Cor magis tibi Sena pandit (Siena opens its heart to you)

Ahhh! I’m already settled in Florence and have yet to write about my two weeks in Siena! I’ll try to remember as much as possible and hopefully get caught up enough to make my entries more recent.

As much as I loved London, I was anxious to get to Italy and finally see in person everything I learned about in my Italian classes - everything that motivated me to travel here in the first place. Unfortunately, we had a few delays on the day of our country transfer due to some students’ previous night drunken escapades. After two extra hours sitting on the bus, we were finally on the road headed to Heathrow to board the plane for Pisa, Italy. Again, a few delays. I was settled in my seat for just a few minutes when one of the flight staff randomly asked me to switch seats with some dude. I learned later it was because he was drunk and couldn’t be next to the emergency exit. Sadly, for some people it seems like this whole study abroad experience is one big drunken party… I apologize in advance, but this post will probably contain quite a bit of ranting related to this issue.

We didn’t stay long in Pisa - which means I definitely have to go back and take one of those pictures of myself pretending to hold up the leaning tower. Once the plane landed we divided up between buses and began the country-side drive to Siena. Even though I was so exhausted from all the flying and driving from the past few days, I stayed awake gazing out the window. Rolling hills scattered with ancient houses and rich color made for a breathtaking view. Seeing the sporadically open shutters with line-drying clothes hanging outside made me chuckle – that’s what I pictured when I thought of Italy.

The buses reached Hotel Athena in a very impressive climb up several steep hills and maneuvering of ridiculously narrow streets lined with medieval stone walls. This hotel would be our home for the next two weeks and I have to say it was much nicer than I expected. I stayed on the sixth floor with two other girls. Our window opened to a gorgeous view of the Siena countryside. I wish I could have somehow transported this picturesque view to my apartment window in Austin where I look out and see the back of Jack in the Box every morning. We had a welcome dinner at Enoteca Italiana, which also houses the finest wines of Italy and was the site of our wine tasting class the following week. The food was fantastic and consisted of four courses and unlimited red and white wine. I don’t know how Italians do it; the meal lasted several hours and by the end I had to get up and walk around to stay awake. The restaurant itself was equally fantastic. It was the site of a 16^th century military fortress - so basically we were dining in dungeons and corridors.

The next day after our orientation meeting we had time to walk the streets of Siena and begin our interesting interactions with Italians. I tried my best to speak the language as much as possible, and as long as you try, it is much appreciated. I expected to be scared about speaking the language since I’m not too confident in my knowledge of it, but to my surprise I seemed to dive head first into every opportunity. I’ve also gotten a few compliments on my efforts and accent!

Siena is an ancient medieval city with maze-like streets and I often felt like I was walking around on a movie set. Apparently there is a law protecting the historic buildings – nothing modern can be built above the ground, it is literally all underground. I wish more cities would adopt this law. It preserves the beauty of a city and gives it sort of a unique identity.

One of my favorite spots to go in Siena is the Piazza del Campo – the huge open center of town, surrounded by cafes and pizzerias where you can find Italians enjoying the sun and children playing soccer or chasing pigeons. Because of their huge, puffy coats and funny caps, all of the kids looked like marshmallows running around – so adorable! The Piazza is also the site of il Palio, the horse race between the 17 districts of Siena that occurs twice a year.

The night life in Siena was fun, even though everywhere you go you run into Americans – we seemed to take over the small city while we were there. Most of the cafes and restaurants turned into clubs by night and people from the country would come into the city for a night out. Though I have yet to make it to a discoteca (dance club), it was fun going around the city meeting Italians and trying new drinks such as grappa, liquor made from the skins of grapes. It definitely smells and tastes like grape skins… grape skins mixed with death.

We started Italian class that Monday and I really enjoyed it. Our classes were held from 9am to 1pm at the beautiful Scuola di Lingua Dante Alighieri, not too far from the hotel. It’s so different learning a foreign language in a place where you can leave class and practice it with everyone around you. It’s much more exciting. Our professor, Enzo, is from southern Italy and has been teaching in Siena for a while. For the most part I liked our class, with the exception of a few disrespectful, rude girls who had no intention of altering their American lifestyle to adjust to the Italian way of life.

Unfortunately the first few days of my first week in Siena I was pretty sick with a fever, but luckily one of my friends brought an entire U.S. pharmacy with her. I think the traveling finally took a toll on me.

One of the things I love about my study abroad program is the activities they have planned for us. While in Siena I took an art history and museum tour where I saw the beautiful Duomo and Palazzo Pubblico, both adorned with artwork and 14^th century paintings. One interesting place we visited was St. Dominic’s Basilica, a huge brick church that has on display the head and thumb of St. Catherine of Siena. I also took a wine tasting class and learned about how wine is a part of Italian tradition. Italians rarely drink to get drunk and never abuse wine in that way. We were told that “Wine isn’t just a drink, it’s an emotion”.

