket in Sorrento the night before to get food so we wouldn't have to buy any on Sunday, but we ate it all. Pompeii was big and we walked around in the heat for 4 hours, so we had taken a couple snack breaks and by the time we got to the station after Herculaneum, all that was left was a roll and some Life-Savers. So we splurged and when to McDonald's. I treated myself to a McFlurry. We ate as slowly as we possibly could to take up time and eventually our train came.

We made it to Chiusi (about an hour and forty minutes south of Siena) where we had to switch trains. However, our train was 20 minutes late getting to Chiusi so we missed the train to Siena. We had to wait another hour for the next one. It was late and we were hungry again. So we got some food at the train station. It was good so we got more. I ended up eating a lot (a hamburger, cookie icecream sandwich, and a whole sleeve of crackers). We decided we'd explore Chiusi and see what it had to offer. It was the most boring city we'd been to. We couldn't even find a duomo. So we decided to sit and wait. I was feeling kind of sick after eating so much food and needed to do something active. Daniela was tired so I left my backpack with her and went on a run. I looked really funny, I know. I probably looked pretty haggard after three days of travel and walking with no shower. Everyone stared at me because my ensemble (jeans and a T-shirt) didn't look very running-appropriate. I enjoyed a lovely little run around the city, but it started getting dark back so I headed back to the station.

We're not sure why, but for some reason the trains were having a really hard time that day. Ours had been 20 minutes late getting there and about every 10 minutes or so we'd hear them announcing that some train was either late or had been cancelled. We were musing at how inconvient that would be if your train got cancelled. We wondered what you'd do. We soon found out. About 5 minutes before our train was supposed to be leaving they announced that the 8:40 train to Siena had been cancelled! We were so tired at that point that all we could do was laugh. The schedule said that there was one last train to Siena but we'd have to wait another hour and we figured that one would get cancelled too. So we sat there for a couple minutes, wondering what on earth we were going to do. Then they made an announcement that there would be a bus going to Siena to substitute for the train. We were pretty glad because we figured that the bus would be faster and more direct, but we were wrong.

The bus couldn't really go on the freeway or any major roads because we had to stop at every train station in every little city on the way to Siena to pick up anyone that was waiting for the train that wasn't coming. Finally, after a very long bus ride, we made it back to Siena! We had called Rita before arriving and asked her to pick us up. Our bikes were at the station but it was really dark and Daniela's bike doesn't have lights on it like mine, plus we were exhausted.

Despite our exhaustion by the end of the journey, the trip was well worth it! I actually enjoyed every minute of it! Although I would have preferred a smoother trip home, I thought it was an adventure!

The Amalfi Coast

This weekend Daniela and I decided to take a trip south and visit the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. It was an exciting weekend and I loved it! We left on Friday afternoon and the train ride was about 7 hours. We arrived in Salerno, Italy at about 9 pm and had to find our hostel. The directions posted online weren't very good and they had clearly been written by an Italian-speaker trying to learn English because they hardly made any grammatical sense. But notwithstanding this setback, we met a really nice lady who actually lived on the same street as our hostel and she said she'd take us to the street. We stopped once we got to the street and were trying to decide where to go when I guy walked by and asked us if we needed any help. We told him the name of our hostel and he told us exactly where to go. Italian people are so nice!

The hostel was kind of a dive. I'd never stayed in one before and it was definitely a new experience. This hostel had a lot of older people in it. Daniela and I shared a room with two girls from New York, a Russian lady, and a Japanese boy. Everything seemed really dirty and I was kind of disgusted the whole time. Especially as I picked hairs off the sheets. That was gross. Luckily we weren't there for that long. We got in late and left early. Everything went fine. There was a rather frightening moment when Daniela left me by myself so she could go call her fiance and the Russian lady pulled out a knife. I was sure she was going to kill me, but then she pulled out some pizza and cut herself a slice. We left bright and early, caught a bus, and went along the Amalfi Coast!

