katie and i got settled in our apartment last wednesday and we are
happy to report that we just now are getting over being jet-lagged! also
happy (and lucky) to report that we might have gotten the only 2 person
apartment that is offered in our program. We share a room and each have
a twin bed to ourselves (like freshman year) and love it. it's nice to
come home and share a room with someone i know and trust and can just
sit and relax with and edit pictures next to without having to speak.
but we have also had some wonderful conversations so far and shared some
funny experiences already. we decided we need to get a journal to write
down what happens during the day because there is no telling what will
happen where we go. we have experienced the market and bought purses
there, seen lots of naked statues, met a guy who designs leather jackets
and sells them in his shop here and also to nordstrom, been practicing
the little bit of italian we know even though we feel silly most of the
time, tried unsuccessfully to call for a taxi, been drinking lots of
incredible wine and eating even more pasta, and we keep getting asked if
we are sisters. i guess when you travel everywhere with the same person
and you're a blonde and red head american with curly hair, you look
alike. i take it as a compliment :)
the first few days were a whirlwind and were filled with orientation and
dinner dates with my mom and her best friend who are here until this
wednesday. the morning after we got here we had orientation at 8:45 a.m.
(which is 1:45 a.m. texas time) so that was an extremely long day.
friday we got to walk around and shop with the mommas and ate the best
gnocchi of my life. our waitor said the best compliment we can give
someone on their food is magnifico so to the restaurant next to the
market that i can't remember the name of, MAGNIFICO GNOCCHI! that night
we had another dish that deserved a "magnifico!" …ravioli stuffed with
cheese and pears. can't remember what the cheese was but WOWWIE WOW!
we'll be going back for sure.
saturday we got to go to castello della paneretta (more pictures on
Facebook) which is a medieval castle that also produces some dang good
wine from their vineyards. the drive there was amazing and we stopped in
a cute little town called san donato which is off the beaten path for
tourists. side note- the next couple days paolo, our driver, kept
calling after me and katie saying "come on asian girls! this way!"
because we were taking so many pictures. every time we saw a group of asian tourists (i'm talking 50 at a
time), he would point at them and say "oh look your family! your
sisters! maybe cousins? take a picture with them!" so funny.
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| obsessed with this picture. sorry to those that are sick of looking at it. |
 |
| paolo our driver loved to tell us stories of all the people he's driven- from the
kardashians to hugh hefner to the CEO of walmart and his 21 year old
wife...he had a story about everybody. katie tried to tell him we were important too and he just didn't know it yet. he didn't believe her when she told him we were obama's daughter. oh well... |
 |
| looking back at san donato after we left |
once we got
to the castle, we had a tour of the wine production facilities by
chiara. chiara (key-ara, our name for claire) had been working at the
winery for a long time and said even her parents worked there. out in
the country, all these places were family run and taken really good care
of. she told us about all the process from picking the grapes to
fermenting to storing to bottling and distributing.
the
mother of the owner of the castle lives here (the entire first floor is
hers!) and since she wasn't here on saturday, we got to see her secret
garden!
after the tour we got to have the wine tasting and had a "typical tuscan lunch" which had lots of varieties of crostini (bread) and crackers and prosciutto and fresh olive oil and then had a delicious tuscan bread and vegetable soup that takes 8 hours to make! i told paolo i wanted to learn how to make it and he told me to forget it...he's apparently quite the cook and can't even make it. it needs day old bread and you have to have the time to cook it and its just not going to happen i guess. but it was good! after we left here we got to go see san gimignano. no history lessons, just pictures! siena and the first week of classes will have to come later :) ciao!
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