Things I've Noticed

So I thought I would share with you all some of the things I have noticed since I've been here.
1) As far as fashion goes, bubble coats and moon boots are really in. I've seen tons of people wearing bubble coats of all kinds. The most popular color is navy blue, with black coming in a close second. Some are shiny, long, short, belted, you name it. Now moon boots. If you don't know what they are, look them up. I don't really understand why Italians where them so much, especially since they are big into fashion. They look pretty warm, but I would never wear them. I've seen them in pretty much every color from bright pink, to ones that looked splatter painted, and even metallic gold ones. I just laugh every time I see them because to me they are hideous. The other foot wear that seems to be in are similar to Timberlands. Except that both men and women wear them here. And they somehow manage to make it look cute and easy. Fur coats are also big, but mainly for older women (60s and older). These women also wear high heeled boots (like spiked heels). I rarely see someone younger than 50 wearing a fur coat. It's usually the older women who dress more odd and crazier than I've ever seen. It's like they are trying to dress to look younger. The men like to wear skinny jeans and sweatpants that are skinny. I saw someone today on the piazza wearing sweatpants that were basically like skinny jeans. To me, sweatpants should be a bit baggy because they are supposed to be comfortable. But that's just me.
2) I've also noticed that kids in middle school or early high school tend to wear the brighter clothes and more mismatched stuff. They are also more annoying than middle/high school students in the U.S. I didn't think that was possible. But after sitting on the piazza people watching for a bit with Katya (a girl in my program) and having a group of maybe 8th or 9th graders sitting next to us, I've found it to be true. We were afraid of getting hit with anything that was being thrown around. And they are extremely loud, although that can be said about Italians in general.
3) Which brings me to the next thing. Italians are loud. They get really passionate about certain things and when that happens, the volume goes up. They tend to get upset over very little things and proceed to yell at each other from a distance so everyone can hear. Yesterday on the piazza, two ladies were on their phones and all of a sudden, they just started yelling at each other. One of them pushed the other and then they walked away to talk on their phones. Once they were finished talking on the phone, they started right back up where they left off. Then miraculously everything was fine. Katya and I were extremely confused. We were trying to figure out what had just happened. I won't ever know.
4) PDA. Everywhere I walk there is at least one couple kissing. If you go out to the piazza and sit there or just walk by you are bound to see either a couple kissing or being really close. They don't try to hide it. It's not just holding hands here. But it's not excessive either. Some couples can be a bit excessive, but for the most part, it's not gross or thrown in your face like it sometimes is in the U.S. You can just tell that they are in love and are happy and are sort of in their own little world.
5) There are tons of Asian tourists every day. Every time I walk to and from class, there's a different group of Asian tourists walking around. And they are big groups of them too. They love to take pictures of everything too. Today one of them took a picture of an Italian baby in the piazza. They take pictures of random things and a lot of pictures in the middle of the road where tons of people are walking. So people are always walking through their picture. But, they don't seem to mind. Some of them wear the masks that were worn during the SARS epidemic. I just want to ask one of them why they are wearing it.

That's some of the stuff I've seen around Siena. When it gets near the end of my trip I will do another one of these and see what else I notice. Hope you enjoy and find some of these things as interesting as I do :) Ciao!