Learning Culture and Spreading Truth

Ciao Tutti!
Greetings from bella Italia!
After a looong day of traveling, (9 hours to New York, thank you layovers, and another 14.5 hours to Pisa, thank you sitting on the tarmac while a part was flown over from LaGuardia and installed…yeah), we arrived in Pisa, tired, starving, sweaty, and excited!
The first day we didn’t do very much. Drove from Pisa to Siena, showered, unpacked, ate dinner, and crashed. Also, I lost my cell phone somewhere in transit. Lovely. I’m still trying to track it down.
Day two started off early when we all assembled at 8am to get breakfast before heading to our first day of class. Breakfast was delicious. I will probably never be able to eat a store-bought croissant ever again. The first day of class was pretty relaxed and fun. We got to know each other and our professor a little (she’s wonderful, and so are all the kids on the trip), and then we went on a tour of the places that 007 Quantum of Solace (or whatever it’s called) filmed in Siena. Don’t worry Dad, I took plenty of pictures. The rest of the day was spent doing homework and acclimating to Siena. By the end of the day we could find our way around pretty well. There are definitely still parts of the city I haven’t seen, but Siena’s not large, and even if you get lost, pretty much everything leads back to the piazza eventually, and from there it’s easy. Also, I changed my money, and between the pathetic showing of the dollar currently, and the fact that I got WAY ripped off (19.90% exchange charge that they don’t tell you about until you see it on your receipt. Thank you for stealing $200 from me stupid cambio. I hate you.) I have slightly less money than I thought I would, but I think I’ll be okay. I just might not be able to buy the shoes, and the purse, and the new wardrobe I was planning on… ah well. Now I know what to avoid.
Day three was another very early day. We met at 8 again to eat breakfast and hop on a bus to Firenze (Florence). After two hours, and a nice nap, we arrived and were greeted by Carlotta, the Italian exchange student who had helped teach our class at Vassar. She lives in Firenze and took us on a tour. Parts of it were really wonderful. We got to see the Duomo, which is a HUGE, incredible beautiful basilica, sort of, and many incredible sculptures, and a museum full of things owned by the Medicis, which was probably my favorite thing we saw. There were documents actually written by Archimedes. So cool. The not so cool part was the fact that we thought we were going to be entering the Duomo so we’d been instructed to wear clothes covering our knees and shoulders, and then didn’t end up going in and it was literally 110 degrees out. I did, however, try what is so far my favorite gelato flavor: meringue. Followed closely by cherry, strawberry, lemon, rum and chocolate, and chocolate orange. Did I mention that gelato is delicious?
Day four, surprise surprise, again required waking up absurdly early. We caught a 7:50 bus to the beach. Ironically, after our day of 110 degree weather when we really didn’t want it, it was raining when we arrived at the beach. Luckily, it was still warm and the rain wasn’t bad, so some of us kicked a soccer ball around on the beach until it stopped, and the storm made great waves, so we did a lot of body surfing. At one point Eduardo and I swam really far out, which was a ton of fun, but then we had to go back in because there were red flags up on the beach which means you’re not supposed to go out farther than the first buoys, which were about 50 feet into the water. Oops. Also, we spent a lot of time playing the alphabet game, using the soccer ball as a volleyball, and counting instead of doing the alphabet, because that’s how the Italians play. We were counting in Italian, which was a great way to review numbers, although the ones that we reviewed most were 1-3, and I already pretty much had those down… Over lunch we played Egyptian Rat Screw, which a lot of the people didn’t know. Eduardo, our sort of assistant teacher/tour guide/all-around helpful person, tried to make us explain the game in Italian, which was quite possibly the most confusing thing ever. After lunch was more playing in the water and some tanning. It was lovely. Then we came back to Siena and Sophie, Sophia, Gabi, Marissa, Conrad, and I shared some delicious pasta.
Day five we had to press our noses to the grindstone once again. Class is 3.5 hours long, but it feels like much less than that. Our professor, Pazit, is hilarious. And she obviously really wants us to learn. After class we planned on getting on the internet for the first time, doing our homework, going back to our dorm to do homework and nap, and then going to our tutoring session with Eduardo and then dinner, but, as with most plans, it fell apart almost immediately. The computers had been reserved for us, but there was an exam in the room, which we were told would end at 2, so we decided to go to a garden behind the building to do homework. To get to the garden you have to walk through the library, and for some reason you’re not allowed to take your backpacks into the library, so we had to do homework inside. At about 10 after 2 we went back to the computer room, which was still occupied, so we sat outside and talked until about 3. Getting on the internet was wonderful. I can’t imagine what it used to be like without email. Went to the review, then dinner, and then we went for gelato and sat in the piazza for a couple hours. Poor Conrad had to listen to our girl talk. We all sincerely hope it wasn’t too boring/mortifying for him. He was very quiet. Later Gabi and I ended up on the piazza again, this time with Sophie and Sophia for wine, more girl talk, and “studying” for Italian. We really did have good intentions, but they ended up amounting to very little. It was a blast, tho! Marissa, Conrad, Nicole, and Francesca found us there later, and we all hung out sharing stories, truth, and nutella pizza. Talk about good times. At about 11 we all went back to the dorms, but then Zack came over to Gabi and my room and we talked until about1. I have yet to get more than about 6 hours of sleep.
Day six started with class, as usual. After, Zack and I checked our email and then shopped for a little while. Yay cute shoes! Then I did homework and laundry, and then Gabi and I went out to buy her a notebook. We never did get one, but Gabi bought Cinderella in Italian, and then we read it out loud to each other. It’s pretty much exactly at our level, but we got some strange looks because we were sitting outside. Then Gabi, Sophie, Sophia, and I went to the best restaurant we’ve been to so far. The pesto was absolutely amazing, and I ate good tiramisu for the first time ever. Then all the girls sat in the piazza drinking wine while the boys played soccer. They joined us later for gelato and then we all went to an Italian party because Bren’s roommate had just finished his exams. We drank wine, made some friends, spoke more Italian than we have so far, and then walked to the piazza where we sang everything from the Beatles to Moulin Rouge to Spice Girls. In the middle of the piazza. It was wonderful. And now it is 3:30am and I have class tomorrow, but I’m not tired. I will be tomorrow for class, tho. Ah well. It was totally worth it.
This weekend we go to Rome! And we get to go clubbing. Yay! I’ll report more when I get back!
I miss you all!!!!