3rd Week of Classes

I know that I don’t update this blog very often but it is very inconvenient because AHA isn’t open that often and people are always waiting to use the internet and the wireless connection is shoddy. We are working on meeting some kids from the University so that we can use their wireless password. As for school:

Cross-Cultural Studies: This class is cool, we’ve only had two meeting and we just kind of learn about how things work in Siena. We have a paper due today about a gender or sexuality difference that we have seen here in Siena that confuses us or strikes us as different from the American way. There isn’t really any homework for this class, so I don’t really do too much with it.

History of Art and Science: I thought that this class would be the coolest by far, but unfortunately the Professor just kind of asks questions of us about the reading and doesn’t really teach too much. We have readings every once and a while but we have to journal about every excursion that we take and also about every reading, which naturally I have not done and will have to do at the last minute before the first round is due on Wednesday. Hopefully the class picks up because I think that I will go crazy if it doesn’t because class is two hours long and my patience doesn’t last that long. I usually just doodle, I’m getting pretty good at drawing things in the room.

Art History: I really like this class. Our teacher is a funny little man who knows everything about everything art. Almost too much sometimes. He swears a lot and knows what he is talking about is boring when we are just sitting in class so we get out a lot and walk around and study the Art of Siena. We have a paper due on Wednesday about a painting or art work that we have seen that we really liked. I don’t know how I am going to write two pages about it but I think I’ll be able to.

Italian: I really enjoy this class because our teacher is cool and we learn at a pretty good pace. I was allowed to join the second level class, but then I realized that I didn’t want to do all the vocabulary catch up and dropped back down to level one. We have homework every day, which takes like 15 minutes. We have quizzes every Thursday, which I have gotten one question wrong so far so its not all bad. We have learned all the basics, verb conjugation in the present, introductions, ordering in restaurants, getting hotels, household things, and basic vocab for walking around in Siena. The best part of the class, different from the US is that we always have questions about how to say things because we have to use it every day. I’m learning quickly and have just been asking the teacher for other tenses and more vocab so I don’t go stir crazy in the 2 and a half hour class.

As you can see I rarely have homework so most of my day is spent walking around and just relaxing in Il Campo or a park. Hanks and I work out every week day, then I have cooking class every Thursday night. Last week we made our own tagliatelli noodles with a basic sauce, a quiche like thing with potatoes spinach and zucchini. We also made bruschetta as an appetizer. We made this delicious apple cake for dessert that was amazing. The lady that teaches us teaches completely in Italian which we can all pick up on pretty quickly, even if we can’t speak it back yet. This week we made risotto with saffron in it with a beef broth. Then we made kind of a beef meatloaf which is the best I can describe it as. For dessert we made a custard cake. I love making everything completely from scratch and then eating it at the end. The lady buys like 3 bottles of wine for the six of us so we just sit back and eat through our 4 course meals. We get there at like six and leave around 10 or so.