My favorite activity was taking a cooking class at La Scuola di Cucina di Lella Cesari Ciampoli. I learned how to make three dishes, all of which I can’t wait to try to make back in the states! The first was a famous Tuscan soup called Pappa col Pomodoro. It was created years ago by the poor people of Tuscany, made only from stale bread, tomatoes, basil, olive oil and vegetable broth. It has since become a trendy and pricey dish in restaurants. Next we made pici (a sort of thick spaghetti) with tomato sauce – all from scratch. For dessert we had tiramisu. I’m surprised that I’ve only had gelato twice and tiramisu once since I’ve been in Italy. I really thought it’d be a part of my daily diet.

We also took a weekend trip to the city of the towers – San Gimignano. It reminded me a lot of Siena – small, hilly, and surrounded by ancient art, architecture and history. We climbed over 200 steps of one of the towers to a fantastic view of the city. If I had a few hours to spend just sitting up there, I would have been quite content.

By the second week of Siena I was starting to feel anxious to get to Florence. Siena was beautiful, but spending two weeks constantly around the same people, eating at the same restaurants, got old fast. Cliques began to form and it started to feel a lot like high school. There are some incredibly rude and shallow people in my program, and usually I’m able to ignore it and not let it bother me. But it was so far from what I expected that it’s been difficult to deal with. I guess I just know so many people back home that would love to have this experience and it makes me upset that they can’t and these people can. On the other hand, I have met a lot of amazing people and am excited to explore Florence with them. I also hope to venture out more on my own, since a lot of my intentions for this trip are to learn more about myself. We are warned a lot about going out alone and all the bad that can happen, but I think if I just use common sense I’ll be okay. So far so good!


Here are more pictures from my time in Siena and San Gimignano!

Dreamlike Reality: Two days in London

I’ve been in Europe for almost a week and I am so in love with this place. A lot has happened already and I am so incredibly happy that I can’t imagine how I’ll feel after four more months here. I don’t want to forget a single detail of this experience but it’s been difficult finding time to write. Unfortunately at this moment I am feeling a bit sick and feverish, so I skipped going out to lunch to rest and finally start writing.

The days leading up to my departure were stressful and a bit scary. As I packed my bags it was finally hitting me that the things I took would be my only source of familiarity for the next several months. I was also really worried that I would over pack or have problems with my luggage at the airport – I had several flights from different airports and none of the restrictions were the same. Seeing my belongings stuffed into a coat closet and leaving my room bare was a strange feeling. I had been so comfortable there, but it became a comfort that I needed to break away from. I wasn’t happy in Austin and needed a change. I didn’t like the routines I was settling into, the loner I was becoming, putting work before friends and fun all the time. I was leaving that life behind and I didn’t mind.

My dad and brother arrived in Austin around 3am to help me load the few things I was taking back home to Chappell Hill. It was raining pretty hard, which made the city look beautiful, and for a moment I started to feel like I might miss Austin. This would be the longest I had been away from the city in two years, but my anxiousness to forget and start anew overpowered this sudden new found fondness. I was really happy to see my dad and especially my brother Chad since his tagging along was a complete surprise!

My short time back home in the country was spent doing last minute preparations: getting my meningitis vaccine, shopping for travel essentials, etc. One day I spent helping my little sister Shara construct a dress entirely from magazines, tissue paper and yarn for a theatre homework assignment. That was nice because I often feel like I’m not a very good big sister, and that’s something I’m hoping to change. Wednesday morning (Jan. 11^th) we woke up early and left for Houston around 10am. With a few wrong turns and stops we finally reached IAH and the waiting began. When it was time to board the plane, I handed my cell phone to my mom – oddly I was so excited to not have one anymore. The security guard I approached at the baggage check line saw that I was struggling to make my carry-on items meet airline restrictions so she kindly helped me pack and stash them in a way so that they would. Once past security, I turned back to wave at my family one last time. Emotion overwhelmed me. I felt bad because my last hours with them I let nervousness and stress get to me so I probably hadn’t been the nicest. I also wished that they could get away from the stress of work for a while and see the world like I was about to.

