First Few Weeks

       Ciao amici!

Il Campo - Siena's Main Piazza

 I have been in Siena, Italy for a few weeks now and I wanted to make sure that all of my friends and family are updated on how I am doing and all of my adventures. Thus, I created this blog (for the first time I might add) so that you might check it out at your leisure. While the journey here was not difficult at first, a delayed flight and consequently missed busses and trains left me stranded at midnight in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Italy. Jet-lagged and tired, I was so grateful to meet a girl on the train who looked just as lost. I came to find out she goes to UC Davis as well. We ended up staying the night at a small hotel and going to Siena in the morning.


My first emotion when seeing Siena for the first time was “OH MY GOSH I GET TO LIVE HERE!!!” Any picture of Siena simply cannot do it justice, and there is a feel in the air that I can only describe as the ‘essence of Italy’. The streets are a maze of cobblestone and connected buildings. I learned the hard way there is no such thing as a “short-cut” in Siena because you will inevitably find yourself turned around, going down when you should be going up, and crossing a different piazza than the one you intended to.
  

My Home Street

       I am living in a home with an Italian woman, Beatrice, and a roommate Chelsea. ( Imagine how that confused Beatrice the first few days!!!) Beatrice speaks almost no English, but the gestures and voice inflections are about half of the language, so we get by. The first few dinners consisted of Chelsea (who has a year of Italian under her belt) translating for Beatrice and me just smiling a lot over a heaping plate of food. However, after only a few weeks I can communicate much better and sometimes have to translate what Beatrice says for Chelsea, albeit rarely. (Its’ usually because Chelsea was laughing so hard she couldn’t hear what Beatrice said. ) We live inside the city walls (thank goodness) and its only a short walk from my apartment to… well anywhere in Siena. It only takes about twenty minutes to walk from one side of town to the other. I love the location and the apartment is so quaint and comfortable. Beatrice does an excellent job of making us feel at home here.
        

Tasty Pizza!!!

     I could probably dedicate a whole blog merely to the food I am eating here, but it will suffice to say that I am following Eat Pray Loves’ “No Carb Left Behind Diet.. As well as No Vegetable, Fruit, Salad, or Wine left behind.” Beatrice is not much of a meat eater, much to my delight, and a lot of our meals are delicious vegetable dishes. Each meal is a four course meal : If we are having pasta, that comes first, then the main course of veggies or meat, then salads, breads, and cheeses, and then fruit for dessert. Some of the things I have eaten include : AMAZING pesto pasta, tortellini, veggie kebab type things, a veggie pie/pizza, green plums, pear juices, some turkey and chicken… and get this… pigeon!!! Although, to be fair, I didn’t realize it was pigeon until after I slathered some on a piece of bread and ate it. Only then did I ask Beatrice what it was and did not expect “Pigeon” to be the answer. It was quite tasty and if given the change I might sample it again.

The first weekend that I was here in Siena a group of seven of us decided to travel to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower. We had some delicious “pizza in pisa” ( I tried part of one that had an egg cooked in the middle of it.. So good),

walked all over then town and where the tower is, ate dinner at the hostel and went to bed. The next morning we decided to go to Viareggio, a beach on the north western side of Italia on the Mediterranean. After a day at the beach, some skinny dipping in the Mediterranean (check it off the bucket list!), and seeing the cute little beach town, we found ourselves unable to travel back to Siena because of a train/bus strike.

We had to take alternate routes and out of the way stops in order to make it back to Siena. What should have been an hour and a half train ride took us from six o’clock until two in the morning because of the strikes. Sfortuna!!!

      This past week we started school, and Italian is very easy compared to the Chemistry and Microbiology I have been taking at Davis. ( A much needed break from the sciences!) It is such an enjoyable class, and learning is much easier when one is surrounded by the subject. I have only had one art history class.. But it already has me begging for my chemistry back. I hope the next few lectures prove me wrong and change my opinion about what the class is going to be like.

    

     I am currently looking into trying to work out a part time internship with a winery nearby, but I am not sure if anything is going to pan out. We get to visit wineries as part of the program, but I want to try to make some solid connections in hopes of an internship here after I graduate.
     This coming weekend there are thirty of us here in Siena who are traveling to Germany for the famous beer festival, Oktoberfest. The fine German beer is going to be fun, but I am more excited to see Munich and to be in Germany in general. Hopefully these travel plans go more smoothly than the last ones.



Pisa



I think that is about all that I have to report for right now, but I will be putting up another blog in a week or two to describe Siena a little bit better and to let you know how Germany went. I love you all and I do in fact miss you despite the fact that I am in Italy. Ciao!!! Buona Fortuna!!!! Arrivederci!!!!







Pisa



Me at Il Campo.. about to rain!



Becka, Chelsea, and Me at Viareggio!