The Amalfi Coast is the most beautiful place I have ever been! I loved it! It is a long, cliffy coastline south of Naples. First we went to Amalfi, and it was charming. We explored the city a bit, ate breakfast, and went inside the Duomo. From there, we took a bus up the narrowest, windiest mountain road I've ever been on (it puts silver lake to shame) to Ravello. Ravello was gorgeous and it had an amazing view of the coast. After a little while in Ravello we took the bus to Positano, which was about an hour and a half away. The road goes right along the cliffs and the bus drivers are fearless. They just honk a couple times before ever blind corner and it's pretty intense with cars, busses, and mopeds going in both directions. Eventually we made it safely there. Positano is the most beautiful city I've ever been to!! I am in love with it. We had some lunch and gelato on the beach and walked around the streets and explored all the little shops.

From Positano we took the bus along the rest of the coastline and ended in Salerno. From there we took the train to Portici, right outside of Naples. I have loved every place in Italy that I have been...Naples is the exception. I don't ever want to go back. It wouldn't have been quite as bad if my visit there hadn't been preluded by fervent warnings from professors and others about the dangers of Naples, "La citta' di Ladri" (the city of thieves), as it is sometimes called. It was very dirty, didn't smell very good, and we recieved more honks and yells than we have in our entire stay in Italy put together. We eventually found our hostel and it was quite a bit nicer than the other one had been. It was actually pretty cool and we felt safe inside.

Despite the negative end to our day with our stop in Portici, it was an incredible day!!! I absolutely loved the Amalfi Coast! Everyone should go there at some point in their lifetime.

Lucca and Pisa

I thought I should also recap on the weekend. Daniela and I took the train up to Lucca (about two and a half hours north) and spent several hours there. It was beautiful! Lucca is surrounded by huge walls that have grass, trees, and even parks on top of them! We walked around the walls for a while then explored the city. There were tons of churches and they were all amazing. We found a cool new church everywhere we went. For lunch we got focaccia bread and pizza, it was the best I've had yet! Then we went in search of a gelateria. We eventually found one that looked good so we each got some. This was definitely the best gelato I have had yet. It was divine. So good. I got two flavors: mint chocolate and "Bounty" (A candybar. Pretty much the same thing as an Almond Joy without the almond. But this gelato also had caramel in it which made it even better!). I very thoroughly enjoyed that gelato!

We were really tired after walking around the city for a long time and we rested in one of the parks on top of the wall. We had seen everything we'd planned on seeing in Lucca but we still had about three hours before we'd planned on leaving. Then Daniela had an ingenius idea. We were scheduled to change trains in Pisa and we both really wanted to see the leaning tower. So we took the train to Pisa, got off, and walked till we found the tower. The duomo right next to the tower is amazing! My favorite one so far! After a sufficient amount of picture-taking, we headed back to the train station. We had to walk for about 30 minutes to get there, but we eventually found it. We caught a train back to Siena, did a little grocery shopping, then rode our bikes home. It was a very tiring, but fun and exciting day!

Sunday was good as well. I am slowly mastering the art of riding a bike while wearing a skirt. That was a trick. Luckily, returned missionary Daniela knows a couple tricks. If you take a clothes pin and pin your skirt at the bottom, you don't have problems. I wish I'd known that before Sunday. Oh well, I'll do it next time. Church was great. We spent a while in Piazza del Campo. We were just about to leave when all of a sudden we heard drums. We looked around and one of the contradas was parading through the square. They had flags and drums and guys all dressed up in medieval attire. It was really cool. We looked all over the city for an internet point that was open and finally found one and were able to call our moms! That was great! It was a good day and this week is going to be great, too!

Long Afternoon

Whenever something bad happens to me, I make myself feel better by thinking, "It's okay, I'm in Italy!" Today, for example: I woke up early because Daniela's alarm went off at 6:15. After reading in bed for a while, I had breakfast. Today is our laundry day and because of differing schedules, Daniela and I decided to split up our clothes and do it separately. I didn't want to have to haul all of the clothes home on my bike after my internship when it's dark, so I decided to go into the city early, do laundry, come back to Rita's at lunchtime with the clothes, then go back again for my internship. The bike ride is kind of hard and takes about 20-30 minutes. There are big hills both ways. They aren't necessarily steep, but they're really long and make you pretty tired.


