Downtime in Siena

So I apologize for never posting. I know i know having a severe lack of internet is no excuse but really... its impossible to get online. So I think I left you with some info on London. I cannot believe I survived Heathrow, but as I was walking through there all I could think of was Love Actually haha! Anyway, I am sitting here in Hotel Athena in Siena, which is about 3 blocks or 4 blocks away from Il Campo. Google it... its pretty awesome! I actually walk through there every morning to get to class. We've done some pretty cool things, but I feel like I should really brag about my walk to class. So we walk out of our hotel usually around 8:30 and pass by this market with fresh fruit and grapes and 1 euro HUGE bottles of water (bottiglia d'acqua minerale) and our favorite market guy works there, he's this really old cute italian man who speaks little to no English and teaches us italian words for different kinds of fruit. He also sells HUGE bottles of wine for only 4.50 euro... yeah get jealous haha. So anyway we usually get one of those huge bottles of water and a piece of FRESH fruit and head to class and on the way we walk through il campo which looks like this:

So anyway we then go to class which is in the University of Siena and during our break we get the most amazing cappuccino on the face of this earth! IT IS SO AMAZING! Then usually after class, which is around noon, we get lunch like pizza or pasta or something quick so we can get to whatever activity we're doing that day... like going to a little italian town or wine tasting or something. We usually try to eat outside if it's a nice day out, which is pretty usual. It gets to be around 65 degrees F out in the afternoon because the sun shines right on the city, and the warmest is in Il Campo because it is the biggest open space. I love Siena, but it is such a small town. It takes about a week to discover every single area of the town. But there are some cool things about this town. Like they have things called Contradas, which are pretty much little regions within the town. Now, if you know anything about Siena, you are familiar with the horse race in the main square, which is Il Campo. Now each horse that races represents each contrada, and there are 17 different contradas. Each contrada has a flag, colors, and an animal that represents the region. My favorite contrada is the PANTHER CONTRADA! Mainly because its sweet, but there are other ones from the turtle contrada to the dragon contrada... I kinda like the dragon contrada too but their colors are ugly. Anyway these horses race around Il Campo three times and race at different times, and who ever wins receives pretty much a trophy and bragging rights for the year. Its pretty sweet.
So theres the little history lesson on Siena.
Now, update on me:
I'm pretty good. A little homesick at first but I am starting to love it here. I cannot wait for Florence, and my roommates and I wanna get wireless which means more availability of ME! YAY! This is also really good because I am doing this volunteer thing for an online newspaper and I need the internet for that. Its a pretty sweet deal because you are assigned things like seeing movies before their release date (which would still be late compared to the US) and other things that require a press pass. YEAH! SO EXCITED! I have also been making a lot of new friends... but nothing like you guys. But we've been having fun and we've been going to a bunch of different bars and stuff. But our favorites so far have been: The Red Barron, The Galleria (which is not its actual name thats just what we call it) and Cafe Corso. Oh and here's the deal with cafes and bars. Bars here are actually considered places to get coffee... and cafes are places to get food and to drink. So when I say Bar I mean coffee shop and when I say Cafe I mean a bar haha. Um and yeah thats pretty much the update on me. I've been walking my face off and drinking tons of water (because coca-cola lite is SO FREAKING EXPENSIVE). And since its so expensive and nothing like diet coke i had to do the whole forced rehab from diet coke... it was awful. So many headaches and a severe loss of energy, but I feel much much better drinking water constantly. Wow this one is SUPER LONG! So sorry! But yeah so I am now a water addict haha. Anyway I should probably get going but just to some up:
Andrea now drinks Wine more often than she should
she also chooses water over diet coke (how did that happen?)
walks her freaking face off everyday
probably losing tons of weight, but who knows with all these carbs i've been eating
Misses American Television (mainly the office)
Misses everyone in the states
realized shes been speaking tons of italian and referring to the US as the "states"
and wants to but a pair for Florentine Boots
and a purse
and many many things
haha
k love you all

CIAO!