pasta

i hate sitting down at dinner and finding a tentacle in my pasta. something about it just makes me lose my appetite.

tuscany travels

This week was busy busy busy.

Monday we had a surprise exam. I got a 91.

Tuesday Peter gave us the rest of our assignments for the semester. I have a lot of paintings to do and not a lot of time.

Wednesday we had our new Italian class. We have started this program with an acting school in Rome (its equivalent would be Julliard). Every week an actor comes to Siena and teaches us how to pronounce words and letters in Italian. It was like Yoga, Choir and Italian all in one. For 3 hours we learned to pronounce 3 vowels. Eeee. OU, and aahhhhh. Each sound had an action. For the E action we just raised our hands over our heads then for the OU we moved our hands straight in front of us and aaah we made an alligator mouth. We started out class by saying the vowels and singing them. Then our teacher had us lay done and focus on our birth (he meant breath). Then we stood up closed our eyes and imagined we were a piece of grass. We had to imagine the color and then we had to move like the grass would when the wind blew by.. Then we got back in our circle and practiced saying the E sound. We did the same thing for OU except we had to imagine we were a cloud. And the ahh sound we were the sea. We were all doing our best not to laugh but it was hard.

Friday I went to the chocolate capital of the world, Perugia. Every October for 2 weeks there is a chocolate festival in Perugia. So about 10 of us went this year. We took the bus to Perugia and walked around the festival for a few hours.

Me, Charley and Kristen with chocolate covered bananas and our cow hats.

We got a card that let us get free samples and goodies at designated shops. It was delicious.

giant chocolate cow.

Saturday I met Jo and Chelsea at the bus station and we went to Arezzo. When we got their it was raining so we just walked around and we found some nice shops, so we went shopping and we had a relaxed lunch then we caught the bus back to Siena. At 4 the missionaries took the ward bowling in Poggibonsi.

Jo and I at the bowling alley.

I didn’t do very well. I think I got a 60 or something.Then we caught the bus back to Siena and went home.

Sunday our host family took Erika and I chestnut hunting and to a chestnut festival in Santa Fiora. It was a two hour drive into the mountains. We went with 2 other families. We hunted for about 2-3 hours. Erika and I found a ton of chestnuts.

Then we went to Santa Fiora and we had lunch. (in American it would be similar to a fair but on a smaller scale) We had ravioli filled with chestnut and a mushroom sauce, roast beef and chestnut paste/sauce with ricotta cheese. It was pretty good. Then we walked around Santa Fiora for a while and we got back to Siena at 6. It was a long but good day.

siena sends love

Banks, Assisi, Chestnut hunting

Siena is the home to the oldest Bank in the world: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. These is a museum about this bank but tourist are usually not allowed to go in. We are cool though and got to go in because it was part of our cultural experience here in Italy.
We saw one of the first bank notes, some cool architecture and a great view of Siena from the roof....


This past week Peter took us to Assisi, since Erika's family was in town they came too!

We saw the church of St. Francis...


We were walking and I stopped and looked in this mirror and we looked like midgets so we had to take a picture....


Friday I went to Peter's house for the good part of the day with about 11 other girls
Leah made us delicious mexican food..


We went on a hike around his house and for the most part had a nice relaxing day in the Italian countryside.



Saturday I hung around Siena and did homework. It was Gusippie's birthday so he had 4 friends over for dinner. Anna made delicious lasagna and we had meet with fries. Then the cake was 3 layers with nutella between the layers and rum in the layers.. yeah

Sunday we went chestnut hunting! Apparently every Sunday in the fall the woods are packed with Italians looking for nuts. Erika and I had a fun time searching the ground for the best ones. We got a ton...



Then on the drive home we stopped to look at the boar at this far. it had some babies but they ran into the woods..


i ate that.


Siena sends love

if italy doesn't kill me

I swear that if italy doesn't kill me i am going to be the strongest person ever.

our host family fed us pig liver. ew then we had wild boar. Last night we had pasta with clams and calamari- with tenticles.

uuugh. i found some really good granola crackers at the supermercato.

Thursday we went to Assisi. It was cool. lots of churches. Then Erika and her family and I had dinner in Cortona. Friday I spent all day at Peters with some other girls. Leah made us mexican food! it does not exist here in italy. we loved it.