I left Rita's at about 8 with my backpack and a bag full of laundry. That wasn't a very good idea. It was a very arduous journey. My big bag full of laundry was really heavy and kept getting in the way of my pedaling because it kept bouncing off my backpack that was also pretty full. I finally made it into the city. I took a little walk to the Basilica di San Caterina (it has one of my favorite views of the city), stopped by the library for a little while, then went to the lavanderia to do the laundry. After it was done I folded all of the clothes as compactly as I could so my bags wouldn't be so bulky and began the perilous trek home. It was about 11:30, so this ride wasn't very enjoyable. I was really hungry and the sun was out so it was hot. I finally made it home and Rita was just finishing up my lunch. It was delicious and very much appreciated.

As soon as lunch was done I got back on my bike, with a significantly lighter load, and rode back into the city. I was congratulating myself on completing the trip two times as I rode into Piazza Gramsci where I park my bike. I got to the place where I lock up my bike and when I reached into my backpack to retrieve the key, it wasn't there! Then I remembered. The key had been thrown dramatically onto my bed when I had gotten home for lunch and I had left it there! I let out an audible moan, got back on the stupid bike and rode all the way back to Rita's. She couldn't believe it when I came in the door again. I explained the situation to her, marched into my room, grabbed the key, then got right back on that cursed green bike and began the trip into the city for a THIRD time. I finally made it into the city, sunburned and extremely hot. I think I glowered at a German man on a motorcycle. I didn't mean to. But all is well. I met up with Daniela in the library and we planned our trip to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast this weekend. Even though those were several very long, hot, and tiring hours, it's okay, I'm in Italy!

Cooking with Luisa

My second night as an intern was even better than the first! I loved it! There are two chefs at the school, Nando and Luisa. Nando is awesome and very funny. Luisa is incredible though, she is an amazing chef and she's so nice. I get to do a lot more interacting with the students when she's there and I also get to cook quite a bit! She'll show me how to do something then just leave me like I know what I'm doing. I'm learning, though, and it's so much fun. When Luisa is there, the other assistant is Letizia, one of my Italian teachers from the school. She is so much fun to work with too! Plus it's nice because she's the one who taught me all of the cooking vocabulary so she knows if I know a word or not. So if the translating gets tricky, she helps me.

Italians have a hard time with my name, Luisa's definitely not the first. She kept forgetting it last night. She'd grab my wrist to have me help her with something, then stumble for a while trying to remember my name. Finally, on about the fourth time, when I told her my name is Hillary she said, "Ohhhh, Hillary Clinton! Got it!". That's not the first time that's happened. I'm always associated with her. Oh well. We had a lot of students last night and the food was incredible! We cooked with eggplant, which I'd never done before. And we made home-made fettucini noodles, they were so good and so fun to make!

I have to walk for about 10-15 minutes from my school to Piazza Gramsci to catch the bus, and I don't like doing it at night. Luisa actually lives in the same general direction as me, so she gave me a ride home because we got done pretty late. She, like all Italians I've met so far, was a crazy driver. She has a funny taste in music. The CD we listened to ranged from Elton John to Sting to Backstreet Boys. She loved her American music, especially Sting. She just sang her little heart out to those songs. It was really funny, and it was really nice of her to give me a ride home.

I'm really excited for the rest of my internship! It's going to help my Italian, and my cooking, a lot! (The picture above this post is the view from the terrace outside the kitchen I work in)

Cooking with Nando

Here is a brief recap of the last couple days because it's been a very good week:

Sunday: Church started at 9:00 so Daniela and I left early so that we'd have plenty of time to find the building. The gave me a map and I put it in my journal thinking that I'd remember it was there, but I didn't. After looking for a while we saw the missionaries and followed them to the building. I had a "calling" within the first five minutes. No one in the branch can play the piano so that's my new unofficial calling. It was cool to have church in Italian. The Relief Society teacher was probably the faster speaker I've encountered yet, and that's saying a lot. But it was a good lesson. There are about 30 members in branch. After church we had 6 hours before dinner and Rita doesn't feed us lunch so we had a lovely lunch of gummy bears and cookies. I read outside in the garden and took a walk while Daniela took a nap.

