Day 8: July 21
Sienna Isn't Just a Color, You Know
The morning of the 21, everyone in the group including myself and family got up ridiculously early. By that, I mean like seven in the morning. This is because we had a group trip planned for Sienna! Yay! Sleepily, we walked into town to get our breakfast and then boarded the bus with our students to depart for Sienna.
2 hours later...
In Sienna, we met up with our tour guide, Stella, who we've worked with before. She's a really good guide. First, she took us into St. Katerina's church, where one could see the finger and head of the deceased saint. For those of you that don't know about European cathedrals, to be considered a cathedral, it must possess an item that belonged to a deceased saint. This is includes body parts, clothing, possessions, etc. I didn't get any pictures inside the church, but take my word for it, it was cool. When we were done touring the church we went outside to find that Sienna was under a downpour of rain. It was seriously pouring! Still, we hiked through the streets of Sienna, guided by Stella, who showed us her beloved red city. Later, we went into the town's museum. Again, no photo, but we saw many precious paintings of Sienna and some items of the town's history.After the tour, we had a group lunch scheduled at a new restaurant called "La Finestra". There, we were served a delightful four course meal, which was quite filling. Our menu goes as follows:
Appetizer: Bruschetta
1st Course: Pici (thick spaghetti) in a parmesan cream sauce
2nd Course: Pork and roasted potatoes
Dessert: Coffee flavored panna cotta (DROOL)
Lunch was delicious, but very filling. We walked it off with a walk through town, where Don, my dad, my sister, and I shopped a bit. By that time, it was nice and sunny out. My sister and I went into our favorite makeup store in Italy, KIKO, where we bought some things for friends. We didn't have much time before boarding the bus again, so we got on the bus shortly after.When we were back at the center, I drew a bit and worked out. Later, I had dinner with every one at the center, where I had a very awkward conversation with the people around me about past boyfriends and relationships. Oh God...
After dinner, I practiced piano a bit and watched "Mama Mia!" with the students. It was a good day.
Day 9: July 22
For the Sake of Art
I got up in the morning and went into town for breakfast as usual. Unfortunately, my croissant wasn't jelly filled, but the delicious cappucino made up for it. After breakfast, I went into town with my sketchbook, found a bench in a park, and drew part of the town. It was quite tranquil, sitting there sketching, and I'm pretty excited with how the drawing came out. However, I was in my artistic mood, so holding the sketchbook to my face, I walked across the street. I was checking to see if my drawing was accurate with the facade of the building and almost got hit by a car. I didn't! But I came close. Oops...
After I got back from my artistic experience, I had lunch at the center with a friend who was visiting the center. We hung out for a bit and fed the turtles that live at the center. Yes! There are little box turtles that live in the courtyard of the center that I feed watermelon whenever it's being served. They're quite awesome, actually. They've been here ever since I started coming to Italy. Neat. Afterwards, my sister and I went up into town to get gelato with one of the students, which was very fun.For the rest of the day, I worked out and went to dinner downstairs at the center. There's this thing that they sometimes serve for dessert known as "Chocolate Salami", and it's the most amazing thing ever. It's kind of like a brownie/fudge roll that's mixed with bits of cookies, so when you slice it up, it looks like slices of salami. Oh my goodness. It was heavenly. I pulled the ultimate faux pas, though. After coming down from my cloud of chocolate goodness, I went into the kitchen to tell the ladies there that it was delicious and that I loved it. I spazzed out a bit and spoke broken Italian, and they totally misinterpreted what I meant. One of the cooks, Laura, started telling me that they didn't have anymore or something, and was like, "Okay?". I felt really bad, because now she thinks that I'm a crazy, chocolate salami obsessed weirdo. Ugh.
After dinner, I went to the Garden Bar in town with my dad and Don. I don't drink, but I was bored, so I just went out with them and sat around. We ran into some of the students there and hung out for a bit. Not a bad way to end a day.
Day 10: July 23
See See Assisi and Sunflowers
Today was Assisi day! Assisi is my favorite trip that we do in the program, so I really looked forward to the trip ahead when I woke up at the horrible hour that I did. We took a bus up to Assisi and met up with the tour guide. She gave us a tour of St. Francis church, which was beautiful. I just think that St. Francis was a really cool guy, and it was interesting learning his story. After the church, our guide gave us a short walking tour of Assisi, where we visited yet another church, St. Chiara. There we saw St. Chiara's body and possessions, as well as some relics of St. Francis. After the tour, we all (the group included) went to lunch at a restaurant that I forgot the name of. We had tagliatelle with meat sauce, cordon bleu, and fruit. It was awesome.
After lunch, we took some of the students up to the castle in Assisi. The castle was awesome. We see it every year, and there's several towers you can climb to the top of to get an amazing view. It was a slightly dark and long climb, but the view is worth it. Later, we got gelato and went back to the center. 
Once back at the center, I went out with some of the students on a trek to find a sunflower field. We wanted to see them and take pictures. We ended up finding some beautiful sunflowers and frolicked and took pictures in them. For those of you who don't know, sunflowers are my favorite flower, so this experience was awesome. I was afraid that we would get in trouble for trespassing in someone's backyard to take pictures in it, but we didn't. Ha. The rest of the evening came and went with dinner.
Alright guys! That was another Wander-ling post! I hope you enjoyed it!
-Love Ling
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