gelato, pesto, and pizza. oh my!

Two posts in one day, wow you guys are lucky (or if you're Lexi, "twice in one day, what a treat!") Yesterday (as in Sunday for those of you who are as confused about the days of the week as I currently am), we finally had a super long orientation meeting and learned a little bit about what our housing in Florence would be like (I'm actually going to have to pay attention to utility stuff, which makes me feel really old and real person-like). Then we had lunch, aka my first gelato (mento e ciocolatte...i think that's how you spell it, which means mint and chocolate) and it was absolutely delicious.

Afterwards, we hung out in Piazza del Campo (the main square in Siena) and bought our books for our classes and signed up for activities (cooking classes, wine tastings, you know, boring stuff ;)) Then we went downstairs and our lost baggage had arrived, YAY! It was very exciting to have toiletries and shoes, but mostly my shoes. Miriam and I were posed with the problem of fitting two more large suitcases in our very tiny room, which resulted in Miriam's suitcase being put under the sink (without clothes in it of course) and mine being stored in our hallway (yes, our room has a hallway). We went to leave for a welcome reception and dinner, only to discover we lost our one and only room key (which is an actual key, and who knows why they only give us one). We went out anyway, and had the best night. The reception was nice; they made us pizza (with weird toppings that I didn't eat) and bellinis (yummy!). Then we went to dinner with some other people from the program which was really fun, because it turned out two of them were my Florence roommates that Miriam and I hadn't met yet! It was great to spend time with them! For dinner, I had...drum roll please...pasta with pesto!!! I was not disappointed; it was so delicious and I was very very happy to be having my favorite food in its native country. After dinner we went out onto the hotel terrace which has the BEST views of Siena and the Tuscan country side to drink wine and hang out (you cannot get away from wine in this country...oh well). It is so unbelievably breathtaking, a camera does not even come close to doing it justice, but I am going to try. I simply cannot get over the sheer beauty of this place and I am convinced it is fake and I am in Disney World and have to remind myself that I am actually lucky enough to be living in this place for the next 4 months. After this we went to some Irish Pub (weird how that ended up in the middle of Siena) with essentially half of our program to watch the Jets/Patriots game (who knew the Jets were capable of beating the Patriots). It was so much fun just hanging out with everyone and we even got to meet Britney Spears (just kidding, but hi Rachel Friedman, can't believe you fell for that one). What actually happened was some Italian guy named Claudio (who might have actually been cute if he wasn't approxiamately 17 years old and wearing the most hideous, European jacket in the world) told Miriam she was beautiful "like Breeeetney Spears", and we preceded to laugh in his face. He went away, and ended up with some other girl, but it was really funny because he kept saying the same 2 sentences (you're beautiful and studenta? meaning are you a student). We went home around midnight because we had to be up at 7 45 AM for class, but it was such a great night and we got to meet so many new people!

PS. In case you were wondering, we found our key, right before we were about to pay for a new one. In the process we found someone's glasses and an Italian car magazine, both of which we will put to good use.

Today, I had my first Italian class, which was great, I'm really excited to learn the language. My teacher is a woman from Naples and she is nuts, but in a good way, and really seems to love Italy and the language, and its always great to have a passionate teacher. My seven years of French is definitely going to be helpful with Italian, it makes it so much easier to understand new Italian words. After class, I got lunch with two girls who I just met (pannini with mozzarella and tomato, delicioso!) and then hung out in Piazza del Campo again with a bunch of AIFS girls. We then had a meeting about classes and volunteering. Afterwards, we went home, and stopped at a little market and bought the most beautifual and delicious grapes. I would post a picture, but they literally look exactly like the background of this blog. SO GOOD! I did my homework (weird to be doing that again and a major flashback to high school French exercises) and some reading before dinner. Miriam and I went to dinner with two of our roommates, which was so great. We wandered around Siena for about 20 minutes looking for a place to eat that would accept our special meal vouchers, and couldnt find one so we just ended up in the Piazza del Campo for dinner again, oh well, still delicious. I had pizza (although I was a little disappointed, but still very good). We think this restaurant is not the best because they had parmesan cheese in a little pre packaged thing (kind of like sugar) and I found this to be absurd; however the food was still really good. They even gave us some free bruschetta and penne with really delicious tomato sauce. After dinner we came back to the hotel and hung out and caught up with home because we were so tired. Tomorrow, I have cooking class and I am SO excited. We're making gnocchi, some other pasta, tomato soup, and tiramisu. Being in Italy is renewing my love for Italian food, not that it was ever waning, but still, it is so damn good here. If you're lucky, some of you will get to taste the recipes I learn tomorrow when I get home.

Sorry for the super long post, but at least I'm staying updated. I'll try to post more pictures when I get to Firenze (aka Florence) but the internet is pretty bad here so its hard!

Ciao!