It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The streets are glowing with icicle lights, there's a tree in every piazza, and the park across from the bus station has set up a temporary ice skating rink: Christmas has hit Siena.

Tonight, after a day of paniked presentation preparation, the girls and I met Veronika and Mari for some old-fashioned Christmas time entertainment. The park acoss from Piazza Gramsci has been transformed into a Tuscan winter wonderland with a gigantic, fake snowman, a hot chocolate stand, and an enormous slide.

We rented skates for an hour on the mini-rink and, like babies learning to walk, gradually grew more confident on the ice. Miraculously, I managed to stay on my feet the entire time, though there were several moments in which I almost caused a domino effect disaster. As I flew around the rink, (often winding my arms like windmills in an effort to stay vertical) Christmas carols blasted through the speakers and I finally felt that contagious holiday spirit.

After skating, we headed to the Campo where we all ordered hot chocolates. Italian hot chocolate is not like American hot chocolate, but more like American pudding. Delicious, but it requires a spoon.

As I drank/ate my fondente (dark chocolate) and looked out on the Campo, I thought about this semester and the fact that I am down to my last 11 days in Italy. (Warning: from here on out there are going to be a lot of I-cant-believe-its-almost-over rambles) I am sooo excited to get home for the holidays, to see my family, and to get back to my friends at Fordham. There are so many people and things and comforts that I miss that it's sometimes easy to forget what an amazing opportunity this is. I have to continually remind myself that I have most of my life to live in America and only a few months to try out Europe, and that those few months have flown by and left me with just over a week. The time to say "oh I have plenty of time to get there or to do that" is running out and I'm left with the question: where has this semester gone?