divertente

Going to Cinque Terre after class today with three friends

buon weekend

This weekend was great. Yesterday there was a class trip to Assisi with Art History. The bus ride is only about 2 hrs from Siena. It was nice to be able to see San Francesco (probably my favorite church in Italy) again (first time was with parents when they visited) but I couldn't really enjoy it this time because the Art Hist teacher kept trying to talk to us about the paintings but then the guards would come over and scold her. This happened at least six times. Other than that it was good. There happened to be a wedding in Assisi while we were there so we got to see everyone waiting outside the church for the bride in their purple ties (purple is big in Italy).

Both Abi and Julissa's 21st birthdays are this week so we threw them a joint surprise birthday party at the school last night. A good time was had by all.

Then today Molly, Julianna and I went to the book art teacher's studio in the country. I like to call her "the book maker". The book art teacher is a really interesting person. We got to see where she makes and restores books for clients. She has a great setup up, three rooms of space for working and showcasing her pieces. All three of us went there to make "magic wallets" and had a great time. On the way to her studio we passed these huge fields of yellow flowers that went on forever.


We also had lunch at the studio and she made us a great lasagna, spinach, gelato, strawberries. Her neighbors happen to be a bee keeper and his friend (named Matteo and Nacho) who is a traveling "gypsy" in some sense and they ate lunch with us too They had a supremely cute and well behaved huskie with them. The bee keeper even brought over homemade MEAD. It was totally unlike what I expected it to taste like considering when I think of mead I think of medieval times or dandelion wine. It was very light and similar to champagne but more honeyish. Then in between working on our wallets, we got to go next door where they were making the bee houses for the bees who are arriving next week (i'm not sure how they know this). They were gracious and gave us a whole explanation of the process and we even tried the honey/ the pollen pellets which I suppose are healthy for you even if they do taste kind of dry.



Great weekend of new things/ experiences/fun

Athens/ Mykonos

Sat on the beach, looked at the ocean, ate some lamb. Buon Pasqua.

fare "trekking"

Today's "relaxing walk" with my host turned out to be a 7-hour, multi-mile hike through the woods with a large group of French and Italian people. We trekked between Casciano and the town of Murlo, up and down hills, over a stream, and through the mud, literally. Some of the people on the hike spoke French, Italian AND English which made me feel like I should be a lot more skillful with language but they were all very nice. This small Italian group invited their sister city in France to visit them and trekking was one of the activities. Despite the steep inclines etc. it was a good walk. The weather wasn't too hot and there was a cool breeze. I'll put up pictures next time

Really excited to see Hannah for spring break in Greece. I can't wait sdkgjhksjdg!