First Official Day In Siena

So its January 15th and Orientation Begins!  So we all had to attend a mandatory Orientation meeting at the Contrada at 10:30am.  We filled out the Visa forms and paper work to show we were Italian residents and had to register with the Polizia.  That was really fun...Not!  We then met more of the staff of the  AIFS  program and they talked about themselves and what they're jobs were.  We also heard about the activities we would sign up for later at either 3:00pm or the second session 4:30pm. I heard Italian Cooking and that was DEF one of the activities I was signing up for!!!! We received our meal vouchers to restaurants we could eat at and also sat through a lecture on the academics for the Italian classes...which was kind of Boring but what would you expect.  We also sat through a meeting for volunteer work we can participate in Florence. Some sounded pretty interesting.  

After the meeting a bunch of us walked through a market place or a flee market area which was so cool.  Alot of the things we saw were known as antique...not old! We looked around for a bit which was really cool.  Andreka found a nice FURRR jacket that she really wanted but it was a bit EXPENSIVE haha...Why is Italy so Expensive????  We walked around Siena and met our friendly boar "Pork Chops"  (doesnt have a name but best I could come up with)

While exploring for a Pizza place to try Pizza in Italy we stumbled upon the beautiful Duomo of Siena "Cathedrale de Sienne" I was so beautiful especially with the sun hitting the white marble.  The church literally took my Breath away...for Andreka---"Its so Beautiful...Its Making Me SICK!!!!" 

It was a bit chilly and after walking around we found this small little pizza place called the "Ristorante Il Duomo Siena"  So I shared a sausage, onion, and mozzarella pizza.  It was so good like the pizza was not greasy at all and the crust was perfect (not to thick or thin...Perfeto) But getting back to Ristorante...any restaurant that says Ristorante is targeted towards tourists and is not really the best italian food according to my Italian professor ENZO!!!! He's Awesome!!! 

After eating and meeting the cool chief with a white italian Mustache that was perfect for massaching when thinking or pondering.  He was like an italian Santa Clause.  Funny thing was we bumped into him at another school meeting a few days later and he remembered us and no one really recognized him until he pretended to eat pizza.  He was a character.  But after we ate we walked around the town more and came across a street chalk artist.  The image he drew was amazing and stunning.  Its quite amazing what people can draw and just staring at all the colors and how they create these masterpieces is just Astonishing!!!!  

But we came across a church "Basilica Cateriniana"  The church dedicated to St. Catherine.  The church was incredible inside but we could not take any pictures which was a bummer.  But they had her head preserved and a finger.  Kind of Nasty but its really interesting how the preserved her finger since the 1800s...kind of creepy how the christian/catholic religion pray to fingers and heads.  Personally alot of us felt it was offensive to take her head off her body and put it on a podium and let people pray to it...like oh your dead let us cut your head off and pray to it...to respect Catherine you think you could just pray to a statue or just have her coffin in the church and let people pray to that.  

After visiting the church we headed back to the hotel and signed up for activities: Italian Wine Tasting, Art History Tour of Siena, Chianti Sculpture Park, Italian Cooking, Field Trip to San Gimigano, and going to the Opera to see "Tosca".  So I spent like 100 Euro in less than 5mins...Sad but its going to be so worth it plus we get funded back for some of the activities we go on.  We then headed to the school where they had little pizzas made and flat breads for dinner and showed us our classrooms.  We then left for an Irish Pub and met Barijean and had her join our crew since she lost her friends. We watched the Giants Game for a bit but it was so crowded. We ended up leaving the Pub and went to a fancy Gelato place.  It was my first time trying Gelato...So many flavors to choose from and they all looked so GOOD.  So I got a blueberry/black raspberry/vanilla flavor mixed with a peanut butter-heath-bar flavor. So from my facial expression...it def showed how GOOD IT WAS...SOME REAL NOM NOMS!!! AKA  GELATO  will be the end of my $$$$ in Italy haha.  

After getting some nasty glares from some italian woman for laughing to loud...we left and started heading back to the hotel.  Some guys heard us all talking and barged into our conversations...Andreka and Vicki had a pretty good conversation with these two

  + MORMONS +  HAHAHA In the end Andreka learned they have been in Italy for a while now I think it was like 4 years or 2 years ish.  Andreka ended up with The Book of Mormon...as you can see in the picture below 

After a busy day Group Shot infront of the Athena Hotel and in the lobby...before we had a small glass of wine in the hotel bar and chilled and talked...School Starts Tomorrow!!!! #Excited to learn Italia