A Day In Siena

So today was another ridiculous yet horrible day. Last night we all went to the club and had a nice time, except for once again someone pushed me. I am not sure what is going on at these clubs, but a lot of the American girls that come here seem very angry and ready to fight. Of course , there was a lot of drama when we got home too so it was just a long night. Then we were so loud that some upstairs complained and then Randall got an angry phone call from the landlord. Everyone was tired and irritable when we left for Siena. I slept for a little while on the bus and then we went to this synagouge. It was actually really pretty, quaint would be the perfect way to describe this synagouge in this town. It was really sad listening to this women that showed us around the temple though. She was so excited to have us there and said that there are only about 30 to 35 Jews left in the town. Supposedly, only about 10 of them attend services, so the synagouge is typically very empty. She was talking about how her son has his Bar Mitzvah coming up and how there is no one to come. It is so sad to think of there being no one that can come celebrate that. It was another interesting thing because while I am not deeply involved in the Jewish community, I know I could be if I made an attempt. In this town they do not really have any Jewish community to be apart of.
After leaving the synagouge, we went and got lunch. Lunch was good, but everyone was tired so we headed back to Florence really soon afterwards. By the time we got back to Florence, it was downpouring and the streets were literally flooding. All these people were standing on the streets with brooms trying to sweep the water, out of their businesses. At one point the bus was stopped in from of a school and people were coming out of the building with buckets. It was crazy to watch. When we finally got back to the apartment everyone was ready to go to sleep. Unfortunately we were greeted to seeing this electrician inside the apartment with plaster all over our beds, the floor, etc. Needless to say no one was happy, and the drama just continued on and on and on. All I can hope for is that tomorrow will be better and that the drama will soon stop.

Back to School

Today we woke up early to have our first semi day of class. It was rough because I was woken up in the middle of sleeping to some drama. It seems to be a continous cycle in this household. Since I have never lived in any kind of communal space before I wonder if this is how things always are. However, after only a few days of living like this I have come to really appreciate my apartment back home. There is definately something to be said for being able to go to sleep whenever you want to. Anyways, today the group went to this old synagouge for a few hours which was really beautiful. It would definately be a really cool place to get married. It has that gaudy church design, but it is a temple. It was kind of interesting that the temple was bombed during World War II , but the Nazis were unable to destroy it. When we went upstairs there was this little museum. Something I thought was really strange was that they had this preserved dress for boys to wear at their circumsion. The dress was so similar to what babies where during the baptism. I felt like it really showed a Christian influence on the Jewish community in Florence during the represented time period. After touring the museum we sat in this little room and watch a short movie on the Holocaust. Usually I find information on the Holocaust to be really interesting, however this was all in Italian, and was not as impactful since I could not understand it. After we left the synagouge a bunch of us went out for lunch. Everyone else is getting tired of all the past, but I love it. Never will I complain of too much pasta, however it would be nice to have some chicken. At home my mom loves to cook chicken, I like to cook chicken, and here it seems like they just are not that fond of it.
I then walked around forever with a bunch of people. At one point we went into this cafe and while we were sitting there I started to notice the relationship between dogs and their owners. It is very different in Italy in terms of how dogs act. While sitting in this cafe a dog walked in trailing behind his owner. The dog stayed next to his owner in the cafe and then when the owner left followed them back out. The dog was not on a leash, and was so well training. I am not sure what Europeans do differently in that sense, but it was truly amazing. I know that whenever I take my dog anywhere I am trailing behind him not vice versa, and he has to be on a leash. I think this difference is great and I definately think America should get some advice on how to train their dogs from the Europeans.
The day was long, with a lot of walking especially when Joe decided he really wanted to walk a few miles away to go grocery shopping. Later that night everyone went to a club called Yab. The club was a lot of fun except when it came time to pay the bill. The women at the counter completely ripped me off and refused to explain to me why my tab was 30 euro for 2 drinks. I was extremely upset , especially considering one of those drinks was supposed to be free with cover. Not a very nice way to end the evening, but now I know to always ask the price of drinks before I start drinking. Italian clubs are expensive!

