Abito a Siena ma sono di Albuquerque!

I live in Siena but I am from Albuquerque!!

So that's what a week of Italian classes taught me!! Aren't you proud!! No, I'm kidding I know more than that...not much more, but more anyway! Italian is pretty fun. When I first started to learn it, every word seemed to run together and all sounded the same!! But now I can kind of seperate the words...still not understand it all...but you get what I'm saying right!! :)

Ok, so I got kind of busy these past few days and I started to blog a couple of days ago. I had almost finished and then dumb myspace decided to shut down all my internet windows! Myspace is lame. So this blog will hopefully sum up the last few days...its been a few days so I will do my best to tell you everything! :)

So I won't really bore you with all of the specific school stuff. Wednesday through Friday was pretty much the same as far as the classes go. We only had Italian and Culture and the last two days which bummbed me and Vicki because LIS is our favorite class. But instead of having LIS on I think it was Thursday, we got the grand tour of Siena! It really was alot of fun because this is how it was set up: We walked around with the LIS students, the ASL students and then us 5 hearing students. So we had someone signing in Italian and if we didn't fully catch what he was saying, it was up to us to ask someone who understood it to tell us what was said. And we had to ask in LIS!!! Then at the next stop the ASL would be used and the same would happen for those who didn't understand the ASL. A really cool approach to help us learn the languages!

So on our little tour we first stopped at the huge clock tower that is in the Piazza del Campo. I can't remember it's specific name off the top of my head but you can see it in the pictures. Inside the building is a museum of all the old artwork on the walls, the ceilings, pictures, statues and all sorts of paintings. It was really amazing! If you are into art history, this is the place to go! Most of the pictures were of Mary and Jesus and then Jesus during his ministry it seemed. They were really amazing and I wish I had brought my camera with me! They didn't tell us we were going to be doing that until about 5 minutes before! But it was really fun anyways! After that we made our way down the streets of Siena and the history of some of the streets was revealed. We then made it to the Duomo..the old amazing dome Catholic church. I can't even tell you how amazing it is. Just the arcitecture of the building is stunning. On our way in you are surrounded by the jaw-dropping art that is on the walls and ceiling. The floors are made of marble as well as the pillars that hold up the ceiling. There is so much stuff to look at in the Duomo that you need at least an hour to really get a good look! Vicki tried to take some pictures but it was pretty dark so they didn't come out all so well. I think we may try and go back to the Duomo before we leave and get a better look. We didn't stay very long because we had to go back and get ready for dinner!!!

SO after our tour around Siena, which made us even more tired of walking around ;) we went back to the flat and got ready for dinner. We went back to the place we went the second night we were in Siena. We went with most of the deaf students and a bunch of the teachers. It was pretty fun. Me and Vicki decided to share some ravioli first because it was expensive and we wanted to split it, and second because we can only eat so much pasta! The language barriers are still fascinating. When we ordered we had to have someone who spoke Italian, LIS, a little English, and a little ASL. It is really cool to see that so many people can speak all 4 of those. NEAT! Dinner was a blasty because a couple of the girls told some of the funniest stories that I have ever heard...if you want to know I will have to tell you later...and dinners are pretty quiet as far as noise goes. We sign about 90 % more than we talk. I love it though because it helps me work on my signing skills as well as my receptive skills and watching peoples different signing styles.

After dinner I went up to the Bar to talk with one of the guys who was getting a quick 'shot of coffee' as we are starting to call them...and a piece of some sort of fruit filled cake thingy. The bar tender asked me if I wanted to taste someting. I didn't have any more euros so I said no thanks. But he insisted that I at least try a taste. SO I finaly agreed and asked for a taste of the chocolate cake. He cut me a huge slice and covered it in powdered sugar!!! YA! I looked at him and thought that mayb we had a miscommunication...since he spoke very little english...and he said no, no...it is for you!! Enjoy! AW! How sweet! So then one of the Italian women that is learning English came up to me and said he wants to meet you! So I finally figured it out..cause I must be pretty oblivious to the whole hitting on me in Italy thing...and she introduced us. John told her to tell me that if I ever wanted to come back and eat anything...ANYTHING that I could just come in and ask! He would always be there....and I have a free meal waiting for me! He was pretty cute so maybe I will go back there and take him up on his offer! ;)

