spiritoso.

[Siena]

Last night at dinner, my host parents called me spiritoso.

translation: a humorous person.

ok, so maybe I can get a few kicks and giggles out of people,

but dayum, I should move to Italy and be a stand up comedian!

Misadventures thus far:

[the MMM face- my patented look for dinners]

Potty Talk: at dinner, the TV is always on, one night the news was speaking on [shoot if I know, it was all Italian] BUT

I understood one word: F*@$. They were Googling that,

And then showed a politician flipping people off.

To top if off, Titziana and Niccolo noticed the giggle fits from us,

And Niccolo explained to his mom that in American that’s bad,

After which she began flipping us off and saying something,

[again, not sure what, but it was comical]

she was cracking me up.

Cankles: while going for a run last week, I was trying to dodge some pedestrians in a stairway, side-stepped and sprained my ankle.

What topped it off, was some chicas were looking and smirking.

Trick best watch their back!

[@ the Talbot's w/ Step Up and Chin-NAY-say food & good friends]

I now have a left cankle because my foot is fat and swollen.

It’s so lonely looking, and sad that it’s bloated.

Hopefully I can run on it again next week.

My host family has been great and asking how I’ve been, saying they’re sorry. One night I said I walk around town like Frankenstein, in which they got up and walked around like him, but said I don’t walk like him, and called me funny.

[my umbrella-cane I used for a few days]

Acchidente: at school, I was pulling my friend Abby’s cardigan down and in grabbing the cardigan, got a hold of her strapless shirt. Could’ve been girls gone wild up in the Dante Alighieri!

[I'm not that innocent]

Ciesa: we went to church which consisted of, um, all 18 of us, and about 7 others, 3 of which were missionaries. At least I got one thing out of it, they speak very eloquently in Italian!

[all I understood was “amen!”]

International Friends: Made friends with some kids at school, our main man Martin, the Swiss kid. Pretty much a genius just at the Dante to learn Italian, already fluent in French, Dutch, and a couple others. All at the ripe age of 18. Next is Gwen aka Gwendolyn. I told her that her name reminded me of a Medieval princess, she wasn’t too amused. She isn’t really international because she goes to MSU (Montana State) and is with a program called the S.I.S. which is an Italian language immersion course. Sounds hardcore, but met a couple other people in her program as well. and girlfriend can TALK. She gave me her life story in 5 minutes walking from the bus to the campo, where I gratefully had to part ways.

Unfortunately, we ride the same bus and we tend to ride at the same time.

***Courtney, remember how we had a goal in NY to make International friends? Yeah, I’ll send them your love.***

[silly boy, tricks are for girls]

Conrtada Torre: the President of our school, Luca, invited us to his contrada dinner on Tuesday. In Siena, twice a year they hold the Palio, which are horse races. One in July and one in August. There are 17 contradas or neighborhoods in Siena and we had the opputunity to go to his contrada, the Torre (Elephant) .

[inside the Torre Museum]

We toured their church, museum which was cool, it holds their uniforms, artifacts and victory paintings. I missed the bulk of Luca explaining about it because of my ankle, but I made it for the church, museum, and dinner.

[Gimpin' while others got to peep the tomb]

We cooked fish this week, went to Firenze last Saturday, and today went to San Gimignano and Volterra (posts to come). After dinner, Contrada parties for the two that one in July & August.

[Besos]

Festa for days!

Ciao.

xx

[Boboli Gardens just got steamier]