Sorry for all the delay in writing, but I've been extremely busy with writing papers and studying for finals. It's crazy! All of last week I just sat down and cranked out 3 papers, each 10-12 pages and then studied this past weekend for a test I had yesterday. Finally today, since I have finished those papers I can relax a bit and do nothing.
Anyways, last Monday I did a cooking class with 7 other girls from my program. It was great! Unfortunately, it was about 4-5 hours long. I was exhausted afterwards, but the food we ate and made was delicious! I am definitely making those dishes when I get home. I already told my Aunt Kate that I would make an Italian dinner for everyone over the summer, so now I can hold true to that :) Just be prepared for many courses and for me to turn Italian on everyone saying "What? You can't be full already! We still have our second course and dessert!" We still have one more cooking class to go to which I am really excited for. We made a traditional Tuscan soup that was absolutely amazing! I know that I can make that easily at home, so I will be making it a lot. It's basically a tomato based soup that has bread and some other stuff in it. You just have to try it. Then we made homemade pasta with a sausage and mushroom sauce. I am not the biggest fan of mushrooms, but luckily they were chopped up (by me) and I didn't even really taste them. They weren't too noticeable which was also good for me. Then for our second course we had a roasted pork loin with potatoes. I could have eaten about 4 plates of that. So good! I will try to replicate it at home, but I highly doubt it will come out nearly as good as hers. And of course for dessert, we had a rice cake that had raisins and pine nuts in it. My mouth is watering right now thinking of that entire meal. Definitely one of the best meals I have had in my life.
The rest of the week was just me doing homework. I wanted to get done most of my papers before the weekend because I was going away for Friday and Saturday. Luckily I did get a lot done and my persistence paid off because now I am able to blog and watch TV shows and not worry about anything for a couple of days. Last Friday I went to Perugia, Umbria as part of the IES sponsored trip. We arrived in Perugia and met our guide at the hotel. He was originally from Brussels, Belgium and has been living in Italy for the past 13 years. It was really nice to have a guide who spoke really good English and told us stuff that he found interesting and thought we would find interesting also. On Friday afternoon, we went to Bevagna, a really really small town close to Perugia. We got to see how candles, paper, and silk was made and we also saw a painters shop. It was really cool! Saturday morning, we traveled to Assisi for the rest of the trip. We went to St. Francis' church and learned all about him since Assisi is his birthplace. It was a cool trip and I'm glad I went. It's nice to see the smaller towns of Italy because that is where all the history and culture is. You get to experience different aspects of Italian culture by going to the small towns and can really get immersed in that. The only thing I wanted to do was spend more time in Perugia. I felt like I didn't really get to do a lot since our free time was taken up by lunch. I would have loved to walk around and see a bit more of the town. Oh well.
Sunday morning I decided to go to church with Jordan, Beckah, and Jillian. It was really nice to go and from the start I felt welcome. Someone translated the sermons for us and the lyrics for the songs were projected up on the wall. I thought that was really great. I could actually sing along and participate instead of being lost and not know what's going on. After church, there was a big lunch for everyone there. It was great and nice to be able to relax for a bit before I went home to finish up my papers. There were some things that they preached that I completely disagreed with and some that I liked. When we were eating lunch, we started talking to a couple from London, whose daughter had studied abroad in Siena a few years ago and they are looking to buy a house nearby. They were very nice and both their daughters are getting married within the next year. I had to force myself to bite my tongue a couple of times because I got frustrated with some of the things she was saying. I realized that at some point in my life, maybe after I'm done with grad school, I would like to join a church. I like the community feeling of it and I felt like I had been going to this church for a long time. Just the fact that the people were so welcoming even though they didn't know me at all. After I'm done with school and I start working somewhere/settle down a bit, I want to search for a church that I like. One that I feel comfortable in and with their sermons. In a way, going to church gave me a break from everything and I was able to get away from all the stress for a few hours. I definitely needed that.
Anyways, enough of the talk about religion. Yesterday, I did my volunteering, which I love more and more each time I go. I am definitely going to miss those kids and will miss them looking up at me and speaking Italian that I can sometimes understand. I am going to have to find some sort of volunteer thing with little kids that I can do at home. I only have one more day of volunteering left since next Tuesday is a national holiday. So sad :(
Today I went to a soccer game. So much fun! I am so excited that I was able to go. The weather was perfect and it was such a great atmosphere. I can't wait to bring my parents to a game when they come. They will have to get some sort of AC Siena paraphernalia to bring to the game. Siena played Bologna and they tied 1-1. I love watching soccer, so it was really great to not feel so strange when I get angry or just go crazy during a game. I can only imagine what it will be like watching a game with my dad... Prepare yourself, Mom. :-) I loved all the cheers they do and how into the game a lot of the fans are. They truly love the game and show their support for their team. I wish I could watch soccer games as easily back home as I can here. That's what TV is for haha.
So that's what I've been up to for the past week. This weekend I will be going down south to Salerno (Amalfi Coast) for a long weekend. I can't wait to sit by the pool and completely relax before finals.
I will post pictures from all these things either later today, or tomorrow :)
Also a belated birthday shout out to my big sister, Jordan. Happy Birthday sis! Love ya! Hope it was amazing and that you had lots of fun with Mom and Dad. You deserve it <3
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