Monday, January 24 2011

Today=lots and lots of class, 6 hours to be specific. During our two hour break we went to lunch and wait for it….I tried a NEW FOOD! But don’t get too excited, it was just minestrone, but still, I was very proud of myself for being “adventurous” (I liked it by the way). Then we went back to class for another two hours, which actually passed by extremely quickly. What’s so great about class here and what makes the long hours easier, is that we are actively learning new material the whole time and participating. I’m shocked by how much I have learned in a week and am so excited to continue learning the language. I’m really trying to use out in the real world, which is even easier now that we have learned restaurant and food vocabulary. After a long day of class, Miriam and I napped/rested and then we went to dinner. We went with our friends Emily, Danielle, and Hayley to this restaurant near the Duomo. Walking past the Duomo at night is sort of surreal, because it is this big, ornate building looming against the dark sky, and it looks almost fake, like someone just plopped a façade in front of you because there is no way human could actually create something like that; but it’s a pretty fantastic view. The food at this place was so delicious, especially the bread. I got pici cacio e pepe, which is pici with pecorino cheese, a Siena/Tuscan specialty, and pepper, cheesy and spicy, yum! We even got some really yummy Siennese desserts. We got seconds on dessert because these little powdered sugar cookies were that good. We just hung out and had a long dinner (I’m starting to get used to this long Italian dinner thing), and it was nice to just hang out with a smaller group of people in restaurant that hadn’t been found by the rest of our program. After dinner, we came back and studied for our quiz the next day and then passed out with extremely full bellies!