PARLA INGLESE? Please?

Hello friends and family!

Yes, I am alive and well and absolutely in love with Siena. Let's see... the next day we checked into our hotel and met everyone else on the program. The hotel, Cannon d'Oro was very interesting, to say the least. Anyway, we checked in and had a brief orientation, and the group (all 12 of us) proceeded to go to dinner at the Piazza del Campo.

The Piazza del Campo is the center of the old town of Siena, and the place where they hold the il palio every year. I may have mentioned it in my last post. Anyway, we had a deelish dinner (I had pizza and proscuitto e melone, so good) with several bottles of wine to kick off the program! After dinner, some of us went back to the hotel to shower and get ready, and started our first night on the town!

First stop was for a drink back in the Piazza, which was beautiful at night. We then made our way over to the Irish Pub (which convienently plays football on Saturdays and Sundays, THANK GOD) and between the alcohol and jet lag, everyone was ready to sleep and get ready for the next morning, which was full of orientation and a walking tour around Siena (not a proper tour, but enough to make us all dead tired. Combined with the night before, we were ready for a nap).

The next morning we took a proper tour of the city, and got to see all the sights such as the San Dominico (cathedral of St. Catherine of Siena), more history about the Piazza, and got to go inside the Duomo (a very large Cathedral).

The best part by far was the Duomo. It was the most breathtaking thing I have ever seen (unfortunately my camera died and I couldn't take pictures of the inside, but I will make my way back in and do that at a later date). The outside by itself was unbelievable, and that I DO have pictures of, and I promise it will not disappoint.

Well, it's now time for my cooking class, so I can't finish, but I will definitely do A LOT more updating since the hotel I am going to tomorrow has internet access (unlike my apartment and slow like the AHA office).

Ciao!
Jordan

I also figured out how to put pictures up, and will also do that tomorrow!

SIENA!

HI!

So, SIENA IS FABULOUS! I absolutely LOVE it, studying in a smaller city was truly the right choice. But, so much has happened, so let me pick up where I left off.

Florence ended up being OK after we found my friend abby (who was an hour late to our hotel because she got lost, this is because we were in the outskirts of Florence). She took us to the REAL part of Florence, and we got to see the Duomo (the second largest church in Italy after Rome, absolutely BEAUTIFUL) and ate at a wonderful Italian place. So afterwards, Abby took us to a Irish Pub called the Lion's Den. The Lion's Den obviously catered to American Abroad students, because the wall was decorated with t-shirts from American colleges and universities, ranging from Indiana University, to Harvard, and California-Berkley. We had some really good ale (and got a little tipsy), and it was very sad to have to say goodbye to a familiar face (although we'll see her on Friday, as her class is coming to Siena for the day!). We then got back to our hotel and had a very good night's rest.

Now, the next day, we had to get a train from Florence to Siena. First off, when you study abroad you get a student I.D. card which gets you discounts on virtually everything. But anyway, when you buy tickets, you get them from a machine. It's easy, and in english. HOWEVER-you have several options of discounts when you buy your ticket. So, most places give you a 20 percent discount, and that was the one Jake and I selected (none of them told you which one was the student discount). We try and catch a train to Siena, and when I attempted to use my broken Italian, a fat balding and ugly man rolled his eyes at me and i know enough Italian to hear him say stupid american in Italian. The train then goes off and I'm about to start crying after the ugly man was mean and the fact that I had been carrying around 80 pounds worth of luggage with me around the train station. Long story short, we catch a train that left 45 minutes later. and finally settle into our seats.

So then a man comes around to check our tickets. He sees our tickets have been purchased with a discount, and asks us which discount we used. We show him our student ID's, and he says that we are wrong and have to pay an aditionally 80 Euro each (translation about 120 american dollars). Well, Jake and I do not HAVE 160 EURO'S TO GIVE HIM. I start to cry and luckily the man felt bad and checked his sheet just to make sure. LUCKILY, his sheet showed that we did indeed get the discount, but paid a euro more than we should have! He then apologized and wished a good day.

So, we FINALLY GET TO SIENA. Our hotel is beautiful, surround by gardens and olive trees, has a fabulous restaurant, relaxing area and swimming pool, along with miles of grounds for strolling in. Jake and I decided to take a walk into the main city center, and oh man was it BEAUTIFUL! It's everything an old medevial town would look like-surround by city walls, has a gate to enter, and small winding streets all leading to the middle of city at the Piazza del Campo, a big center where people gather and eat and just enjoy the city (look it up, its pretty cool). So we walked back and hung out at the pool for a bit, and then had a fabulous dinner at the hotel.

Now I am tired and need to sleep, but am very much looking forward to starting my program, going back to school and moving into my apartment!

Buona Sera!

Finally in Firenze!

Hello!

