Oh, hey Italia.

SO realizing how many people I care to keep in contact with, I decided to take Rachel up on her suggestion to keep a blog so that every time something cool happens (probably everyday) I don't  have to inform everyone individually. That means when I write you guys I can just tell you about the things that I want to tell you specifically about instead of having to recap the whole deal.
Now, let's get started.
I just got here yesterday after several (SEVERAL) hours of plane travel; specifically 11 hours from SFO to Frankfurt, and hour layover there, and another couple of hours from Frankfurt to Rome. The plane from SFO to Frankfurt was actually kind of fun because Simon, Wade and I were all sitting together in a row, and Paige, who had a connecting flight from Phoenix, sat behind us. Once we got to Frankfurt and had our passports stamped the first thing we did was buy a beer and toast to being in Europe... never mind that it was 10am German time. For us it was almost 2am, but the old lady judging me from afar didn't know that. The second flight was almost empty, and I slept as much as could, with a brief interlude to appreciate the  view of the Alps from above. We were the last group to arrive at the airport in Rome, so once we found the program leaders we were ready to hop on the bus and get going (oddly there was no passport control or customs or anything.... hmmm).
The bus ride to Siena was about three hours, and we arrived around 6pm, so the immediately had us get off and meet our host families. My host family is lovely, although I have yet to meet the father, Renato, because he is in Rome on business until Thursday. My host mother's name is Alessandra, and she know some english, more than enough to communicate what we need to know, but seems to really appreciate it and have fun when we try to speak Italian with her. I also have a host brother, Edoardo, who is twenty and said he's looking for work. I have a roommate too, her name is Julia and she's really sweet, but boy we can certainly tell the difference between west and east coast attitudes! I don't know if i could exactly articulate what makes us so different in that regard, I think we decided it had to do with how much more laid back west coasters are, while east coasters have more of a plan and a way things should be done in mind. She also brought way WAY more stuff than me (hear that, Mom?). Dinner last night was good but I think I was too exhausted to really appreciate it; Alessandra made us lasagna and chicken and what I think was okra. I also awkwardly handed over my host gift. It was one of those situations where I know the words in Italian but I still had an awkward time getting my mouth around them (ho un regalo di San Francisco, perche sono di San Francisco). They liked it though, it was a book of pictures of San Francisco.  I ended up going to bed before nine though because I hadn't slept more than a couple hours since I'd left home, and Julia did the same.

My side of the room with Castallare

The next morning we had to be at the school at ten, so Alessandra took us on the bus to show us how to get there. Lots of other students are staying in the area, so the bus ride was a real festa! Also, it turn out that Alessandra's best friend is hosting Wade, so I bet we'll have some dinner parties in our  future.
The first thing we did with the group was take a tour of useful things in Siena. Almost no history or anything (unless you count pointing out where Saint Catherine's decapitated head is on display, which we will get to visit soon), but we did learn where to get phones and bus tickets and whatnot. Then we had lunch and I hung out with some of the New York students (again, clearly east coasters), one of whom felt inclined to purchase a box of wine to have with his lunch. He's a classy character. We all went to get Italian cell phones, and hopefully I'll get all the kinks in mine worked out tomorrow. We ate the lunch that our host families packed (for me, a sandwich with prosciutto) in la Piazza di Campo, where the Palio is held.
After lunch we had a boring meeting about logistics and permit of stay forms and stuff, but after we had free time so Krissy, Paige and I went to a caffé, where I successfully used my Italian to order espresso (prendo un caffé, per favore. Grazie.  It cost 80 eurocents).

Then we wandered around and found our way to to Duomo, which is lovely and huge, where we ran into other LC students, Wade, Cooper, and Julian. We made out way back to the school at the Fontabranda, just in time for the welcome cocktail party (the only cocktail was champagne, but I didn't have any because I was more interested in the mini salami tramezzini). Edoardo picked us up con la macchina at seven, and we hung out at home until dinner, which was pasta and beef. mmmmm... We had a fun time at dinner trying to communicate different things, and we learned that the leapord print esspresso cups and pillows were in celebration of their contrade, Pantera (Panther). Nice.
Then we watched the movie Phone Booth dubbed in Italian. And now I'm here.
Hopefully I'll continue to be motivated enough to keep this updated. Today I have written a lot, however, today is probably one of the least interesting days we will have. Well, we'll see.

OH ALSO if you made it this far you probably like me, so if you want to send me things here's the address:

Robin Boedecker

c/o Siena Italian Studies Program

Via Fontebranda, 69

53100 Siena, Italy