Monday: We went to classes on Monday because our internships hadn't started yet. We had to haul all of our dirty clothes into the city because we needed to do laundry. After classes we went searching for a good lavanderia (laundry place). Just as we were getting ready to make our way to Piazza Gramsci to catch our bus, it starting raining. Then it turned to hail. It was torrential. We thought we'd wait for it to stop because these random little spurts of bad weather are quite common and usually don't last long. It didn't seem to be letting up at all so we had to brave it with all of our freshly-laundered, freshly-folded clothes. My clothes were lucky and didn't get too wet because the bag they were in kept most of the water out.

Tuesday: I woke up early, ate breakfast, and went for a run. It was the most beautiful run I've ever been on! I ran through field after field of wildflowers. I loved it. I needed to stay at the house till noon because Rita was cooking me lunch since I would miss dinner. I read out in the garden while I waited for lunch. After a delicious lunch I caught the bus. I explored the city for a few hours. I found a really cool basilica, it was beautiful inside! During my walk it started raining three different times. They never lasted for long and it seemed like by the time I got my umbrella out the worst was over and I was already really wet. My internship started last night and it's going to be very cool! There is a big kitchen in the school, it has a terrace that looks over lots of rooftops. I got there at five so Enzo, one of the teachers, could show me around. The chef, Nando, is a really nice guy and he doesn't speak any English. The people that come to the class are either students at the school who are learning Italian or tourists who don't speak Italian at all. There were ten students last night, which is a lot. There was actually a couple from Salt Lake, so that was exciting. Nando explained how to make each part of the meal in Italian and then Enzo or I would repeat it in English. After everything had been explained the students split up to make each part of the meal. When it was all made, they went into a dining room we'd set up for them to eat. They serve the students wine and I actually had to carry it into the dining room. I've never handled wine before and I made sure that I held it at a safe and respectable distance from my body. That was probably a little extreme, but it was a new thing for me and you can never be too careful. Then we got to eat it, too, in the kitchen. It was so good! They made stuffed peppers and a salad, home-made pasta with tomato/garlic/herb sauce, turkey rolled up in this mushroom/herb paste with mushroom sauce on top, and a carrot cake with strawberries. My job is to translate for Nando, ask Nando questions in Italian for the students, make sure they're following the recipes correctly, and do dishes as they are dirtied. I really liked it and it's nice that I'm going to get dinner each night since I'm missing it at Rita's!

Today (Wednesday): Woke up early and went on a run. I came into the city after my run, but because my internship got over pretty late last night I couldn't buy another bus ticket. Our bicycles were supposed to be ready last night so I didn't really worry about buying one when the stores were open. However, Rita didn't have time to pick our bikes up from the shop where they were being adjusted, so I needed to take the bus. I took the bus as far as I dared, but sometimes they check to make sure you have a ticket and if you don't they kick you off and fine you. It was slightly dishonest, I know, but I felt justified because I really couldn't buy a ticket and the stupid pay phone took 70 cents from me last night when I called Rita to pick me up from the bus stop. So I figured, I had already given Italy 70 cents and should be allowed use the bus. I was nervous the entire time and I got off well before the end of the route. I had to walk about a mile to get into the city and I wasn't entirely sure where I was, but I eventually found my way. I went and read for a while in the Piazza del Campo and then bought an apple for lunch. Today is a beautiful, hot day and I don't think it's going to rain!

Firenze (Florence)

Early Saturday morning Daniela and I took the train to Florence. I loved Florence, there was something to see everywhere we went! However, I’m not entirely sure why Sandra Bullock wanted to go there so badly in While You Were Sleeping, it was pretty and art-filled, but not necessarily the most picturesque or beautiful city I’ve seen. But it was a wonderful day! The weather was perfect, actually really hot. Later in the afternoon as we were getting ready to leave it rained for a few minutes and it felt really good. Because it was a holiday weekend, the city was pretty crowded! We had a full day of walking, but it was very enjoyable. The following is an outline of our day in Florence:

