Way to put on your big girl pants...

Being in Italy is such a grand adventure.  I can't explain the feeling of freedom and solace I get from exploring the streets of Firenze. The wind blowing from the river Arno and the savory smells of some trattoria drifting by. On the weekends there are open air markets with all kinds of wonderful treasures such as clothes, bags, furniture, and even candy and fruit! 

Today was a day of lazy wanderings after my first time enjoying the night life of Florence.  The discoteque is great because Europeans LOVE American music. It's a few months behind, but that just means we all know the words. The drinks are usually very expensive at the clubs, so if you want to drink, do so before hand with your friends. (Have dance parties in the kitchen even;)).  Something I had never seen happened to my friend and I the first time we broke out onto the dance-floor. There we were dancing by ourselves and after a few moments there were a few more guys around us than I remembered, and then after a few more moments of dancing, we were completely surrounded by partner-hungry Italians!  We were like poor fish being circled by sharks. Always bring boys in your group to grab and pretend to be your boyfriend. If it were not for Kevin we would have been done for. Otherwise, it was a great time and it's always fun to let loose and dance your heart out. 

During the day on Saturday was our first excursion outside of the city.  We drove about an hour outside of town into the Tuscan countryside to a town called Siena. This place is beautiful and filled with a vibrant culture.  Evidently the town is divided into 17 Contrade, or districts, that is represented by an animal or nature.  There is the goose, porcupine, caterpillar, panther, eagle, snail, owl, dragon, unicorn, she-wolf, seashell, wave, forest, tortoise, tower, ram, and the one I'm going to become a part of, the giraffe!  Evidently you are baptized into your contrada and are what you are for life.  There are of course rivalries among the contrade usually with neighbors and even alliances. There is a huge deal of a horse race each year and each contrada hires a horse and jockey and they race around the main square and whoever wins gets to put another painting up in their museum and get bragging rights for 2 months.  Each contrada is also usually associated with the trade they practiced back in the middle ages for example wave residents were carpenters and the goose people were dyers. It's all so full of community and pride, I love it!    

Tomorrow is my first full day of classes, but I will write more about my weekend tomorrow.  A Domani!