Not much else is going on. We only have 4 weeks left in Siena and that measn 15 more days of school. yessss

Cinque Terre Photos

Sign on the toilet at McDonalds







Erika and I on the Via Dell'Amore



we sat here for about 40 min enjoying the view.


Sunset in Cinque Terre


Hiking along Cinque Terre


Beach in October. :)

Cinque Terre

Friday morning 22 of us left for Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is an area of Italy that is a group of 5 cites. We met at the train station at 6.30 am and took a train to Empoli then to Pisa and then to La Spezia. We missed the train from Pisa to La Spezia by like 2 min so we had to wait an hour for the next one. Once we got to La Spezia we took a train to Riomaggiore. We walked along Via Dell’Amore. We were like 50 ft above the ocean. It was so crystal blue! It took us about 30 min to walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. Then we continued along the coast to Corniglia. It was like a 40 min hike along the coast. The view was amazing. Some of the girls stopped and swam at different points. Then In Corniglia we hiked up some 400 stairs to the city where I had honey gelato with mango.

We took the train back to Riomaggiore where we got Foccocia for dinner. I had tomatoes and mozzarella on mine. Then we watched the sunset on some rocks. All 22 of us were staying in the same hostel near La Spezia. We arrived there around 9 pm and hungout and went to bed.

The next morning we caught the 7.20 bus back to Riomaggiore then Erika, Johanna, Chelsea and I took a train to Corniglia and we started the 1.5 hour hike to Vernazza. It was gorgeous. We were about 100 feet above the ocean and you could see for miles. In Vernazza we caught the train to Monterosso. There we hung out on the beach until lunch time. Erika and I both got gnocchi with pesto and Jo and Chelsea got other pasta with pesto. Cinque Terre is famous for its pesto and Foccocia. It was so good. We had a beach front view. After lunch we relaxed on the beach. We caught the train back to Riomaggiore and shopped and had more Foccocia for dinner. We then caught the train with everyone else from La Spezia to Pisa then Empoli. 10 min after our train left Empoli it stopped on the tracks for an hour! Apparently a train in front of us had become detached so we had to wait for it to get reattached. We finally got to Siena and Erika, Jo and I took a taxi home cause it was going to be another 1.5 hours until we got home. Jo spent the night cause we were too lazy to catch the bus or walk her home.

Also our teach peter got bite by a viper snake. Friday he was in the woods with his kids and they saw a little snake and he thought it was just a baby snake that his kids could play with and it ended up being an adult viper. He had to spend the night in the hospital but is okay now. We saw him Sunday and his hand was so swollen but he said it has shrunk almost half way so it must have been huge. He is fine though just waiting for the swelling to go down.

I love you all!

stories

Sunday we had church at 1. The Italian members made pasta and us girls brought dessert and salad. The pasta was DELICIOUS. yummy
getting foor at church


Monday we had school and our poor Italian teacher said the best phrase ever " I want to suicide" We hadn't studied enough and he was quizzing us and we weren't doing very well.
Enzo. our fantastic italian teacher. he actually opened the window and acted like he was going to jump.


Then we had a special humanities lecture, but Erika and I didn't know about it so we accidentally skipped it. Honest. Then we had our midterms which i am SO glad are over. It wasn't that hard but just annoying to have test while your in Italy, ya know?

Tuesday i just had art and then I went with Johanna to get her hair cut at the Franco Salon. Her last name is Franco so she wanted to go there.

Then Jo and I went home and She found wireless internet at our house!!! There is one catch.
I have to go outside on the porch, sqeeze behind the shed and stand on one foot and the wind has to blow JUST right. - the standing on one foot thing is to prop my computer up but it makes it sound harder. I got it yersterday afternooon when it was windy but last night it wasn't windy and i couldn't get it. So yeah.

Last night erika and I also made a full pan of brownies that Erika bought. I guess they liked them cause there were only 3 left this morning.

A daily breakfast in Italy consitst of yogurt (they started buying this one yogurt with egg and cream and sugar- its not very good), cookies, crackers with the options of nutella(which is gone most of the time), jam and peanut butter(which erika and I bought) and warm milk and pineapple juice. -The cookies are delicious. hhaa

i was drawn to him.


