An Italian Weekend

I'm sitting in my bed feeling extremely full after eating more than my share of Italian minestrone soup. (There were other courses as well, but the minestrone greatly outdid everything.) It has been raining large buckets of rain all day. Usually I don't really mind the rain, but it becomes a different story when you walk everywhere. Our 20 minute walk to school this morning was exciting to say the least. My feet got wet and there was no recovering after that. Cold feet=cold me. When we got to dinner Antonella told us that when it's cold we eat soup. It was a very great idea in my mind. Soup has never tasted so good. Now I'm topping it off with a few hot tamales. Can't get much better. Thanks mom.

It was an exciting weekend full of chocolate festivals and bowling with Italians. On Friday we went to Perugia so that we could participate in a full blown European chocolate festival. It was truly great and I ate quite a few amazing things. It's amazing how many things the world can come up with to make out of chocolate. By the time I got home I was full of many different forms and variations of chocolate and I wasn't going to complain. It might have been the definition of spoiling your dinner though. On Saturday we had a ward activity that was amazing. We went to a town called Poggibonsi in order to go bowling. Turns out that bowling is not an Italian past time. They don't really know how, but that made the activity that much better. I've never had so much fun bowling. The best part was watching the members get bigger and bigger smiles every time they dd well. We started giving them high fives when they did well and they got really into that and began to expect it no matter how well they did. If you ever get the chance, make sure you go bowling with Italians.


Here's the group of us that went. When we got there we noticed that some people were wearing these really great Milka horns. It was the first place we went.


Apparently when you're wearing horns charging becomes an instinct. There just happens to be an Italian landscape in the background.


We all decided that it was nice to have an American evening. It was very refreshing.


I wish I had been able to catch him in his first large celebration, but this one was pretty good. He literally jumped for joy and couldn't stop smiling.

I am a Bland of Grass

I had every intention of writing about my adventures from last weekend, but new events have taken place that must be discussed. A while ago somebody decided that it would be a good idea to experiment with new methods of learning Italian and that a group of American girls that haven't even taken Italian would be the perfect group to experiment with. Last week we were informed that a few of our regular Italian classes were going to be replaced with "a great opportunity". A famous actor from Rome was going to come and work with us on our Italian speaking skills. I spent the week trying to imagine what this was going to be like, but nothing I am capable of thinking of could have prepared me for what happened today.

Within the first ten minutes of this "lecture" I found myself lying on the floor listening to an Italian actor tell me to close my eyes and feel my birth. "Feel your birth! Now let your hand feel your birth." I was confused to say the least. Feel my birth? As in when I was born? That's the only birth I know and hate to break it to you, but I don't remember what it felt like. Birth is pretty painful...am I supposed to be in pain? I was extremely confused by the whole experience and what the purpose was, but it just got worse. "Now feel a Greek birth." Wait, is a Greek birth different than the rest of the world's? And why am I thinking about this at all? By this point I was laughing a bit uncontrollably, but it was just the beginning. We then stood up ("don't stand up too quickly!"), closed our eyes, and envisioned a bland of grass. I quickly figured out that he was referring to a blade of grass and wondered where we were going with this one. We spent a while creating a detailed image and then we become one with our bland of grass. We then spent the next hour (yes, the whole hour) being a bland of grass. First we just felt the movement of the wind blowing on the bland in our hand, but quickly we began to feel it in our whole body. Just imagine it: twenty girls, Peter, and our Italian teacher in a room with our eyes closed (when you weren't looking around to see if everybody else was swaying back and forth like you) imagining that they were a blade of grass in the wind. We got occasional tips and guidance such as "Change the strength of the wind. Change the direction of the wind. Imagine the color of your bland!" This all went on for an extremely long time and I was prone to burst out in laughter periodically. I spent a lot of time trying to maintain control and actually concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing, but that's usually when it became the funniest. I would just get to the point where I WAS the bland of grass and then I would realize that I was just imagining myself being a blade of grass and I would lose it. It was a vicious cycle.

After we were allowed to open our eyes and come back to reality we were told that this image and color that we created is our color for the letter "i". We then learned how to say it correctly, but I'm not sure i'm capable. I just couldn't get it good enough for him. He always made me say it multiple times and then ended up just walking away with a not so hopeful look on his face. We then spent a few minutes feeling our births again before our break and I finally understood when he told us all to "take a birth together". Birth actually means breath. I almost had to excuse myself as a result of the laughter that followed this realization.