• Got lost.
• Found the Galleria dell’Accademia which houses Michelangelo’s David. We saw a line so we walked to the end. After walking down the street and around the corner we decided that although David is a lovely work of art, he wasn’t worth the LONG wait.
• From there we went to the Duomo. The line there was relatively fast. After about 30 minutes, we were inside. The inside was very pretty, I really liked it! We saw the outside of the Baptistry before heading off to our next destination.
• We wound around the streets until we found the Uffizi. The line there was even longer than the one at the Galleria dell’Accademia! We really wanted to go inside though, so we got in line. We were prepared to wait for quite a while, even though it was time for lunch. We jealously watched the people who had made reservations breeze through their practically non-existent line. After learning that the line would take at least three and a half hours, we decided to bypass the Uffizi and come back another weekend after making a reservation.
• The Uffizi is right by Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence with an expensive little shopping district.
• Once across the river we went to the Palazzo Pitti and saw, among other things, the Boboli Gardens. There were incredible! They’re huge! It started getting really hot while we were there and we walked around them for a couple hours. There were some amazing views of the city from the upper parts of the city. We also got to see the porcelain museum and il Museo delle Costume. We got to see parts of the actual clothing worn by Cosimo de Medici. But I loved the Boboli Gardens, they were absolutely beautiful!
• Our next stop was the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Cappella Brancacci. On our way we got some lunch and stopped at a little supermarket to buy water and an apple. It was a delicious lunch. We ate on the front steps of the church of Santa Maria.
• Inside the Cappella Brancacci there are frescoes on The Life of Saint Peter. I had studied some of them in my humanities class so it was really exciting to see them.
• We started making our way back to the train station. Florence had an open market and tons of the streets were lined with stands selling things. We looked at lots of them and did a little shopping. It started raining while we were there and it was kind of refreshing.
• We got to the station, found our train, and headed back to Siena.
• The train was a little behind schedule. It left on time but due to a sudden thunder storm and extended stops at deserted stops just outside Siena, we arrived a bit late.
• We finally got back to Rita’s and were starving and exhausted. Rita had dinner ready for us and we were very grateful. We had a lovely dinner of penne pasta with tomato, chicken, little sausage things, salad, bread, tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, and we finish every dinner with a pear! The pears are always perfectly ripe (except for the hard one Daniela had the other night) and they are delicious!

Monteriggioni

May 1 is a holiday in Italy so there is no school and most of the stores are closed. Rita offered to drive Daniela and I to Monteriggioni, a nearby citadel city. I had read about Monteriggioni and it was on my list of places to go, so I was really excited. In the morning we took Martina to the train station because she was done with classes and went back to Germany. While we were there, we bought train tickets for Florence. We had about two hours before leaving so I went for a run when we got back. It was beautiful!

We packed some snacks, water, and our cameras, and Rita drove us to the city at about noon. It is a very small city on a hill surrounded by big walls. There are only two streets in the whole city. For only € 1,50 you could walk around on top of the walls. The view from there was amazing. We walked around the walls, went into all of the little shops around the city, and hiked around the outside of the city. It was a lot of fun. Everything in the city is very small and very old. There are actually quite a few permanent residents there which kind of surprised me. The little city was very crowded with tourists and I can’t imagine living there.

A Day with the Deeres

Siena has been very rainy all week. It's the same every day: overcast in the morning, sunny for the four hours that I'm in class, then rainy once I start walking around the city. When I got out of class yesterday at noon, Daniela and I went to a small restaurant and got sandwiches. She had to go back to the school for classes and I went exploring. One of my good friends from high school, Jackson Deere, and his parents are in Italy and they were in Siena yesterday. We had talked about meeting up and having dinner together, but I have a hard time finding internet connection and the headset I use with my computer broke, so I had no way of contacting them. I was on my way back to the school to do some work, but I decided to take a different route and explore some of the smaller streets I hadn't seen yet. I was walking up one of them when I saw Jackson and his parents! I caught up to them and we spent the rest of the day together. They had been trying to find me for quite a while. They had called Rita several times, but she doesn't speak any English and they don't know Italian so they hadn't gotten very far. Then they had gone to the school looking for me but I wasn't there. We had dinner reservations at 7:00 so we had a few hours to walk around the city. We went inside the baptistry of the Duomo and it was beautiful!

