italiano

Today began our first day of school. It started out with grabbing breakfast then Autumn and I were off on our trek. My fuel was the most delicious nectarine I have ever had in my life. Our journey lasted 25 minutes, every step of the way uphill. I am definitely going to develop some great legs after this program. First we had a "discussion" with Luca- the director of the Society of Danti Aligheiri- and then bam! our first italian lesson. Our teachers name is Enzo and happens to be a bit on the smaller side for a man but quite attractive and stylish. He has a pretty good sense of humor and got a kick out of our group listing "kinder bueno bars" as an italian food item we know. I am so grateful that I have taken a language class before and was able to grasp the concept of conjugating verbs and such. I feel like I barely retained anything we talked about today but hopefully the "mushy brain" feeling I have developed as of late will dissipate a little with time. I think part of the problem is that I have been out of school for the last 4 months, living in a foreign country, living with strangers I don't understand, traveling from place to place the last 2 weeks, etc. etc. What a journey this has been thus far. After class we were given a tour of tour of the building and then one of the instructors showed us around town. We came to a very delicious gelataria where it is less expensive and more generous portions. What a find! A big group of us went to the super market and picked up some essentials then headed to the piazza del campo where we finished some last minute sketching. As Autumn and I were headed out of the piazza we saw what looked like two american guys. Autumn being the bold and outgoing girl that she is confronted them and asked if the were from the states- they were! Hooray! They were both very attractive guys here for study as well, from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Oh goodness! We had quite a long discussion with Blake and John about life here in Siena and the funny experiences of living with a non-english speaking host family. Hopefully there will be more run-ins with the boys in the future.