When we came back from our break we became storm clouds and the sea in order to learn our colors for "o" and "a". We tossed balls around to each other saying these vowels. We learned motions we should do with our hands as we said each sound and went around the circle making hand motions and noises at each other. We spent more time being blands of grass and feeling our births just to make sure we still had it down. When he asked me what color my grass was and I told him it was bright green he informed me that I must be young. Was he talking about me or my blade of grass? I guess I won't ever know. I could go on and on about these three hours of my life...they were unlike any experience I've ever had. It kind of felt like a strange version of yoga and i'm just not sure how it's supposed to help me learn Italian. After three hours we learned how to say three vowels. Seems a bit strange to me. It was all very comical though. I honestly couldn't ever stop laughing. It was all made that much better by the fact that the literal translation of this man's name is drink the water. Who does that?


Last week Peter and Leah had some of us over to their house for lunch. It was so nice to be in a house and be completely comfortable with our surroundings. We just sat there for a long time loving having the kids running around and actually being in a home with a family. To make it even better, Leah made us a Mexican meal. It was so great.


I saw the leaning tower last week and I was actually quite bothered. It is definitely leaning, but it is extremely small. I don't know why, but I always envisioned it being really tall. It isn't.


On our way home from Pisa and Luca Elizabeth and I got Happy Meals. It's amazing how good a Happy Meal tastes after a two months in Italy. I'm not about to complain about the food I eat here, but a cheeseburger every once in a while just makes the world complete.

Top Of The World

We went to visit the bank in Siena today. Who knew that a bank could be so cool and that when they said "bank" they actually meant art museum. The two are very similar...I can see where the confusion would come from. Anyway, we climbed to the top of the tower on the bank and got to see all of Siena at once. I heard myself comment that I am on top of the world, but I don't think I realized how true it was. Not only was I at the top of the world of Siena at this moment but I am at the top of my world. I'm living my dream and I love it.






This is a picture of where I live. See that valley? If you go all the way down that and out the door or the city wall you get to my house. I think it's the most beautiful place to live.


Here's a close up of the valley. I guess close up is relative, but when something is this big it's hard to get much closer.

Who's Next?

It all began at 5:45 in the morning on Friday. Or maybe it started the night before when I set my alarm for 5:15 and wondered why I was going to be leaving my house so early to catch a train. It was a bit of a strange feeling walking for half an hour to the train station when it was still very dark outside. It was worth it though. 22 of us went to Cinque Terre this weekend and it was amazing. Cinque Terre is a group of 5 towns that are connected by train, boat, or hiking. It was absolutely incredible, especially because of the weather. It has been the perfect temperature here the past few days and it was even better in Cinque Terre. We spent the weekend in our swimsuits on the beach. Ironic that it was snowing at my house... It was so nice to just be able to sit in the sun and not have to worry about the large pile of blank paper at home waiting to be drawn on. We did have our fair share of exciting experiences though. After a while people began to walk around in fear of who was going to be next. It started when we were swimming on Friday. There were seven of us at this point and six of us were swimming and enjoying life very much. After a while we decided to swim back to shore where Sharlie was watching us. All of a sudden one of the girls yelled out that she had been stung by something. We swam around in a bit of panic. Everything became a bit more frantic when another girl was stung and then the first girl was stung again. Try and imagine what happened next. If you imagined pandemonium you are very correct. We all proceeded to swim back to shore as fast as we could but we weren't exactly sure what we were swimming from. I was half laughing and half freaking out. For those of you who have seen me around fish just take that and imagine that the fish was ACTUALLY trying to get me, it wasn't just a figment of my imagination this time. We made it back without any more problems, but it was pretty entertaining, especially for Sharlie who had no idea what was going on but just had to sit and watch pandemonium erupt. Everybody is ok now though. Over the course of the trip we experienced many other small issues. Believe it or not, a cat actually peed on my backpack. It was quite the experience that has only accentuated my dislike for cats. Another girl tripped and twisted her ankle quite badly and then our train coming home stopped in the middle of nowhere for an hour. We aren't exactly sure why we stopped because we didn't understand what was going on, but something about a broken train car on the track and waiting for the police. To top it all off, we found out today that Peter (our program director) got bit by a snake on Friday. Turns out it was a potentially lethal snake and he ended up in the hospital for a night because the venom had started to spread into his chest. He's fine now though. His hand is extremely swollen, but he seems to be acting normal. All in all, the weekend was an adventure but we had such a good time. A little adventure makes everything more fun.


It was a bit of a strange feeling to be on a train so early in the morning, but you do what you need to. Things like this make me wish we had better public transportation at home.


It really wasn't hard to entertain us this weekend. We were mostly just really happy to be in the sunshine and warm.


The views were absolutely incredible and pictures don't do it justice. Every time I looked around I was stunned. I love the combination of hills and ocean. You can't get much better.


We spent a lot of time swimming and being on the beach. Here is my general feeling about the Mediterranean after spending time in a couple of different locations on the coast. I love to look at the water. It is amazingly clear and such a great color. I don't particularly love being in it though. Turns out I don't appreciate being able to see everything (rocks, fish, plants, other strange things) that is under me. I find it hard to relax this way.


