First week of school

A few nights ago I half way woke up at 4am and apparently thought I was sleeping in the airport again. I rolled over and started talking to Michelle (roommate) and asked where her flight was going. I then continued to tell her that I was flying to Siena the next day. When she told me I was already in Siena I sat up and asked her what her name was but then quickly realized I had a pillow and therefore must not be in the airport. oooops

Anyways, school started yesterday. My classes are 3 hours long (soooooo long) but are really fun. I'm in Italian one but were still not allowed to speak english. Turns out it's not really that bad without english. My teacher also doesn't translate words but points to them (we go on walks) or draws a picture of the thing he is talking about. This is proving to be a very helpful method and I'm picking up the language a lot faster than I did with French (Thank goodness!). I'm also trying extremely hard to learn it faster so that I can speak with natives.

My other class is art history and is all about Siena art. That class is extremely interesting because most of the art focuses around myths of Siena and the contradas which I have quickly become obsessed with.

Michelle and I walked the whole city after class and even went outside of the wall but we quickly found out that it was much nicer back inside. I think that my family here (based on how old we are joking call each other mom, dad, twin, or brother/sister) and I are going to go on day trips to places like Pisa this weekend. Just 3 different cities that you can see in one day, then bus it back to Siena at night so we don't have to pay for hostels. We're waiting for a few people to get their financial aid before spending a weekend in Rome and other bigger cities.

The Palio is next weekend (July 2nd) and everyone is already getting ready. Flags are being put up everywhere which makes the whole city look so gorgeous.

I randomly got a really bad craving for panda express today which was the first time I really wanted to be in California. I miss all my friends and family of course but would rather them come visit me =) Seeing all the dogs here also makes me want to hold my puppy =/ Good thing there are plenty of things to distract me with here!

Ciao