Palio trumps World Cup?

Now that I'm finally caught up with my travels, I can start telling you all about my new life here in Siena! It was a bit lonely at first, especially having just left Shawn and Gavina and all my friends in Bologna, but I've started to meet new people and feel more settled. My roommates are all really friendly, although everyone mostly does their own thing. My Italian flatmate, Letizia, and I have a lot in common and endless things to discuss because we both watch Glee and Trueblood and idolize Beyonce. It's always nice to find common interests, however shallow they may be.

I've been very lucky because the apartment is a stone's throw from the study center where I work and I have a giant double room to myself. I even have an extra bed for any friends, eh ehm, who might come to visit. My Polish roommate used to be in this room, which explains the kneeler, the multitude of crucifixes and the photos of Pope John Paul II. Gavina laughs at me because I refer to him as Gian Paolo instead of Papa Giovanni Paolo II, as if we've been best friends since childhood. Seeing as he watches over me as I sleep, I think that makes us pretty close.

Please excuse my lack of photos for many of the things I'm describing...now that I'm living here, I'm not on tourist mode and I forget my camera frequently. I'll get on the ball, I promise! But no worries, there are many still to come...

Here's one third of the beautiful view out my picturesque window:

Here's part of my room...I wish I would've brought more pictures with me. I miss you all!

Work with the UC study center has been going really well. Everyone in the office is extremely nice and helpful and thankful to have me there. I'm very much enjoying working there and feel very comfortable with the arrangement. I'm extra happy today because the director agreed to pay not just my rent but also my utilities! Mega-score. They weren't entirely ready for me at the beginning so I've been taking on odd projects as they think of them. This week I'm actually going on several excursions with the students, including one to a winery and one to Florence. Tough job, eh?

Outside of work, I've just been trying to meet new people! I've met several through a website called Couchsurfing, and others through roommates and work. I went to the beach one morning with my French roommate Justine, I've been watching the World Cup games with my roommates, getting gelato with couchsurfers and I even got invited to a Tuscan BBQ by one of the ex-students at the study center. I finally got a home-cooked meal, got to meet lots of new Italians, and even got into a water fight. It was just so nice to be out of the house, surrounded by Italians and having a good time! The photo is awful quality because I stole it from facebook, and yes, that's me in the back, watching a half-naked Italian drum his belly:


Sunday morning I decided to go to mass at the Duomo, partly because I wanted to experience mass there and partly because it's the only way to gain free entry into the cathedral! It's a pretty fabulous facade:

I sneaked a photo of the alter and a nun praying before I got scolded:

I came across this lovely view while wandering the city one day. Now I like to pass by here every so often:

We've obviously been very into the World Cup here, despite the fact that Italy was eliminated even earlier than the U.S.! After watching the final with one of my new friends, we wandered into Piazza del Campo to see the victorious Spaniards vying for importance over the Contrada that won the Palio:

The Palio, a giant no holds barred horse race around Piazza del Campo, is Siena's infamous and biggest event and people go freaking crazy here over it. The first Palio of the summer happened the day before I arrived, and there have been daily parades and celebrations from the Contrada that won. It's madness. So there we were in the Piazza, where everyone gathers every night and for any event, and the Contrada's playing drums and trying to "out-boister" the horn-tooting Spaniards, attempting to elevate the medieval local tradition's importance over that of the worldwide soccer tournament. Paul, the octopus in Germany that correctly predicted the winners of the last 10 final games-now HE just might trump the Palio and the World Cup.