I do have to say, I am so sick of traveling. After taking a train to Siena tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to having my own place and unpacking my suitcase.

Anyway, Geneva was WONDERFUL! We couldn't have asked for better hosts to stay with, and the city was gorgeous (although expensive!). We wandered through the old city center, saw St.-Pierre's Cathedral, and saw a watch made completely out of flowers in the park on the lakefront (Geneva's got all them rolex's!).

The night before, we had homemade fondue for dinner while last night we had a spicy curry chicken. In some ways, its unfortunate we started off our trip with such a nice place and have been eating very well...we start cooking for ourselves when we get to Siena!

But, today we arrived in Firenze. We haven't done much except get lost while walking to the train station and exchange our dollars for euros (thanks a lot shitty exchange rate). So far, I haven't seen much of the city, but I'm not that impressed with it. I'm very excited to finally get to Tuscany and secluded, medieval Siena!

I also haven't figured out how to put up pictures... hopefully I figure that out soon!

Ciao!

Parlez-Vous Francias?

So, we made it! The plane ride, although long, was fairly uneventful. Jake and I played many a game of scrabble on my itouch, I finished a 700 page book, and we both ate some nuke-warm pasta. After two glasses of wine for me and a jack daniels and beer for Jake, we passed out for about an hour and woke up with 20 minutes before landing.

Customs at the Geneva airport was probably the most efficient customs I have ever been through; it took us five minutes to reach a customs official and when we did, he asked if we were from the United States and with a quick smile and a "merci" we were in!

Getting our bags was absolutely no problem, and Jake's family friend friend Julien was in the airport waiting for us. HOWEVER-jake told him we were getting in on Saturday morning at 8, when really we arrived Sunday morning at 8. So, Julien and his wife had a whole day planned for us on Saturday, but we obviously missed it. So, instead we went to a very quaint and lovely French town across Lake Geneva which had a castle dating back to 1200's and we had deelish ice cream and beer.

Prior to this, we had reached the point of delerium and passed out for 3 hours (which seemed like 5 minutes) and plan on getting a very good night's rest tonight.

Well, I'm safe and sound and loving everything about Switzerland, and am sure Geneva tomorrow will just make me fall in love even more! Also, we are having homemade fondue for dinner.

Ciao!

Ciao!

Hi Everyone!

This is my blog for my study abroad adventure in Italy! You can all check back here every couple of days to read about my exciting adventures, entertaining stories, and to see if I'm still alive (kidding!). Anyway, I'm going to try and share this with as many of you as I can, but please forward the blog address to anyone I may have missed or someone whose e-mail address I don't have.

Now that we have the basics covered, I'd like to recount the day before I departed (which is also, for those of you who have glanced at the date, today!).

1. I woke up at 7:30 to the barking of my dogs. I decided that although I will miss my boys greatly, I will enjoy some interrupted deep sleep in the early mornings.

2. As I walk into the rec room to check my mail on the computer, I am momentarily confused as to why there are piles of clothes skewed about.

3. Mother pokes her head in the room and encourages me to stop wasting time and pick up my check from work, as we have a lot of packing to do.

4. I then remember I am leaving for Europe for three months.

5. I then realize it is only 8:00, and inform my family that I am going back to bed until at least 10:30. This is followed from a loud sigh from mother which was meant to say "i do not approve of sleeping in so late, and you will never get anything done at this rate. stop being lazy."

6. Wake up at 10:30, this time aware of what day it is and where I am leaving for the next day.

7. Do a lot of boring things such as picking up check, depositing said check and driving around in my car.

8. At approximately 12:30, packing commences with father.

9. After griping and groaning my father informs me at approx. 2:00 that I should have mother pick me up a small pair of scissors. After laughing on the phone, we decide to not anger the only man that can fit everything into my suitcase and buy the item which he claims i so desperately need incase "you need to cut something."

10. After several more trips to Target and lots of down time where Kim said, "Jordan, I don't know what you're doing but it certainly isn't packing," and me responding "yes, I know," packing finally commences at 5:30 pm. Everyone is proud, tired and very irritated.

Father is now preparing a lovely meal for our family, Jake and his mom, and two very rude girls who invited themselves over and for whom I have great dislike for. Sarcasm, obviously, and said girls are two of my best friends who to my great happiness have come home for the weekend.

With all that said (and done!) I am truly very excited and very grateful that I get to embark on this journey. I also realize that previous statement was very corny and somewhat sentimental. I apologize. But, hopefully everything goes OK tomorrow (and Jake and I get upgraded to first class on our flight) and I look forward to reporting from Geneva, Switzerland sometime tomorrow!

Ciao,

Jordan

(See, the cool thing about "Ciao" is that it means both goodbye AND hello in italian! Foreign languages are so very awesome).