I am half way done. boooo yaa sucka!

love ya

for prevention

Tuesday I still felt sick so I slept in, went to art class came home and tried to sleep some more. Wednesday we woke up early and went to the market to buy some more yummy dried fruit. Then we had Italian again and Humanities. I came home and slept and did some homework.
Thursday all 24 of us met peter at the train station and we went to Florence. Peter too the watercolor class (which I am in) to Santa Maria Novella first. Then we went to a couple other churches that had famous frescos around Florence. Then Peter took us to his favorite gelato place. I got hazelnut (my favorite), mapo, (pink grapefruit-I think) and coconut (another favorite). Then we met the rest of the girls in front of the church were Fra Angelico lived. Then Peter took the second group around Florence.

Johanna, Alyssa, Chelsea Karli and I went around Florence. I got a really good pizza for lunch and then we went to a little market. I found the best leather purse EVER! It is gorgeous!! Then we went to the Pitti Palace, where the Medici family lived. We only had time to tour the gardens. Then Erika, Johanna and I found a paint store so I could buy more watercolors and then we took the bus back to Florence. That night Anna made the best pizza I have ever had. One had zucchini and the other was just cheese. Alberto had hotdogs on his pizza. That boy has a weird sense of taste. He doesn’t like cheese! Crazy

Our very fidgity humanities teacher

Friday Peter took us to Buonconvento. Our humanities teacher Alessandro came with us too. We had a quick tour of Buonconvento then we went to Monte Oliviteo. Basically all that is there is an abbey. We toured the abby which had a lot of frescos on the wall and then Peter bought us a really nice lunch at the cafe next to the abby.

We got back to Siena around 4. Erika, Johanna and I did our sightseeing and tours of Siena. We went to Museo d’ Opera, the Duomo, the baptistery and the crypt. Then we went home to get our computer and went to church then to the Irish Pub to use the internet for a couple hours because we were in withdrawals.

Saturday, the boys have school which sucks, Erika and I woke up and studied for our test on Monday then we went to the pub again and then to church. We came home and I had told our host mom Anna and I really liked veggies. Since then she has made us zucchini and tonight we had eggplant and squash risotto. Yummy.

So Friday night Erika and I got home around 10.30 and Ben was sitting at the table watching animal planet. He told that the on Saturday he has going to buy some shampoo for prevention... (Prevention for WHAT?) He said tuberculosis. Uh huh. Then he started to explain that Chinese and African immigrants bring diseases. (Yeah, cause I come in contact with those people daily). So Saturday night he brought us the bottle to use for prevention… yeah right! Erika and I deciphered the bottle with our Italian dictionary; apparently it prevents you from getting louse, larve and eggs. Do I look like I have those? NO! So the question is do we use this and risk waking up bald or waking up with some eggs in our hair? We still have no idea why he said tuberculosis.

nutella is a staple

Friday we had our Italian oral exam. Erika and I were partners. And WE both did very well. We each got a 92. The teachers here are so much easier than at BYU. We had to write a paper for our humanities course. Our teacher said he didn’t want it to be more than 200 words. So EASY! Its like a paragraph. Friday Erika and I tried pane forte, its a Tuscan specialty. It was very good but it would have been better with tea to dip it in because it was very hard. We also did genology again at the church.

Saturday we went shopping in Florence. Sunday we had church. Jo came over and we watched a movie in our apt again. I started to feel sick Sunday night so I went to bed early. Monday we had school and afterwards I slept all afternoon.

Sunday, Anna had made a cake that we put nutella on it was delicious. Our host brothers LOVE nutella. It is a staple in their diet. Ben our host dad had a piece of cake with a HUGE glob of nutella. I pointed out to everyone that he had almost 3x the amount of nutella as opposed to cake. Ben said that he doesn’t eat nutella very often. Alberto said no no no. One day Anna and I went to the market and bought nutella and the next day it was all gone…. Lui lui lui and he did a bunch of scooping actions of Ben eating Nutella.

Monday night my host mom, Anna who doesn’t speak very good English was trying to tell me that she would make chicken noodle soup for me tomorrow. She talks to us through actions and some words in both English and Italian. She said pollo and soup and then she held her throat. I understood. She was going to make me soup to help my throat. Grazie Anna. SO Ben was like you are going to kill Emily tomorrow like a chicken. It was really funny. We all started laughing