Dinner was delicious, but I don't think I have ever been so full! First they brought out bread. We were all hungry and the bread was really good so we ate a lot. After about three baskets of bread, the antipasti came out. There was some bruschetta, a salad, and a mushroom/eggplant/ham concoction that was actually really good! Then came the main courses: I had pasta with fresh tomatoe and pesto, but there were also gnocchi (potatoe dumplings) with a cheese sauce. Then I had some wild boar that Jackson's dad had ordered and some pork that had been flavored with honey. After that I didn't think that I could possibly eat anything else. I was wrong. Jackson's dad insisted on ordering desserts. We got three: a chocolate souffle, meringue with ice cream and caramlized strawberries, and a home-made cone with vanilla cream. We staggered out of the restaurant about two and a half hours later and walked to the car.

It was too late for me to take the bus home so I was supposed to direct Jackson's dad to Rita's house. That was a problem. I have only driven from the city to Rita's house twice by bus. Both times I was very tired and didn't pay very much attention to directions. We drove around in the dark for about an hour. After taking a dozen different roads and somehow ending up in front of the same soccer field, we asked for directions. I went into a McDonald's and asked a woman if she knew where my street, Strada di Pian del Lago, was. She gave me directions that led us right back to the soccer field! We went back to the McDonald's and I asked a man in the parking lot. He gave me different directions that led us right to Rita's. It was amazing. I got back pretty late and Rita was waiting up for me. I tried to do some of my homework because I had been given a lot, but I didn't do very much. After about 8:30 here I start losing cognitive power. My homework wasn't a problem, after I told my teacher about last night's adventures she understood and said that if I was Italian I wouldn't have done it at all!

First Day in Italy

Yesterday, my first full day in Italy, was wonderful! We had to be at the Dante Alighiere center at 8:00 in order to take a test which would place us, according to level, in classes. Zia Rita ("Aunt" Rita) prepared us a breakfast of cereal, yogurt, and some cream-filled pastries. We caught the 7:2o bus which took us to Piazza Gramsci (a piazza on the edge of the center of the city where all the busses come. From there, the walk is about ten minutes to Dante Alighiere. Siena is beautiful! I can't wait to explore! We took a written and an oral test and then waited in the student room for our classes to start. For some reason, I was placed in the same class as Daniela, who served a mission in Italy. There are five students in our class: me, Daniela, and three girls from Switzerland. It is rather intimidating, but I enjoy it!

Each day this week we will have two classes. The first is with Andrea, the Italian giant. He is very, very tall. Our second teacher is Letizia, she is a cute girl. This afternoon, I will have an individual lesson with her and I am looking forward to it. After our lessons yesterday we had a tour of the school and of the city by "Piccolo" Andrea. His name is Andrea, too, but he is very short. He compensates for his lack of height by talking very loudly. Andrea left us at the Piazza Gramsci and we were free to go. Daniela and I walked around the city for several rainy hours. We went to the Duomo and the Piazza del Campo (the main piazza of the city). We were starving after walking for so long so I bought my very first Italian gelato. It was delicious! I got pistacchio and "bacio" flavored. (a bacio is an italian candy consisting of chocoloate and hazelnut).

There is another girl living with Rita. She is from Germany and her name is Martina. She speaks very little Italian and a little English. We were supposed to meet her at the Piazza Gramsci at 5:00 so she could show us which bus to take to get back to Rita's. Unfortunately, she was a couple minutes late and we missed it. We had to wait an hour for the next one. Normally, that would have been just fine. However, it was raining and we were hungry and the jet lag had started taking effect. We finally made it home and Rita had dinner ready for us. Her food is wonderful, but mealtimes with her are tricky. Especially if you aren't very hungry. Fortunately, we were starving last night. She doesn't eat with us, but she sits and watches us eat. Once we've finished something she offers us more and doesn't really wait for an affirmative response before serving more. I worry about offending her when I don't want more. I now have several phrases that work quite nicely when I am no longer hungry: "Sono sazia" means I am satisfied, "E' basta" means that's enough, and "Non c'e piu' spazio"means there is no more space/room. Daniela and I were so tired that after dinner we went to our room, read and wrote for a little bit, and went to bed early.