This week, Krissy and I began watching Rosella, an Italian mini series set in the late 1880s about a woman who is married to a mean man but falls in love with a nice doctor but is put in jail and then a convent where they make her cut off all of her hair. Meanwhile, her husband falls in love with the doctors wife, who gets pregnant and has a baby. Its all very dramatic and I dont understand everything and it goes on for two hours but its very entertaining.
Italians always, always have the tv on, including during dinner. My favorite show is a game show (I cant remember the name right now) in which the contestant tries to match people up with their profession. This, I've found, is very helpful for learning words. Have I blogged about this already? I feel like I have.
Anyways, this week we got to take time out of our Italian class to go to Siena's famous Mercato, which takes place every Wednesday morning. It goes on forever and ever and is FULL of old people, but they seemed to have some good stuff. Im in the market for a leather jacket, as it will soon be spring (in fact, it sort of feels like spring already, the weather has been lovely the past few days).
The best thing I saw, however, were cabbage flowers! My favorite! I was so excited to see them. They even have bouquets that incroporate them. To anyone reading who may someday be thinking about buying me flowers: take note.
Also this week I began my volunteer position helping teach English in a local elementary school. I actually have two classes, one fourth grade and one fifth grade. Yesterday was my first day and I helped teach them how to say numbers (they have trouble with the "th" sound), and practice little sample phone conversations. Supposedly the kids here are less jaded than in the States, and at this age they are happy to be silly and play games and sing songs, so I had a lot of fun and am excited to keep going back.
Also, every classroom had a huge bowl full of tons of bananas. Theyre like provided by the state or something, I don't know. But the teacher gave me one on my way out, which I was excited about because it was my first banana since I'd been here.
Today we visited the Civic Museum in the Palazzo Publicco. Thats where Sienas famous Maesta (enthroned Madonna with saints), Allegory of Good and Bad Government, and Guido da Siena are all located. I was especially excited to visit this museum because I studied all these frescoes in an Early Renaissance art history class at Lewis and Clark.
The Guido da Siena is said to be painted by Simone Martini and is a fresco that the Sienese are particularly proud of. However, there is some controversy surrounding it after some American art historians visited it and decided, because of various reasons that its a fake. Just dont mention this to anyone in Siena, because they will get really mad. Those two art historians were kicked out of the city (and probably were welcomed into Florence, Sienas historical rival).
The museum has a fantastic balcony, and I, along with two other girls, Heather and Maya, snuck up onto the roof of the building a little ways, which we probably shouldn't have done, but it afforded us an opportunity to get really close to the tower, and, of course, a perfect opportunity to take silly pictures.
I'm heading to San Gimignano and Firenze this weekend, and then up to the Alps on Wednesday. Posts (and photos) to follow!
(P.S. I apologize for all the grammatical errors and omissions. Italian keyboards are a pain to use.)
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