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.