The plane departed promptly at 3:41pm and much to my liking I had an entire row of three seats to myself. Most of the time I spent reading Vogue or sleeping but periodically I would gaze out the window at the vanishing land below me. Flying over North Carolina I watched a lightning storm in the clouds. We arrived at Heathrow in London at 7am and once I finally made it past customs, I had the entire day to explore the city I had always dreamt of seeing. One of my first conversations was with a young English customer service worker in the baggage claim area. I gave him my boarding pass so that he would help me find my luggage. When he saw that I was from Houston, Texas he said, “Oh, you’re from Houston? We call that H-town. You ever heard of Swisher House?” This of course made me crack up, and he continued through his thick English accent to name off his favorite Houston rappers like Paul Wall (I chimed in with Chamillionaire). And so began my observation of how friendly English people are. My entire stay in London I never encountered a rude person or anyone who judged me because I was American or Texan. Maybe it’s because the weather was so nice causing everyone to be friendlier? (I heard it usually rains constantly and is miserable in January) However, I don’t think that was the case. Perhaps they knew I had only a short time in the city they loved and wanted to make sure it was an enjoyable one?

After retrieving my bags I met up with a few other girls from my AIFS program, including Denise, a fellow UT Communications student. We were all driven by an AIFS representative to our hotel in Kensington, one of the boroughs of London. Speaking of boroughs, the drive through London reminded me so much of my first drive to New York City. Both seem to have much in common from the mix of old and new architecture, the subway and tube system and the stylish city inhabitants – especially the guys. Oh my. The London men get my vote for most stylish – hands down. I’ve never seen such a well dressed bunch and it all looked so effortless, too.

We dropped our luggage off at Copthorne Tara Hotel before Denise and I hit the streets of Kensington to explore. I was a bit overwhelmed at first; I didn’t know the first thing about London. We decided to buy a tube pass and travel further into the city, stopping first in the financial district. (Again, so much reminded me of New York except I liked London much more.) We stopped at Pizza Express for what we thought would be a quick lunch. The food was delicious and it was nice to wind down for a bit and plan out the rest of the day. I noticed our waiter, Toby, hadn’t been by our table in a while and I began to think he was ignoring us. I wondered why it was taking so long to get the bill. Doesn’t he want us to leave so he can have room for more customers? I think he sensed my confusion because he stopped by to say that he knows in America we’re used to getting the bill and leaving fast, but in Europe it’s different. “We like to have people take their time, sit and enjoy themselves,” he said. This comment was striking because it was true; I realized how much I and others back home tend to speed through life. Toby also commented that Denise looked a bit “dropsy” – apparently that’s the tired, droopy-eyed look you get after eating a lot – and he brought us both cappuccinos on the house.

The rest of the evening was spent walking around London according to Toby’s suggestions of must-see-places like the Tate Modern Museum, and taking ridiculous amounts of photos. London is a photographers dream - everything is photo worthy! Walking along the River Thames I couldn’t get over how amazing it was to be in a city so older with so much more history than the U.S. With a quick stop back at the hotel to freshen up, Denise and I set out for dinner in the Soho area. We were looking for the perfect British pub: good drinks, loud music, tons of locals – something to rid us of that tourist feeling and show us what true London night life was like. We found that at O’Neill’s. It was warm, dark, and cozy with several floors of bars and a dining area where we ate a late dinner. I had fish and chips – it just seemed like the perfect pub food and I couldn’t leave London without having it at least once! Afterwards we took our drinks and headed downstairs to find a room packed with local college kids dancing to some of my favorite songs being played by a British cover band. When the band played “Chelsea Dagger” by The Fratellis, I knew I was in pub heaven and my night had been made. It would have been nice if one of the many brits I caught eyes with would have danced with me, but their level of courage didn’t seem much different than any American guy I’ve met at a club or party. I did, however, have a short conversation with a nice Irish guy who found it odd that I was girl drinking a Guiness.

 

The next morning we woke up super early to have an English breakfast at the hotel before taking a three hour bus tour around London. We made a few stops on the tour at places like Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. It was surreal finally seeing these places in person and experiencing their beauty. The tour dropped us off at Covent Garden where we had lunch at a pub (I am now obsessed with pubs) before making the two hour trek back to Kensington. Along the way we (Denise and I were joined by another friend, Kayla) stopped at the National Gallery and saw Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” along with several portraits of the royal families. Walking through Hyde Park at dusk was beautiful; I almost forgot I was in the middle of the city. I wish I could be in London to see its transformation for the Olympics this summer.

 

Though exhausted from trying to see as much of London as possible, we didn’t want to spend our last night resting. We met up with Denise’s friend at the London University of the Arts, where he and a few other friends attend school.  We had a few drinks (their school study lounge has a full bar!) before hitting a pub for food and ending the night with dancing at The Verve nightclub. One of the friends knew the bouncer so we all got in for free, and once inside, I couldn’t contain my excitement. We were packed like sardines and there wasn’t a soul not dancing their life away. It was what I imagined a perfect club would be like – London once again turned my expectations into reality.

 

Two days is a short time to explore a city, but I’m pleased with my time spent in London. I absolutely fell in love with the city just as I expected to and I can’t wait to visit again. Every step I took, every person I met, seemed to fall perfectly in place and make for a fantastic first impression of Europe!

Here are more pictures from my time in London!