The Next Day

The next day I woke up early so I could go get my cell phone. After that I met up with Ana, Lauren, and some of the guys. We walked to the center of Florence and saw some pretty cool stuff. We eventually stopped at this little Italian restaurant. I got this spaghetti and sausage dish which was pretty good. The restaurant owner was really nice to us and spoke amazing English. It was incredible to watch him switch to all these different languages as people walked by. I definately believe that being in another country is inspiring when it comes to learning other languages.
I had a nice afternoon except for on our way back to the hotel it started downpouring and we were soaked to the bone. We went to meet Randall at the hotel so we could go check out our apartment. The apartment is BEAUTIFUL!!! I am in the quad with Ana, Lauren, and Michael. Luckily we each have our own closet and a drawer to keep our stuff in. We also have this beautiful terrance, a fully equipped kitchen (except for a microwave), and three bathrooms. Once we toured the apartment we had orientation for the rules of the house. In Italy there is an actual law that states you can not have people sleep at the apartment that are not living there. There is also a law that indicates quiet hours in Italy. At 11 pm if people are being to loud, neighboring tenants have the right to call the police. While I know these laws have been implemented for a reason, I know that the noise level will eventually become a problem considering there are 12 college students living in one apartment.
After orientation I took an extrememly long nap and then went out to dinner with the group. At the restaurant I decided to keep it traditional and get spaghetti with meat sauce. There was a little drama because some of the Italian guys liked Michael, and some of the other guys got upset. It was a nice dinner though. It was really sweet, Joe got all the girls at the table a rose and then when he had an extra he gave it to our waitress. I thought it was just a really nice gesture and I could tell our waitress really appreciated it. After that we all got ready to go out for a crazy night in Florence. It was ridiculous. We walked around forever trying to find this club, we must have asked 30 people for directions. The club played two kinds of music, techno and rap. We stayed there for a while and then at around 5 am came back to the house. Everyone stayed up for a long time talking and having a good time until the sun literally came up. I woke up 3 hours later, in serious pain. All the people that woke up early then went out to breakfast and were back asleep by 1. In the afternoon we went on this long walking tour of the city. The architecture of some of the building was really beautiful. We walked this huge hill that was deadly, so that we could get a good view of the city. When we got to the top I got my first gelato and then took a bus back to the apartment. Now, we are about to go out to dinner. The trip has been pretty fun so far, but only time will tell.

Only The Beginning

The first day of the trip was relatively long. I got to the airport early (making my mother happy), but making it so I had more time to kill. When I got in line to check my bags, I ran into another girl that was going on the trip, Hayley. It turns out that we were actually in a history discussion together this semester. When we got to the gate Lauren and Ana were already there, so we just hung out with them for a little while and tried to get to know each other. The flight was decent. I sat next to a very attractive marine who was on some kind of "top secret" mission. He was from Wisconsin and dipped. It was probably the second time in my life I have seen that. It was pretty disgusting when he spit the leftover tobacco stuff into this bottle. He was telling me how he grew up on a 850 acre farm and how his family had more cows then his entire high school had people. He was a true country boy.
During the actual flight we encountered alot of turbulance, which made me feel a little nauseous, but my cold is what was really doing me in. We stopped in Germany for just long enough to catch our next plane. When we got to Florence we were greeted by Randall and we exchanged our money. I met a few of the other kids that were on the trip. Everyone seemed to be pretty nice. We then left the airport and took a taxi to the San Gallo Palace. I of course managed to get grease on my pants , which is unfortunate since they are my favorite sweats.
At the hotel I roomed with Ilana and Rachel. Both of them seem like very nice people. That day we had a long break and I ended up spending that time talking to this girl Michael. After that the entire group went and got dinner at this restaurant. The food was good, I got this ravioli and shrimp thing. After that I ended up heading back to the room for the night because I was feeling crappy.