Exploring Siena and Lucca

I'm sitting in my room, listening to the chatter of Italian in the piazza below my window. There is an unusual amount of people out in the streets of Siena this evening. I'm not sure why, but my guess would be that there is going to be a contrada (one of any of the neighborhoods in Siena) party tonight. That's part of the intrigue of Siena... there's always a lot going on here but only the local Sienese seem to be sure of what it all means. The tourists and students here are left to observe and figure it out for themselves.

A friend recently took me to the botanical gardens here in Siena, located in the Tortuga (tortoise) contrada - one of my favorite parts of Siena. The plants there give off a very relaxing scent and I could see some beautiful views of the Tuscan hills from there.




Not far from the gardens is a charming park that was once a farm. It overlooks part of Siena, a villa owned by a rich family, and more of the shadowy blue hills of Tuscany.

Yesterday my study abroad program took a bunch of us students to Lucca - a small, walled city in Tuscany. Lucca is about 2 hours from Siena and very similar, only with more greenery and less tourists. We took a tour on top of the city walls of Lucca, and then into the town center. It was absolutely beautiful there and the weather was undeniably perfect.










We then went to Villa Reale a little bit outside of Lucca (where my camera battery unfortunately died) which was the villa of Napoleon's sister. It was so incredibly gorgeous and peaceful there. I especially loved the grotto where the inhabitants of the villa used to spend hot summer days (before air conditioning came along). There they had water that sprayed in thin streams out of the ground and statues and ceiling.

I would gladly live in either Siena or Lucca for the rest of my life. The walled cities are so medieval and beautiful, with everything concentrated and within walking distance. I think I'll have to make a trip on my own to Lucca in the upcoming month so that I have more time to explore the city and get to know it better.

The early bird gets the cake...or something like that

I woke up early this morning - which is nothing short of miraculous - and the sunlight streaming into my room was pink. Looking outside, the sun looked like a red ball, obscured by the smoky clouds covering the entire sky.

I attempted to photograph this to share with you because it looked so surreal. Unfortunately, my wimpy little point-and-shoot camera is old and refuses to filter light properly. Soon I'll have a Digital SLR, and when that happens I'll be posting tons of photos here to add some color to this blog.

Anyways, the sky is now clear and blue - but ash is falling down and coating everything. My bright blue bike, which is locked up outside, looks like its been spray-painted white.

Aside from me getting up early this morning, something else amazing happened. Are you ready for this? I don't think you are, but I'll tell you anyways: I cleaned my desk.

Now my desk has been piling up with papers and books since the beginning of my school year. For the last 2 months I have not been able to sit at my desk because there have been tons of clothes and notebooks stacked on my chair. I've been doing all my work while siting on my bed (which makes work hard to do, seeing as all I want to do is take a nap). But now, I am proud to announce to you that I am writing this blog post from my desk!

One last bit of interesting news: I had chocolate cake for breakfast this morning! Oh, the joy of being an independent, lazy college student.

I don't know why I felt compelled to eat cake for breakfast... Perhaps it was a way for me to validate my autonomy. Maybe it was to rebel against the monotony of breakfast bagels and cereals. Or I could have been reveling in the uncertain and adventurous side of life. But it is quite possible that it was solely due to the fact that this delicious cake has been siting on my desk for a few days and is the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning.

Life is full of a million opportunities to break free of the ordinary, and by doing so you can find joy and excitement every day. So enjoy your freedom - eat some cake for breakfast.

I don't do well in heat. Or in the cold. Or in humidity or dry air. Thank you San Diego for ruining all extreme weather for me.

It is ungodly hot here. According to the internet, it is now 94 degrees here. NINETY-FOUR! That is 94 degrees of hell.

This heat is a product of the Santa Ana winds that are blowing through here, a fire nearby, and the quickening approach of summer.

I've compiled a list of the things I've been doing to cool down over the past day or so. This list is organized by the level of ridiculous behavior that is required to execute each action (normal person behavior to crazy person behavior).

1. Turning on my fan
2. Drinking extra water
3. Pulling my hair back in a ponytail
4. Wearing shorts and tank tops
5. Not wearing make up that will clump and/or melt in the sun
6. Wearing a dress
7. Standing in front of the freezer with the door open while moaning "It's toooooo hot..." over and over to my room mate.
8. Contemplating leaving German class early in order to organize a water balloon fight.
9. Contemplating leaving Linguistics class early in order to organize a water gun war.
10. Making it a point to ride my bike through all the sprinklers I can find on my way home from class.

Obviously number 10 is the most effective and fun method of cooling down that I've discovered so far - its made even more fun by all the weird looks I get (they're all jealous that they aren't adventurous enough to do the same). Now that I know when people's sprinklers are on, I'll be sure to schedule my day around that.