Fountain I walk by daily

the "lost and found" group

Alright, so it's been a week. I guess that's making it a little long for those of you who have nothing better to do except read my blog, but I made a vow right before the semester started that I would try and get all As this semester and since we've gotten to Siena and started classes, there has been quite a bit more homework than there was before. Really, almost all I have been doing is going to class, sticking around in the student room doing homework and listening to people chat/gossip, and going home to visit with my family as best as I can. They speak almost no english and I speak almost no Italian, so together that means that they talk at me, and I say almost nothing at all about anything. I really want to, but I have a hard time trying to find my way around not knowing basically any vocab and not being able to speak in anything but present tense when I do know stuff... But here are my thoughts on Siena after living here for a week: Siena is a lot smaller than Rome, just like everyone said it would be. however, it is larger than I imagined it would be. I distinctly remember Professor Stanford telling us that no cars were allowed in the city walls themselves, which is why we were going to have to walk to school if we took the bus. that is not the case at all. there are no streets that I have walked upon that I have not seen a car, or at the least a scooter on. and this includes streets that don't seem big enough to have a car even drive on them (which is basically most of the streets). I also thought because it was going to be a smaller town we would be getting away from a lot of the "tourist" stuff that we saw all over Rome. granted, some of the stuff we have gotten away from. However there are still stands up all along the way we walk to school, and there are groups of tourists EVERYWHERE if you walk around outside during the middle of the day. Plus all the shops that I have found ( I haven't explored like I could yet, so I haven't seen most of the town) are really expensive that I have looked into. so much for buying some cheap little trinket and the awesomeness of it is the fact that it's from Italy. I may as well buy something expensive, since I don't want gifts for my family that look like I bought them at a tourist spot. There are a lot more english speakers around than I thought there would be. I guess that's a good thing, since as I was complaining above, I can't really speak any Italian. but I spend a lot of time with our group, and we all speak english to each other. and our homework is in english (except for the Italian homework. go figure that's in Italian!) so I wanted to be a little more forced to learn at least the simple phrases quickly. I guess I've only been here a week and taken 5 hours of in class italian, but still I feel bad every time they try to speak english since we are in Italy after all. I heard that we were going to double the branch in Siena. that was a lie. we basically are the branch. there are 3 other women who go to Relief Society, maybe 1 family with a little kid or two, and I don't know how many priesthood holders (besides the missionaries...) but not many. and not many young ones either. There are however 2 younger guys in the ward (and by younger I mean closer to our ages) and Natalia, Deidra and I all played soccer with them, the missionaries, and a few random boys last wednesday. I think Fredrico didn't really expect anything from us because we all wanted to be on the same team, so he put probably the best 2 players on our team (which was himself and this boy who I never caught the name of). However, he totally underestimated the skills of Natalia. She was awesome!!! but she said she pretty much devoted her life to soccer in high school, and then I wasn't as surprised any more. but she also knows a lot of the pro soccer teams and players. we were walking through a store and she was definitely looking longingly at some of the jerseys, and going on about how great the players were. and they were people I've never heard of. I feel like such a soccer lover impostor with her around!

Brittany and Me

Siena I guess is pretty small. today alone I saw 3 different people that I've met at various events this past week walking down the street. it was pretty awesome to realize that I'm starting to recognize people. however one of them, Joel, who was the first guy we met at our school is leaving in a few days. he has been here for... 3 months? I dont' remember, but a while. and he is going to just travel around Europe with some friends before he heads back to Australia for the school year to start. or something like that? I didn't really understand as I was eavesdropping on one of his conversations with one of our friends. but it's great because another guy we met from school has been here for almost a year now, and he's been a great help telling us about who to say hi to in the Campo at night, and what guys mean when they ask you certain questions. He is from Ireland and will be around for another month or so at least. But between Joel and Norbert (who are roommates at the moment but didn't know each other before) we have really learned where the hot spots in Siena are, and what to do to stay out of trouble. oh, and basically there aren't any "hot spots" in Siena, especially since we don't drink. Norbert says that there is some ordinance that clubs can't be within city limits, or something like that, so you'd need a car to get to one, which none of us have.

Ashley and Me

I've stopped taking as many pictures as I used to because I don't want to look like a tourist, I know we will see the same things day after day, so if I miss something awesome to take a picture of one day, I can take it later, and with a backpack instead of a purse now it's harder to get to my camera. but I'll still upload a few pictures here and there of the places we go and see or whatnot. that's just my little expose on Siena to date. I guess if really interesting things happen or I want to expound on anything else I'll write more often.