After dinner we had what is called a Shhhh Party at the Havana Club. This Shhh party was so much fun!!! All of the Siena School students were there, a ton of the Italian deaf community was there and a bunch of other people I don't know. The point of the party was so that we could all learn eachother's languages a little bit. If you didn't know the other person's language, you had to figure out a way to make you point either by gestures or words you may have known in the other language...or there were posters around the room with the LIS signs so that you could have a conversation starter! At first I was pretty nervous and didn't really want to talk to anyone cause I didn't know their language. BUt then someone came up to me and he didn't know any of my language so we had fun trying to figure out what the other person was saying! The night went on in a silence that was filled with conversation and meeting people and making new friends! I think that it was a really great idea and got a lot of us out of our comfort zone and into a really neat world that makes you want to stay and talk all night! I really want to come back to Italy and learn more LIS sometime after I graduate maybe. And this is a fun fact...If you are going to drink an alcoholic beverage...be warned that they use way more alcohol in a drink than you are probably used to in America.....just a little fun fact of the day! YA italy~ :)

Friday was a really slow day! All of us students were pretty tired from the night before since we were out so late...but we showed up anyways and learned a little Italian....I think....during one of the breaks I took a nap on one of the couches. I was so tired!! I was having some sort of dream that must have been funny because I woke up laughing and Scottie was laughing at me!! It was pretty funny and she has a funny picture of me curled up in a ball on the couch! We only had two classes on Friday so that we could go home early and have a restful weekend.

Me and Vic went home and she fell asleep right away! I took a shower and went to meet up with some people at the school. (ya vicki slept for about 4 hours and I went out without her!!) Me, Scottie, Joseph and Errol all walked around the streets of Siena looking for some kind of meat filled food. Joseph knew of a place so he took us to the most delicous meal I have had!! It was this little place called Kebob and they had the best food. I ate what is like pita bread, filled with lettuce, a yummy sauce and I think it was lamb meat. It was so good and a really nice change from all the Italian food!!! Then we went out and had more gilato...the best ice cream of all time... I had half mint half chocoate and it was o so good!!! AMAZING! I wish I could eat gilato all day long..and I would! After all that we walked around there little supermarket store and looked at the food and crazy prices...no wonder people who come to America love Wal-Mart!! Their prices are pretty expensive and I noticed that they have a ton of sugary sweet food!
YUCK! There was so much I couldn't even believe it! How do they eat like that and stay so skinny I have no idea!

And if you are wondering...yes that is Joseph and a speedo!!

Saturday was the best/worst day since I have been here!!! We went to the Beach...or as they call it here..the Sea! It was amazing! I haven't been to the beach since I went to Hawaii....I thinkg about 5 or 6 years ago. Plus I live in New Mexico and I don't ever see the water. So after the hour and a half car ride we finally made it to the Sea!! I was so excited. And don't worry...I lathered up in sunscreen...I burn alot so I made sure I was all set. We picked a place on the beach...and my us I mean the ASL and hearing kids....and set up camp. Right away Martin was in the water...I'd say it took him about 1 minute and he was gone....the rest of us put our toes in and decided it would be ok to get in. We went out into the Sea and floated around. It was kind of cold but after a few minutes of moving around it wasn't so bad. It was really nice and as you would imaging...malto belo!!! (very beautiful!!) I came back from the water and decided to lay on the beach. I don't know how long I was there, but I sure did fall asleep on my stomach in the sun. Vicki did too....I really wish I hadn't done that!!

We ended up gettin pretty hungry so we headed over to were a few places were set up so that we could eat. While we were sitting around eating another sandwich, a little fox came up to us!! Ya a real wild fox lookin around for food!! He was so cute! And Shellie fed him some of her hot dog...he just ate it right out of her hand! So cute....

Later me and Vicki walked down the shore line and collected some really small, but really pretty sea shells. When I turned around...she said...AMANDA!! My legs are literally as red as lobsters. No joke. I didn't even feel the burn at all!! WHY IS THE SUN SO HOT!!! We must have been asleep for a really long time because when I got back to the school...I felt like my legs...only the backs...were on fire. We came home and took a shower to get the pounds of sand off of us...mine was cold because I couldn't handle the heat on my legs...I doused myself in Aloe and we went our to eat for dinner. About an hour later a started to feel kind of sick and had a really bad head ache. I'm assuming from all that sun. We got a bottle of wine (me, Vic, Errol, Martin and Shellie) and sat around the Campo for a while. I finally had to go home because I hurt so much. I took a tylenol pm and crashed!!!

Now it's Sunday morning and we have the day off to do nothing. And that's good because I can barely walk!! I tried to get out of bed this morning and almost fell!! I can't really bend my legs cause the backs of my knees are burned so bad! Why did I fall asleep!! UGH!! But that is my sad story and maybe I will go back to that little restraunt and have a free meal...maybe...I don't know if I will beable to walk there or not. Hopefully I will be better so that I can make the journey all the way up to the school tomorrow!!

Anyways, that's the past few days and if I think of anything else I will wright it down for you! Hope you are all well and I'm going to take an Aloe Vera bath!! CIAO!