Travel, Enjoying Siena, and Kindergartners!

Well, it's been a busy few weeks, but I finally have some time to write an entry! I've done quite a bit since my last post, so I'll try to condense it all... Oh and beware of random thoughts and stories! There are a bunch of them. :)

On both of the past two weekends, I've taken trips: One to Florence for the day two weeks ago, and one to Rome for three days last weekend. In Florence, we were able to see Santa Maria Novella church, the amazing Cathedral and Baptistery, the Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall), the Piazza Signoria, and the Ponte Vecchio - check out the link for a bunch of pictures! We also climbed to the top of the Dome of the Cathedral, which took up a large part of our time, but it was worth it for the beautiful view. We also had a nice lunch with delicious pizza and pasta, and we headed back home by about 6. It was a great day trip, and it's very easy (and cheap!) from Siena since it's only an hour bus ride. We didn't get to see everything of course, but we'll be going back to Florence with our Art History class, so I'm not too worried about it. Oh and below is a picture of the group of us on top of the dome!

Last weekend, three friends and I ventured to Rome and did the tourist thing. We got to see almost all of the big sites, along with some great smaller stops along the way. We hit the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and a lot more. Again, check out the link for pictures! To get there we took a three hour bus ride from Siena to Rome on Friday afternoon, and then we returned on Sunday evening. The trip was very exhausting (since we got up early and rushed around every day to see all the sites) but it was definitely worth it. And now the next time I go, I can just spend my time at two or three spots and fully enjoy them, since I've already seen most of the sites. Below are a few extra pictures that aren't in the albums!

The Colosseum, of course.

The Arch of Constantine

It's Carneval this weekend, so my roommate and a bunch of my other friends went to Viareggio, a coastal town that has the second biggest Carnevale celebration in Italy (after Venice). But since I've been go-go-go for the past few weeks, I decided to stay in Siena for the weekend.  My initial goal was to wander around and explore some more, since there is still so much that I haven't seen. I also thought about taking a day trip on my own on Saturday, to another small Tuscan town like Montepulciano or Arezzo. But I didn't realize how exhausted I've been, so I ended up just having a relaxing weekend at home, which will hopefully energize me for the next few weeks... But I think I'd still like to take a small trip by myself at some point. I always envy those people who can travel alone, and I think it'd be a nice little challenge for me. Even the idea of eating alone at a restaurant makes me nervous, but I think it would be a good experience. It would really make me use my Italian (since I wouldn't be able to rely on anyone else, like I have been doing some of the time) and it would really allow me to experience a city in a new way. I'll let you know when I complete my goal. :)

One problem I'm dealing with is that I'm torn between wanting to travel and wanting to fully experience Siena. On the one hand, I feel that since I'm in Europe, and so close to so many amazing places, I should really take advantage and go out and see as many of those places as possible. Especially with the flights being so cheap, I feel like there's nothing holding me back. And that's where Siena comes in. I really love it here, and I don't want to miss out on its incredible aspects and then, by the end of my time here, feel like I don't even really know the city. Of course I have some time to explore during the week, but I'm just nervous that I'll end up shortchanging Siena. It's absolutely my favorite place of all the places I've visited in Italy so far, and I feel so lucky that I was able to come here, so I'll definitely be making an effort to fully enjoy it.

During the weeks, my classes have been going really well! I have to be honest, it's tough sitting through 2-hour classes, but I think I'm getting used to it. The subjects are right up my alley, so that's always a plus, and the field studies have been really fun! So far, we've gone inside the Palazzo Pubblico (the town hall building) to see the frescoes for my Art History class, and for my Presence of the Past class we've walked around the town center looking at art that refers to the foundation myths of Siena. I also really like all of my professors because they're all very enthusiastic about their subjects. And I think I was right about foreseeing my favorite class to be Presence of the Past, too - It's so much an art history class (which is great for me) and the Italian is just a tiny bit above my level, so I still understand almost all of it, and it will be perfect for helping me improve.

It's funny, sometimes I momentarily forget I'm in Italy. It usually happens in the morning, when I haven't heard any Italian yet that day, and then I walk out onto the street and I hear someone speaking. It always hits me for a second, like "whoa, they're not speaking English" and for some reason it still takes me by surprise. Of course then the realization comes over me and it becomes no big deal. But I'm guessing that by the end of the semester it will feel completely normal to hear Italian everywhere, and it won't catch me off guard at all. 

