To those who read this blog (I don’t know how many of you there are) I’m sorry for my lack of posts lately. The past few days have been super busy, but super fun. It started with Thursday when we met with our “language partners”. Language Partners is a program that Siena Italian Studies coordinates with people from Siena that want to learn English. Italian people meet with American students and we talk, play games, get to know each other and work on learning language together. The Italian people help us and we help them. The program is great and I’ve already met some really nice people that live in Siena, especially people through the language partners program.
Yesterday I spent the day at the beach. We met early in the morning (around 8:00), got on a bus, and drove about an hour and a half to the sea. We went up to the top of the city on this beach so that we could get some really good photo opportunities, and we did. I spent the whole day lying in the sand, swimming in the Mediterranean, and walking on the beach. The water reminded of how the water looked when I went to the Bahamas with my family. It was bright blue and so clear that you could see your feet on the bottom. We finished with some gelato before heading home around 4:30. Lately, at night, my friends and I have been going to this really cool local pub where they brew their own beer. They also will bring the beer tap to your table if you have a large party. The people that work there are so nice and always play along when we try to talk to them in Italian. It’s a great place to hang out and be amongst the “locals” since it isn’t a really touristy place to be. So if anyone reading this is planning on going to Siena any time soon, you HAVE to go to La Diana (it’s the name of this pub). And they serve hamburgers, which is awesome. I’ve spent most of my nights out at this place and always have a good time.
Today, I woke up and caught the train to Florence with a couple of my friends. We got off the bus with no map, no idea where we were, and no clue how to get where we were going. The goal of the day was to find the Gelato Festival that was happening in Florence. We got a map from the tourist help building and ended up navigating our way through the city. Florence is like the New York City of Tuscany. There were tons of people, cars, and tourists. It was really overwhelming going from tiny little Siena to this major city, especially when you had no clue where anything was. But we actually found the Duomo and all of the large piazzas. We even ended up finding where the gelato festival was. We met some people from Florence and they showed us where all of the cool things in the city were. For not having a clue where anything was in Florence and never being there before, I’m really proud of how much we accomplished and how good our directional skills. We could have easily spent the entire day being lost in the city and not know what to do. But instead, my friends and I put ourselves out there. We talked to locals, we asked for directions (IN ITALIAN I MIGHT ADD), we asked what cool things there were to do, and we ended up having an awesome day just going with the flow in Florence. It just goes to show you that you’re capable of much more than you think you are.
Also, I didn’t know where would be a good place to fit this into my blog post, but the other day I saw my first pickup truck since arriving in Italy. And I also saw a tow truck that was hauling a car that broke down after hitting an animal. I wondered what animal could have hurt the car so much, then I saw the wild boar that was chained to the tow truck. So if you ever find yourself in Siena, watch out for the wild boar. They’ll get ya. Until next time! Ciao!
Yesterday I spent the day at the beach. We met early in the morning (around 8:00), got on a bus, and drove about an hour and a half to the sea. We went up to the top of the city on this beach so that we could get some really good photo opportunities, and we did. I spent the whole day lying in the sand, swimming in the Mediterranean, and walking on the beach. The water reminded of how the water looked when I went to the Bahamas with my family. It was bright blue and so clear that you could see your feet on the bottom. We finished with some gelato before heading home around 4:30. Lately, at night, my friends and I have been going to this really cool local pub where they brew their own beer. They also will bring the beer tap to your table if you have a large party. The people that work there are so nice and always play along when we try to talk to them in Italian. It’s a great place to hang out and be amongst the “locals” since it isn’t a really touristy place to be. So if anyone reading this is planning on going to Siena any time soon, you HAVE to go to La Diana (it’s the name of this pub). And they serve hamburgers, which is awesome. I’ve spent most of my nights out at this place and always have a good time.
Today, I woke up and caught the train to Florence with a couple of my friends. We got off the bus with no map, no idea where we were, and no clue how to get where we were going. The goal of the day was to find the Gelato Festival that was happening in Florence. We got a map from the tourist help building and ended up navigating our way through the city. Florence is like the New York City of Tuscany. There were tons of people, cars, and tourists. It was really overwhelming going from tiny little Siena to this major city, especially when you had no clue where anything was. But we actually found the Duomo and all of the large piazzas. We even ended up finding where the gelato festival was. We met some people from Florence and they showed us where all of the cool things in the city were. For not having a clue where anything was in Florence and never being there before, I’m really proud of how much we accomplished and how good our directional skills. We could have easily spent the entire day being lost in the city and not know what to do. But instead, my friends and I put ourselves out there. We talked to locals, we asked for directions (IN ITALIAN I MIGHT ADD), we asked what cool things there were to do, and we ended up having an awesome day just going with the flow in Florence. It just goes to show you that you’re capable of much more than you think you are.
Also, I didn’t know where would be a good place to fit this into my blog post, but the other day I saw my first pickup truck since arriving in Italy. And I also saw a tow truck that was hauling a car that broke down after hitting an animal. I wondered what animal could have hurt the car so much, then I saw the wild boar that was chained to the tow truck. So if you ever find yourself in Siena, watch out for the wild boar. They’ll get ya. Until next time! Ciao!
Oh and I almost forgot, I BOUGHT MY TICKET TO OCTOBERFEST IN GERMANY FOR THIS COMING WEEK