Let's just back up for a quick bit...
(note: this is going to be a little scattered considering I haven't blogged anything of actual meaning in quite some time... i mean, the poem was meaningful. well, sort of. bahaha)
So last time I blogged, I was excited about Melina and her boyfriend Romain coming to visit me in Siena... they came for a weekend and it was so fun! I got to show them all around Siena and we ate delicious food and gelato and it was so nice having some family around again. Shout-out to them for making it all the way to Siena, Italy for some good ole' fashion Tuscan goodness.
A few days after that some of my friends and I went to a discoteca! It's funny because there aren't any actual discotecas in the center of Siena so you have to take these little buses that are specifically for the club like 10-20 minutes outside the city to get there. They cram about 100 people in these little buses (that would so not fly in America, hellooo safety.) and then you get to the discoteca and dance the night away and then they take you back to Siena at like 3am. Funny.
One of our last excursions with school was to a pig farm and cheese factory! That sounds a bit odd, but it was really interesting. The pig farm is a special type of pig native to the Siena area. It's called Cinta Senese, which actually means "Sienese belt/band" because they are black pigs with a white-ish band around their middles. We got to see the big nursing ones get fed and they were all snorting and attacking each other and it was kind of gross. Then we trekked through the mud (so. much. mud.) with special bags over our shoes to go see the baby piglets. They were a little cuter, I guess. Then we went to see the wild ones that aren't perfect enough to be selected to be a mommy or daddy (aka they have an imperfect band or random spots instead of the whole band... coughracismcough) and they are the ones that end up being salami and prosciutto. Sorry all you veggies out there reading this but looks like you're beat, cuz I eat meat (HAH mi dispiace.) Then we got to try the different types of Cinta Senese meat and had delicious bruschetta too.
Later that day we went to the Pecorino Cheese factory which is a sheep cheese making place. Did you know I'm a huge cheese fan? Smelly indeed, but oh so good. We had to wear strange bags over our shoes again but this time it was to keep us from getting outside germs into the super clean, hygienic factory. Which I guess was a stellar idea considering we were just glooping and glopping around in pig mud, but I don't think the lady knew that. Anyways, we learned about the factory and also got to try about 5 different types of sheep cheese in different stages of aging.
The community service has been continuing and recently I went and helped out at the Siena soup kitchen and clothes donation center. I've also been going to my 5th grade class, and I think they are the cutest things ever (sooo cuuuute!!! shout-out to JC and Modern Family, duh). In two days I have my last class with them and I'll be sure to take pictures so you all can see what I mean. I'm also going to give them all envelopes so they can write me letters to the US and of course, bring them some candy which I'm sure the teacher will loooove me for.
About the week before Thanksgiving I got sick. Like INFLUENZA sick. But not the normal like coughy coldy throaty fevery one. This strange Siena Sickness attacked my muscles and made me feel like I had run a marathon everyday for 10 days straight. I also had no appetite and just all around felt deliriously miserable. The Italian way of curing sickness is just to stay at home and rest so school was out of the question considering all the walking up and down hills we do (I tried to go to school 2 days and that's what made me get even worse and have to stay inside a week after. ugh.) So long story short, I had to miss Thanksgiving. I was so sad. The program had this awesome Thanksgiving dinner and I couldn't go and it was depressing. Luckily some of my friends came to my house and visited, making me feel more like a human being again and not like a mannequin in pajamas. My host mom was also super great and helpful and would bring me soup and tea to my bedside. It was pretty terrible and one of the strangest sicknesses I've ever had considering there was really no medicine I could take to help except advil. Shout-out to America's Next Top Model for having 15 seasons (JK I only watched one full one. but oh was it saucy).
I also got a new roommate! My friend Nicole's host mom is older and got pretty sick and had to go to the hospital for a week to do tests so they moved Nicole to my house for the rest of the semester. She's one of my better friends here and loves to dance around just as much as I do so we've been having fun.
Last week we took our last excursion to Florence to go see Puccini's opera "Tosca". It was a cool experience and we actually knew what was going on because there were subtitles above the stage. But let's be real, you need subtitles to understand what's going on? BAHA.
All of the Christmas lights are finally lit and there are random little holiday markets around in different piazzas all the time! It gets dark around 4:30pm (which is CRAZY) but there are always tonssss of people walking around buying presents and being jolly like ho ho ho style. They also put up an ice skating rink in one of the grassy areas by the Fortress!
So things are winding down but the truth is, my heart is all wound up. I really have fallen in love with Siena and Italia and I'm very sad that it is unknown when I will be able to return here. All the things that I thought were backwards and strange about this place have become quirky and special and I'm just so used to it all. I know that when I go back home I will be happy to be home for the holidays with my family, but after that, who knows what kind of feelings will set in. What I do know is that I will never forget the experiences I've had and the people I've met here in Siena: my home away from home.
See you all soon,
Bella Gabriella
"COR MAGIS TIBI SENA PANDIT"
"Siena ti apre il suo cuore più di questa porta"
"Siena opens its heart to you more than its doors"
