day due (2)

So the morning started off with Giuseppe showing us downstairs for breakfast at 9 am. We sat at the kitchen table that was set for the two of us- cause apparently the rest of the house was already up, ready, and gone for the day- and complete with postum type mix (wheat based coffee tasting nastiness), pre-made mini toast pieces, jam, hot water, and some sort of small cookie type cracker and biscotti. I have to say that I find it quite funny to eat such small pieces of already toasted packaged bread. They are a little smaller than a playing card so I feel like I am eating something from alice and wonderland or something. However, they taste quite nice with jam on top. While eating I did a survey of their kitchen. It is pretty modest but a decent size. They have a tall fridge, microwave, small sink, and pretty small oven. Typical European kitchen I feel. HOWEVER- this next appliance I found was the best of all. To any of my readers that watch Seinfeld- you will get why I find it to be so funny. I can't help but think of Kramer and Elaine on this one. They have a meat grinder. Yes, that’s right, a meat grinder! Haha oh boy. Apparently we will be having quite a lot of freshly prepared meats. After breakfast we headed back upstairs and got ready for church and started our journey to meet the group in the Piazza Gamsci. We didn't quite make it there but we did end up seeing the group come down the street we were on so we ended up being completely fine. It took us a little longer than planned to get there so next time we will just have to leave a little earlier. Church was wonderful as I already mentioned and afterwards we followed Peter and his family to the other side of the inner city to the school and his apartment. Once we got there the whole group kind of had a 'well- what do we do now' look on their faces. Priceless. We decided we weren't quite ready to part, because pretty much once we separate we are done for the day. Unless of course later down the road we will feel comfortable calling each other on the house phones or making more of a scheduled plan to meet up places. We ventured throughout the streets and needless to say I am totally in love with Siena. It is super medieval and so so beautiful. I absolutely love it and know that pretty soon it will feel like 'home'. The piazza's are so gorgeous and the streets are all narrow with fun little shops everywhere. The shopping here is the best I have seen yet. I am so excited to look around more. There are apartments that are basically above all the shops that some of the girls in our group live in. The main part of Siena is surrounded by a big city wall with archways to the outside, newer parts of the city. Our apartment is located about 10 minutes walk from one of the archways leading into the main city center the piazzo del campo which is about another 8-10 minute walk from our entrance. The school is a total of about 30 minutes walk from our apartment to the school due to the fact that it is on the opposite side of the inner city. It is a nice walk that I am sure I will gain the benefit of having killer calves when I get home. Outside around our neighborhood is lovely tuscan countryside that we can see if we walk out behind the buildings on our street. There are patches of just green valleys with gardens and houses off in the distance. It is really green here with tons of trees of all different shapes and sizes- many of which I haven't seen back home before. We made it back to our apartment about 4 o'clock after grabbing some lunch at a pizzaria with everyone just around the main piazza del campo. I took a nice refreshing Sunday nap and we were called down to dinner about 8 ish. Now this is quite a hilarious situation. They call us by our last names! So funny. We don't know how to explain to them that "sibley" and "lyman" are not our first names. We attempted that at dinner the first night but that only caused confusion. Maybe when we can speak better italian we can correct them- however that could result in some awkwardness that might not be worth it.