The other day, two of my friends and I were walking back from class in the evening, and we noticed some smoke coming from the valley (there's a huuuge deep valley on the edge of town that we walk by to get to the IES center), so we stopped by a look-out point to check it out. There was this older man there, probably in his 70s, looking as well. Both of the girls I was with are in the advanced Italian class with me, so we started talking about the smoke in Italian so that he might talk to us... And he did! He was so sweet, and we were all just conjecturing about the origin of the smoke and talking about the smell, etc. It only lasted for about a minute, but it was really fun to just stop and talk to a local. Yes, I talk to waiters and people working in shops and things like that, but it was different to just talk informally with a person on the street. I'll try to make this a more regular occurrence. 

At home, I'm becoming quite the cook! My roommate and I cook dinner almost every night, and at first we were only inclined to make pasta... And just pasta. But by now, we're definitely mixing it up a bit, adding chicken, vegetables, and other sides to our pasta nights, and making nice dinners like baked pasta, and chicken and broccoli teryaki stir-fry with rice (yum!). It's funny because the grocery stores here really only have ingredients to make Italian food (go figure), so in order to find teryaki sauce I had to go to an International Food market (which really only had Asian food ingredients). I've also been baking, but that's also an issue sometimes because it's difficult to find little things like baking powder or cream of tartar, and they definitely don't have anything like crisco. And I finally found brown sugar after a long search, but it was randomly at that International food market - strange. So basically, I've had to alter a few recipes or just put some on the back burner until I can find some of the ingredients. But I've already made brownies, 3 loaves of banana bread, and crepes! Baking is my catharsis; plus where's the fun in baking with the right ingredients? Or with an electric mixer for that matter? ;)

I finally started teaching English to kids!!! My friend Elise and I are going to be teaching a kindergarten class every Wednesday morning from 10:30-11:30. The school is a bit outside of the center of town, outside the walls, so we have to take a 20-minute bus to and from there each time. We went this past week to introduce ourselves and do our first lesson (we taught them colors) and it was so much fun. We had no idea how many kids there were going to be, or what the teacher would be like, or anything really. But there are around 10 kids (we're not sure, because a few were out sick), all so adorable, and a really nice teacher named Lucia who speaks very little English. The kids we got to meet are: Matteo, Jacopo, Cesare, Sara, Rebecca, Davide, and Andrea (as a boy's name). They're really cute and they were pretty good for us too. A few kids know a little bit of English, like the numbers and a few greetings, but I hope we can teach them a few things during our time with them. :) Below is a picture of the building (in which they have only kindergarten classes) and I'm sure I'll get pictures of the kids by the end of my teaching! Surprisingly, it's really difficult to figure out ways to teach them, since most of them don't know ANY English at all. And because of that, we had to use a lot more Italian than I expected, in order to tell them what we wanted them do. I think that teaching English will actually help improve my Italian, strangely enough, with having to give directions and especially with trying to understand the kids, who mumble like crazy. :) Oh and it's also possible that we'll get assigned another class in addition, since this is only an hour per week, but we'll see! I'm really excited to see how it will all go. 

The kindergarten building where I'll be teaching each week.

And in addition to classes, teaching, cooking, and traveling, we also go out in Siena! If you remember, I mentioned that IES has this connection with the Erasmus program, which is basically the international student community in Siena. Well, every Tuesday Erasmus hosts an aperitivo, and each week it's held at a different bar. I've gone to the last two, and they've been so much fun. It's a perfect atmosphere to meet other students, and even though they're from all different European countries they still all speak Italian (some a little more than me, others less) and some even speak a little English. So far I've been able to meet people from France, Spain, England, and also some of the Italians that work with Erasmus. I really like it because I don't have many other opportunities to hang out with students outside of my own program. Don't get me wrong, I really like the all people in IES, but it's also nice to branch out sometimes.

Alright I think that's about enough for today. :) I already have a list of things to write about in my next entry, so look out for that sometime soon! I hope everyone is doing well, and I miss you all so much! I would really love to hear from you guys, so feel free to shoot me an email anytime! - lindsay.gaskill@richmond.edu. And now I'll leave you with one last picture of a place I just thought was so gorgeous, which we passed on our way from the Kindergarten to our bus home. Other than that, until next time, arrivederci!