Ciao from Siena! This is the second day I've had any internet access at all, but here's the scoop on what's gone down so far in Italia. (P.S. This entry is the length of a short novel. Or a novella.)
PLANES TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (or just planes and a bus)
I got to ride on one billion (read "three") planes on the way to Roma and they were pretty decent. On the way to Chicago a nice woman who had dropped off her daughter at college was flying home to Seattle. We had a seat in between us so plenty of room which was awesome. O'Hare airport in Chicago is the biggest thing that ever existed. When I asked for directions to the international terminal I was told to hurry because it would take 20 minutes to get there. (It didn't.)
Probably 75% of the economy section of the absolutely beautiful plane to Zurich was filled with study abroad students. I made friends with four of them when we all got of the plane and we all hung out at the airport while we waited for our next flights. (And by "waited for our next flights" I mean "waited for the Zurich airport to tell us at which gate our flights were.") During the flight I sat next to a nice Greek woman who didn't speak much English. I didn't sleep at all and night was about five seconds long. The food was pretty good though. I recommend Swiss Air for any international flights. Also getting to pick movies/television to watch was super. Because I am cool I watched Sunshine Cleaning and because I am really cool I also started watching 17 Again (although I didn't finish it before the plane landed).
I met a girl from that flight who was also flying to Roma and we hung out and freaked out about customs in Italy. (In case you are curious, customs in the Rome airport consist of walking through a door.) I sat next to a cute (and by cute I mean a bit unattractive and kinda smelly) British couple on the way, but they were loving and nice and I enjoyed the flight when the man had his arms down. Then I waited forever for my luggage which (YAY) wasn't lost/stolen/etc., but for some reason had six condoms in the front pocket when I unpacked it. (This is weird and totally creeped me out.)
Anyway, 16 hours or something later I was in Rome and Alison found me coming out of customs and on half an hour of sleep we got into the buses and started our drive to an agritourismo (tourist farm!) near Assisi.
ASSISI
Upon reaching our destination we lugged our ginormous suitcases up way too many stairs and into the rooms we were assigned. I lived with Kelly, who is awesome. Turns out, everyone on this trip is awesome. There are 25 of us and a whole three boys. Anyway, we ate dinner and it was the longest meal of my life for a couple of reasons. One is that in Italy every meal is the longest meal of my life. There are a billion courses. The other reason is that I was very very tired. Anyway, we all ended up staying up talking anyway, and being really excited and happy.
The next morning I dreamt I was a princess. As in I opened my window to this view:
And that was just one of the windows. Here's a view from the other window and the bathroom window for good measure.
Anyway, it was gorgeous. Everything there was gorgeous, the food was delicious, the people were wonderful (are wonderful) and I think it was the best orientation ever. On our last day there we walked 6 km to Assisi where we went to the Basilica and got a tour from our art history professor. It was ridiculously interesting and I don't think Pete is weird for liking art history so much anymore. Pete is still weird for other reasons, however. Anyway, the weather was hot hot hot and we had to not be skanky because we were going to the Basilica (longer shorts, covered shoulders, etc.). But it was also gorgeous. Here are a couple of Assisi pictures and a picture in front of the Basilica.
Anyhow, after the amazing Basilica (inside which we were allowed to take no photographs), we walked around Assisi a bit and then back to the farm. It was a billion miles (probably 13 or 14 km) and my legs and rear are very sore from it. I also have ridiculous blisters on my feet. I am totally going to be awesome at walking when I come back to the states, because the amount of walking here is ridiculous and also the best.
After we got back to the farm we had enough time to rinse off at best and then leave to go to a gas station outside of Siena to be picked up by our host families.
MI FAMILIA IN ITALIA
My homestay family / house is the best. Hands down. We're about a five minute walk from Il Piazza del Campo (which is the most awesome part of Siena) and only about fifteen or twenty minutes from the school (I think. I'll find out tomorrow when we walk there to start INTENSIVE ITALIAN.) and in the contrada della torre. (That's "the tower" and it's right off of the big clock tower in the piazza.) I'm living with another Siena School student, Julia, who is awesome. We basically have our own apartment with a little kitchen and living room, our two rooms and a shared bathroom. It's awesome.
Our homestay parents (Fabio e Barbara) speak a decent amount of English and are the nicest people ever. The children (Margherita (7) e Arianna (4)) are the cutest things ever and are helping us to learn Italian, and asking us how to say things in English and giggling and saying "Yes!" a lot because it is a cool English word I guess. I really can't get over how sweet they all are, and this family is perfect.
Fabio's mother and father are also hosting a Siena School student and we've gone over there for a couple of meals with them (including Fabio's brother, his pregnant sister-in-law, and his sister). It's a wonderful Italian family and most of them speak some English. The family meals are so lovely and everyone is awesome and everything is awesome and I'm happy happy happy.
A bunch of Siena School students ended up meeting up in il campo this afternoon and we wandered around and had a lovely time and got gelato.
LA LINGUA ITALIANA
I don't know if that's the correct grammar or way to phrase that or anything, but I do know that I've learned a ton of Italian words and phrases since yesterday. The most helpful has been "Como se dice ____?" which is "How do you say ____?" Margherita likes to help teach words and Fabio e Barbara will always answer questions and it's really easy to pick things up.
However, I don't know how to conjugate verbs at all and this is ridiculously frustrating. I can't wait to actually start learning Italian, since we haven't started classes yet. We watched Tulli (Tinkerbell) this morning with Margherita and she'd commentate in Italian, and we could tell some of what she was saying. Then we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Italian with English subtitles. Italians have this thing where they think dubbing is the best, so there are tons of English movies and a bunch of seasons of Friends and a couple of House in Italian, and I think it'll really help my Italian skills.
We're hearing and seeing Italian everywhere so it's almost tough to think in English because I keep trying to think in what is all around me. At the same time, I've managed very little Italian so it's like having fluff in my brain.
Speaking of fluff...
FUN FACT: The Italian equivalent to "Fluffy" is "Foofi."
P.S. I'm totally putting pictures up on flikr or something eventually. Don't worry.
