Errands, Errands, and more Errands

Thursday, September 3, 2009

So the “hot spot” across the street is very hot again. Siena is divided into 17 contradas and each contrada has a different animal and a different time of celebration where they cook copious amounts of food, drink copious amounts of alcohol, and sing, dance, and parade through the streets until the wee hours of the morning while wearing the colors and flags of their animal. Yesterday the celebration lasted until at least 3am and tonight I expect the same. It’s not so loud if I close my window, but doing so would probably cause a heat stroke so I’ll have to just accept another sleepless night.

In other news, there is still no internet in the apartment so I spent several hours sitting in the garden of the IES center using their wi-fi tonight. Hopefully, hopefully tomorrow.

This morning we had our Italian placement exam and I am excited to work with these professors who will undoubtedly be my best language professors ever. A few more hours of orientation were followed by a two hour walking tour throughout the whole city. It was exhausting, but I feel a little more comfortable finding my way around now. We also went grocery shopping for the first time and somewhere between attempting to read the nutritional information on a box of Italian cereal and flipping through my mini-dictionary for the translation of peanut butter (burro d’arachidi), I came to the conclusion that Italy may not have been the best place to start cooking for myself. It certainly will be an adventure.

We finished the night with dinner a cute little “osteria” where I ate a simple and delicious pasta al pomodoro. We walked through the streets and ended at the Palazzo del Campo, the real center of the town and the home of the Palio. Hundreds of Italians gather there for very late night dinners and wine. It’s beautiful and fascinating for a great people watcher like myself. While most Italians have been very helpful and patient with me, there is a remarkable sense of pride in their culture and home that sometimes translates into exclusion, but I hope that will soften as my language improves and my understanding of the culture advances.

Tomorrow I tackle the phone situation and finish all the little errands that an apartment requires. I can’t wait until I can stop worrying about necessities and start buying for pleasure. The tentative plan is to visit the Mediterranean coast on Saturday for a day at the beach :)