Ciao a tutti! Here is the long awaited update on my life that I hereby dedicate to Sarah, Leslie, and Steph for urging me to write. I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the end of the summer. After arriving in Italy last Tuesday evening, I really have not stopped moving at all and this is the first chance I’ve had to write. As a result, I cannot promise how coherent this entry will be. I think that after the students get adjusted and the weeks of orientation are over, I will definitely have more free time. Although it [View Full Entry]

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I think that to really get to know a culture, it’s quite necessary to pay a nice visit to their medical facilities. For the past little while I’ve been having this problem with my eye where I really can’t see very well, especially out of my left eye, which is definitely kind of a problem. The school decided it was time to take me to the hospital to have it looked at, so I was driven to the hospital right outside of Siena, to the ‘pronto soccorso’ or emergency facility. They directed us downstairs to the eye specialist and, after explaining [View Full Entry]

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The weeks are really just flying right by and I can’t believe I’ll be home in almost exactly a month! Although it will be hard to leave, it will be really exciting to come home and see everyone (and I’m also looking forward to chowing down on some foods I haven’t eaten in awhile...really high on my list are Chinese food, Mexican food, bread and butter instead of olive oil, eggs and bacon, and definitely cutting back on the pasta for awhile). A quick update on my plans for Christmas: my flight doesn’t leave Rome until December 26 at noon, so [View Full Entry]

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My parents arrived on Saturday the 28th, and I took a train Saturday morning to meet them at the airport. Unfortunately, I arrived a little later than I had hoped (I thought it would be like a movie if I was there waiting for them when they came out of their gate), and apparently my father wanted to leave without me and just have me meet them at their hotel (sorry dad, I just had to include that...I know, I know, tough love), but my mommy stuck up for me and I eventually made it. The first few moments were [View Full Entry]

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So, last week I got home from school and went into the kitchen to say ciao to Lucia, and she was cooking dinner. She was explaining to me what she was cooking, and I thought she said ‘cavallo’, which is horse. She was telling me that because it has an odor after you cook it (una puzza), she had to put the pot outside. I was absolutely terrified that she was cooking smelly horse for cena, but little did I realize that, instead of cavallo, she had said ‘cavolofiore’ (I had only heard the ‘cavolo’ part), so I was quite relieved [View Full Entry]

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Now for my first entry as my 21 year old self. Hopefully my writing will sound more mature, as I think I have gained much experience and insight since turning 21.... The weekend before my birthday was a very relaxing and beautiful one. On Saturday, I went with school to a vineyard in the countryside to participate in the vendemmia, the grape harvest. We arrived, energetic and ready to get out there and get some grapes! We had a warm, sunny day, and armed with ‘fornice,’ the clippers, we went out to the fields with the workers, who were all very [View Full Entry]

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Ciao a tutti! Our three week intensive language course ended Friday, and this week is the beginning of our regular semester classes. I am taking four classes, but one of them actually counts as two classes, and my schedule looks really great. I will continue to have an Italian language class, then I also have an introductory Art History class, complete with field trips to Florence, a class on Italian history, and a class called Education and Linguistics. The education class is about Italian Sign Language and it's going to be pretty challenging. Part of the class is taught by a [View Full Entry]

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Last week, I spoke with Miriam, the director of my program, about finding a place to practice the piano. Up until then, I hadn't played the piano at all in Italy and I really missed it. Luckily, Miriam's brother owns a hotel in Siena and, after clearing it with him, I am now allowed to go to this beautiful hotel and play on the 9 ft. Steinway grand piano in the living room. I went for the first time on Friday and, while I was kind of nervous because the piano is not in a very secluded place and guests often [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick update on an entirely strange and exciting afternoon yesterday.... So, after class ended, I was walking with Hannah, my new friend from Bryn Mawr (we didn't really know each other before coming to Italy, but she's wonderful and I'm glad that Italy introduced us to each other!). We are in the process of making plans for a trip on Saturday. We think that we would like to go back to a beach while the weather is still nice, so we were heading to a travel agency to ask about the best places to go and the transportation. While [View Full Entry]

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I have to try to remember some of the interesting things that I have done since the last time I updated this...apologies for the disrupted temporality of my thoughts.... Yesterday was my first day of school! For the first three weeks of the semester, we only have intensive language classes, so I go to school every day from 9:30 until between 4 and 5 (with a pretty hefty Itlalian-style lunch break) and only learn Italian...I think it's going to be pretty intense, but my professor is this really fun young woman and the class is very small, so I really enjoyed [View Full Entry]

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