My Journey to Italia

First Official day in Siena: Meetiing the family

September 6, 2005

Well I am here is Siena! I'm writing this blog on my computer in my new room. No, they don't have wireless internet, but I think the easiest way to blog is going to be to right the entry before hand and post it to the internet later. My host family does have a computer, and internet, but its not wireless. I need to find out how it works, if its dial up or not and if I can use it or maybe even hook it up to my computer. Wouldn't that be awesome! But, probably won't happen.

Speaking of host family, I just met them today! They seem really, really nice. Mario can speak a little English but Laura doesn’t speak any at all. He keeps breaking into English when I can’t understand him, which is both good and bad. I guess its ok for the first few days but after that I want to start communicating only in Italian. That’s one of the biggest perks about a home stay, I get to practice my Italian everyday! I also met the grandma, or la nonna as they call here. She seems very old! I think she’s 83 if I remember correctly. She’s kinda short and plump and seems to shuffle about the house in something like a moomoo type dress. She is friendly as well though, always smiling whenever I come in the room.


Siena is an interesting city. Its beautiful, but I'm not used to it. Everything looks the same and all the streets are so windy, you could easily get lost. I can't believe people actually live here either! It's so different. The buildings are so old and the streets are so narrow. The apartment my host family lives in is right on the street and on the 5th floor! Lots of stairs to work out on! I can hear cars constantly going by and although I could leave the window open it would be ever louder than it already is.

So far they seem like really nice people. And I'm not having that hard of a time communicating. Although my sentences are very broken and most likely don't make much sense, they somehow understand what I say. It's easier to understand them although it can be confusing as well. Some times i just kinda stare at them and if I try to pretend to understand something but really don't, they can tell. Dinner tonight was wonderful! I mean really, really great. I told Laura I liked fruit and turkey and so that's what we had! First she made some pea soup, with cheese on top. I thought that was the whole meal but I was wrong! Then came the turkey and green beans. They both tasted wonderful, I've NEVER tasted such good green beans! And the turkey was tender and soaked in olive oil. The apartment is cute too. Just like a house actually, with four bedrooms and one and a half baths. Plus, dining room0 kitchen, living room and family room.



I only wish I could have talked to someone tonight. Since Mom's at work it would have been Andy. But my phone already ran out of time and I didn't have time today to go buy another card nor internet access to do so online. *sign* I'll have to buy more time tomorrow. I wish I could call at night and have it be night at home too. Alas, I will have to learn to deal with it. I miss home. I can't imagine staying here for four months. A couple weeks or a month would be alright, but four... that's so long. I counted the weeks and its 10 weeks until Thanksgiving, the amount of time a whole quarter is! But, last fall I did only go home twice and probably only saw Andy every couple weeks. So, I guess when I think of it like that the time doesn't seem so long. Things will hopefully go quicker and easier here than they did last fall with classes and new roommates.

Well, off to bed. I will write more later. I'm still trying to settle in and figure out how I want to do the blog thing, etc. I'd like to venture into the heart of the city more, where everyone else is living (I do envy them for that - it would be pretty cool to be right next to it all) but I've got to figure out what is safe, how late I should stay out, if the buses are ok to take back late, etc.

posted by Madeline Faye @ 1:25 PM