We got up pretty early on Saturday so we could spend some time in the cities before we had to go home. It was incredible to see Cinque Terre before most things were open and all the people were out. It was a truly beautiful place.

Oh Lament

As I sat in Italian today I finally realized why I didn't understand what Enzo was talking about. I never learned anything in my English classes in the way of grammar. I'm pretty sure that my teachers tried, but it just never clicked. Or maybe I just never really cared. That might be it. Whatever the reason, I don't know my grammar and that causes problems. How am I supposed to figure out what's going on in Italian when I have no idea what's going on in my own language?

Somehow, it's all made better by the fact that I just drank a whole thing of milk in about a minute flat. I never knew that cold, pasteurized, NORMAL milk could make a person so happy.

Always Remember

I had an extremely unique experience yesterday that I will never forget. At 4:00 we went to the church and were able to watch the Relief Society Broadcast from last week. Following that we were able to watch the first session of General Conference live. Our whole group plus the four Elders were in one room watching it in English and the Italian members were in a different room. When we first started ours something went wrong so we had to start it over a couple of times. As a result our broadcast was about five minutes behind the other room. As we were sitting there listening to President Monson speak we heard a huge commotion going on in the hall. There was a lot of screaming and we were extremely confused. Elder Welch went out to see what was going on. He was gone for a couple of minutes and then came back with a huge grin on his face. We had no idea what was going on, but he just told us that everything was fine. A couple of minutes later we understood. When President Monson announced that five new temples are going to be built everybody in the room gasped. As each new temple was announced there was a different reaction from the group. I just want to tell you about two of them. One of the girls in our group is from Kansas so when the Kansas temple was announced she literally screamed for joy. It was really neat to watch her over the next few minutes. The amount of emotion she felt as a result of this information was really eye opening to me and it got me thinking. Nothing will ever compare though to when the temple in Rome, Italy was announced. I wish more than anything that I could accurately describe to you what went on and the feeling that was in the building. First there was our excitement. We have only been here for a month but I was amazed by how excited I was for these members. Honestly, I really don't know them but I just know that they deserve this temple so much. Then there was the reaction of the missionaries. I've never seen four 20 year old boys so excited about anything in my life. I will always remember the looks on their faces and the excitement that they obviously felt. The most amazing thing of all was the spirit that the reaction from the Italian members brought to the rest of the meeting. I wish that I could have been in the same room as them, but just being in the building with them seemed to be enough. They were so excited in a way that I can't describe. It caused me to think about my life a lot. I have multiple temples within 30 minutes of my house and I obviously just don't understand all of the blessings that a temple can bring. I thought I understood, but I learned otherwise. These people truly know and recognize the blessings of a temple. They can see what it brings to a person's life when they are able to attend the temple. As I sat and listened to the prophet and apostles speak over the next two hours I learned and gained so much. How amazing is it that we have the opportunity to learn from these men? I've never fully understood how in touch they are with the world and what we need. It's amazing to me that I could grow up in Salt Lake with so many amazing church sites, opportunities, and strong members around me but it takes me watching Conference in the Catholic capitol of the world to fully feel the spirit of it. I will never forget being in Siena when the first Italy temple was announced.

My Adventures of Late

You know those days when you feel like telling about what you're doing won't do it justice? I've had a few of those this week. Instead of trying to do the days justice, I think I'll just post some pictures and give little snippets of information. Maybe that'll help you understand more.




First order of business, let me tempt you with some of the amazing food that I have eaten this week. It has been a week of plenty. In cooking this week we did a vegetarian menu and it almost convinced me that I should be vegetarian. The top item is a crepe filled with cooked vegetables in a light sauce with both a cream and tomato sauce on top. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The next is an apple torte. The recipe was actually created by the chef we work with and it was incredible. (Apparently he has a book of his recipes being published right now, a purchase you should all consider making.) The bottom picture is in Florence. Leah, Peter's wife, found this shop there that makes the best bread. Although I was not particularly hungry at this point, I found it incredibly easy to consume all of the bread. To top it all off, I had a strawberry and cream tart today. I don't have a picture, but do you really need one to know how good it was?




This is how I've felt all week. I'm pretty sure that 75% of my time has been spent with my head back as far as it goes. Italy can't be good for your neck! It sure is worth it though.


Long story short, we got lost in Florence. Are you surprised?





All in all, today was amazing. We visited Buonconvento and Monte Olivieto and it was an ideal Italy day. The first picture is a view from Siena where we waited for our bus. It was rough. The second and third are views of and from the mentioned cities. We also got to eat lunch at this awesome restaurant. We had an awkward amount of money left in our budget so Peter took us all out to lunch. It was so fun to all eat together.


To top off your taste of my week, here's a picture of our whole group. It's not very often when we are all together and have enough time and a good location to get a group picture.