Siena So Far

I have been in Siena for three days now and it is amazing. I have an apartment with Hanks, Nicolas, who is from Oregon, and Brian who is from Oregon. The only other guy on the trip is Steven and he is living with a host family. Our apartment is cool, we have a big 15 foot door that automatically opens when we use are magnet card. Our rooms are on the second floor, where we have a kitchen and a bathroom, no common room but Nicolas and my room is pretty large so we can hang out in there. Nicolas taught us how to play the Korean jacks game called Kongi, which I have struggled with. We had our orientations, which were very boring but it was ok because I just doodle anyway. We got walked around town so we saw Il Campo, which is the main gathering space next to the town hall. We went in to the town hall and saw all the beautiful artwork in there, which are one of the first example of secular works to be depicted in an administrative building. Siena used to be one of the powers of Italy, but when the black plague worked its way through Europe, around 90 percent of the population died as opposed to 50 in most other places. It was because Siena had such a great drinking water system that the rats that carried the plague swam in and got everyone infected. We then toured Il Duomo which is the Senese cathedral, which was also noted for its secular art right where the Cardinal would make his entrance. Then we got served our gigantic three course meal, which started with prosciutto and salami with toasted bread with a oil and mushroom combination, then a pasta dish, which was ravioli with cheese inside, then the meat dish which was pork wrapped in bacon with a crust of bread, absolutely amazing. Then for dessert we had a tort with raspberry sauce. I didnt have to eat for the rest of the day. We were introduced to the cooking class, which will end up being 250 Euro but it will definitely be worth it, since we are learning how to make pasta and all sorts of dishes. I have been spending a lot of start up money recently and I feel terrible but once all the preliminary stuff is over it should be fine. Hopefully I will be able to get Skype running soon, but since we dont have wireless in our apartment yet I cannot. Cant wait to talk to everyone.