My Journey to Italia

Getting into the Routine

September 12, 2005
So, not much has been going on lately. Everyone is kind of settling into a routine. Two days of classes down. Language class is pretty good. Not too hard so for, the first day was actually harder than today. Lots of memorization though! I can understand everything pretty well, grammar and all, but I have a hard time just remembering what all the verbs and adjectives mean! Amy and I were talking and we both feel like Franca did not prepare us very well for this... there are lots of vocabulary words we should know but don't because we were never tested on them. I did my homework for tonight already. Or what I could do of it, I need an Italian English dictionary badly! I wish I'd bought a good one and brought it with me. Hopefully I can find one at a bookstore tomorrow.

I'm still not sure if I want to do the acting class or not. I'm going to the info session on Thursday and will decide then. Sounds like it could be a lot of fun but also a lot of work! I went to the first session of the painting class today. It was... ok, we did sketches. Mine was so bad! Some people are so good too! She didn't really teach today, it was more about expressing ourselves but she says next time she will instruct more. I'm not sure if I want to do it or not though... its 70 E for supplies and such for 10 sessions. Not bad at all, but it was really stressful today.

Also I went on an hour tour of Siena. It was really interesting! Siena has the oldest bank in the world, and it is still in use today! Also we saw parts of a Cathedral that was never built. It was meant to be an extension of the Duomo but wasn't finished after half the population died of the plague! Siena is super old, dating back to the 11th century! Also, the Museum I will be interning in (so cool!) used to be a hospital, one of the oldest in the world. Hospital comes from the word hospitality, and used to be where travelers, pilgrims and orphans were housed, not sick people. I learned a lot more; the tour was well worth it. It was given by an older woman who I think is a Professor at the Siena University.

Also, during painting, it started to rain. And there was lightening. The clouds rolled in, it got a little windy and cold and then rained heavily for a half hour or so. When I walked back at 6:30 it was still sprinkling and cold.

posted by Madeline Faye @ 4:18 PM