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Published: September 12th 2006
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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 have to walk through the room, I had a wonderful time and look forward to going often. Guests would stop by and listen and talk to me, and I had fun playing and chatting. When I went downstairs to leave, the people at the front desk thanked me for the afternoon entertainment and told me to come back as often as I wanted. Another huge bonus--on the corner of the street that I have to pass to get there, there is a delicious pastry shop that had the best little cookies--I might be going to practice more often than I
even expected....
After dinner one night last week, I walked with my host parents and their dog, Sila, to their neighborhood church to watch Leo's soccer game. There were tables set up outside where I could see everyone had just finished a community dinner, and all of the kids and families were gathering around for the game. Siena's soccer season is beginning now, and I'm excited to go to some of Siena's home games (I've heard that women can often get in for free or very little).
I really like how close the community is here. The relationship amongst the people is interesting because everybody is very much interested in everyone else's business, and this is just considered natural. I have noticed with my host family that everything is fair game to talk about, ask about, pry at...they are just an incredibly open and forward people. For example, while we might have some issues with discussing our age or weight in America, here it's just another topic on the list of available discussion points. One night at dinner a little bit after I had arrived in Italy, my host father had no problem asking me about my weight and
if I thought I was gaining any weight so far. The family then proceeded to look at me and discuss my eating habits and how they thought that I had not as of yet gained any weight, but they had a scale if I wanted to check. I've just had to get used to having all of my habits and actions be totally out there for everyone to comment about or discuss. My host family thinks that it's very strange that I wash my hair every day (yes, LAKES, I really do shower here every day). My host mother constantly worries about how I go out in the morning with wet hair- she has shown me her hairdryer innumerable times. She always looks very disapprovingly at my wet hair, and I keep explaining to her that in the summer when it's hot out, I don't think it's bad to go to school with damp hair. She still totally disagrees. So, I was getting pretty frustrated with the wet hair thing and really just wanted to do things the way I wanted, (especially after one night last week when I took a shower at night and Lucia told me that I
really shouldn't go to bed until my hair was dry). Then, one morning as I was waiting outside for the bus, again with my horrendously wet hair, a small Italian woman wrapped in a shawl came over to me and stood critically scrutinizing my damp curls. After a few moments of eyeing me up, she said "Perche' esci con i capelli bagnati? Non hai un asciugacapelli?? -Why are you going out with wet hair? Don't you have a hairdryer?- I really wasn't sure whether to scream or laugh, but I just told her that I was only going out with wet hair because it was warm out, but that when it gets cold, I would definitely dry my hair first. She agreed that yes, this would be a very good idea or else I would definitely get sick. Oh my.
On Saturday, I took a day trip to the beach with three friends. We went to a beautiful coastal town called Castiglione della Pescaia and we had great weather- it was my third time swimming in the Mediterranean in a month! We arrived around 10:30 and spent the whole day swimming, napping, snacking, and relaxing in the silky sand.
On Sunday I went with my host family to a large outdoor lunch at the community church. We all sat outside at long picnic tables and it was interesting to watch everyone work together in preparing and serving the food. When I first got here I always ate very timidly and politely. I was nervous to reach for or ask for things, but after watching the way everyone else goes about their food consumption, I've learned to reach and eat with gusto and relish. Yesterday after the picnic, Hannah and her host family invited me to come with them to a town about an hour from Siena called Montalcino, where they are having a week long honey festival. We tasted so many different kinds of honey (including this amazing strawberry honey), and bought some natural beeswax products (I got some very nice lipstick). After the festival, I went back to Hannah's house and had dinner with her family. They have a piano in their apartment and after dinner, I played a little for everyone. The piano hadn't been played for a long time (it was horribly out of tune), but the family was happy to have someone use it.
As we were leaving their apartment to take me home, I totally wiped out on their stairs and landed really hard on my butt. When I got home, I was telling Lucia about how I fell and she was very concerned. She told me to come over and show her where it hurt. I pulled up my skirt tentatively to show her, but Lucia then proceeded to grab my underwear and give me a half-wedgey to check to see if my butt cheek was bruised. I'm still a little sore today....
Quick update: My address here where I can receive things (hint hint 😉 ) is just the address of my school:
Siena School for Liberal Arts
Via Pannilunghi 10
Siena, Italy, 53100
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Mrs. G
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Elizabeth ... sounds like a gorgeous place to play the piano. I'm sure they loved it ... you play so beautifully!! They'll be leaving tips for you soon :) ... Such a beautiful country. The pics are great! Take Care ... Love - Karen