che lunga.

So...I'm in an Italian class...All by myself. Solo. Oh wait, I'm not by myself, because there is the Italian woman who is asking me questions and having me analyze text and tell her what my "dream in a drawer" is. Which, I have no idea what it is...Also, I had to talk about my childhood and my earliest memories. I attempted to describe, in Italian, duck, duck, goose. Mama Mia...I've got an incredible headache, needless to say. But I should be dang good at Italian at the end of these ten weeks...

or dead.

But, lets back up a bit. We arrived in Siena on Saturday. It was lovely, as expected. We all stood around at this bus station and waited for our families to come get us. It was really like puppies in a cardboard box. We were on the side of the road and they would come and pick up a couple people and then they left. Ours came to get us in two cars (due macchine) with their daughter, Virginia, who speaks pretty good English. So she told us that we were going to drop off our stuff in the city and then we would go to the country for dinner, and I was confused, but went with it anyway.

Turns out...They have TWO HOUSES!! The city house is this immaculate museum... Which conveniently required carrying our luggage up 4 flights of stairs. Our mama, Luigia, works at a bank (or something) but is also an AMAZING painter. And her paintings are everywhere in the house. It's a huge house, by the way. Then the country house has cows (mucca) and horses and chicken and a cat named Schizo and a dog, who I'm not sure even belongs to them. So we ate dinner there with a couple that they are friends with, who are quite hilarious.

And we ate tons of figs, which are DELICIOUS.

Next day we went to church and people were incredible. This one lady had one of the missionaries translate into English for us, but she kept telling him he was doing it wrong and he was like, "you can speak English!!" but she insisted he translate. and then at one point she was getting emotional, but told him he didn't have to cry, hah.

After church we wandered around a bit and then took a much needed nap.

Then we got picked up and taken to the country for dinner, this time the daughter who spoke English didn't go with us so we thought it would be quieter...But o contrario, we get there to a huge chorus of Ciao! Buona Sera! and telling us how pretty we are. There was one man who sang in New York in 1969. And another lady with three wedding rings all together that were buried in diamonds. And our friends from the night before along with a lady who wanted to practice her English and another who was convincing us she would be the best tour guide for Siena, because she knows everything.

And we ate a lot, pasta in a walnut cream sauce, bread, zucchinni with mozerella, thin fried potatoes, and mashed (sort of) potatoes with olive oil and salt and pepper, proscuitto and figs, and gelato.

They were all so hilarious and animated, I wish I could describe the scene better, but it was excellent.

I really wish it would cool down here, because I have overly used my 1 pair of shorts and 3 skirts, but it's getting better.

ciao ciao!