ciao!

hi all,

today was the first day of my first full week here. i figure ill just pick up from now so that my posts aren't all a week behind.

this weekend was fun. i went out on friday night to 2 different bars with most of the people on my program (there are only 20 of us) and had fun. people just stand around outside each bar and drink in the street, talking to everyone. it's very cool. then on saturday i woke up early to register with the city of siena (new italian law) and then we all went on a hike, which was actually very neat. i have to upload pictures so i can post them all. i'll try and do that later today or tomorrow. it was neat to see more of the countryside and a little town near here. it's just all so beautiful, but no pictures can truly represent it. a bunch of us were talking about how we looked at pictures of siena before coming here and thought, eh its nice but not OMG amazing! and once we're here we all def. think that its amazing. i don't know what it is. maybe its magic ;)

on saturday night i was exhausted so 2 of my roomates and i cooked dinner together (ive definitely gone to the grocery (store) at least 3 or 4 times already haha). we made pasta with tomatoe sauce and vegetables, salad with red wine vinegrette and some toated (a little burnt) bread. cooking here makes me feel like im on mars. where i kind of know what everything is and how to work it but can't quite figure out which buttons to push or which devides to use. like, for example, to light the stove you have to hold down the burner controller (the level of the flame) and push a spark button that has a picture of a oddly-shaped star looking thing. its kind of like bunsen (sp?) burners in science class. and we dont have a toaster so we have these little contraptions to hold pieces of bread over the flame. little things like that. then we all watched Wet Hot American Summer and i kind of fell asleep during it cause i was so tired. i slept for 12 hours that night! so i guess i was still catching up.

then yesterday (sunday) we all kind of sat arond til about 6pm and then my roomate margaret and i went to dinner at a chinese restaurant (yes a chinese restaurant in italy) and walked around til about 10:30. nothing is really open on sundays in siena (or most of europe so i hear) but people were still out on the streets window shopping and talking. i like that. i really like that everyone just walks here. the city really does have a medieval feel since none of the buildings have really been modernized (on the outside at least) so you feel like youre walking around in some shakespeare movie. also without sidewalks/seperate roads it helps too.

today we had our 2nd italian class. im trying to use my italian outside of the classroom, but lots of times people just respond in english. but not always! i booked a hotel room today and asked about a few the other day completely in italian, so i was very proud of myself. the class i took + my preperation on my own definitely helped and make me feel much more comfortable having a little background. plus our 4 hrs a day of italian class make your mind have to work. i love our teacher. shes really nice and a great teacher. im sure ill learn a lot from her. our first Imagery & Public Spaces class (the required class) is this afternoon, well it was supposed to be but it got moved until 6pm, so we'll see how that goes.

bryan and jane are coming to florence this weekend! im soooo excited to see them and get to see italia with them. we're staying friday night (well janes with her program and staying all weekend i think) and then bryans going to come down to siena on saturday. i cant wait to show him the city. then the next weekend im going to barcelona and the weekend after that, nice! i cant believe this is all happening already. i really want to buy some cute italian boots and scarves and everything but im already spending so much money. people didnt lie when they said things were more expensive over here. the boots i found were 59Eu and that was half off! plus i dont know if id wear them in CA so who knows if its worth buying. aye. i just want to look like these cute italian girls since they all have so much style.

well ill leave off here for now. i love everyones comments so keep leaving them :)

a presto!
kate