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.