Monday, May 26th
So . . . I purposely skipped blogging last night because I had to study for my final exam. But now I am finished! Hurrah!
Seriously though, I just took my last final exam possibly FOR-EV-ER. And man, it feels good!
Yesterday was relatively uneventful. I mostly studied all day, and I was supposed to go to my internship but the director of the museum had a family emergency so instead we met today (Tuesday). I met with some other students in my group and we studied together (like I said, lots of studying all day) and then had a quick FHE before going back to studying. Not exactly the type of day you want to spend in Italy, but what can you do?
Tuesday, May 27th
Today was more exciting! I finished my exam and then went to the Santa Maria della Scala museum for my orientation and tour. I am so so grateful that I am with two other girls (Cora and Rebeca) from my group! Luckily one of them is basically fluent in Italian so I was able to ask her when I didn't understand something the museum director told us. We got basic instructions for what we'll be doing for the next four weeks. Basically we will be working in the section of the museum that is aimed toward kids! We will be helping to plan activities and exhibits for them. Another aspect of the internship is that we will be teaching English to the museum staff, which will definitely be an interesting experience! I'm not really sure how to do that . . . teach my native language in a foreign language . . . but among the three of us we will work it out. I'm excited to get started!
After our brief orientation Rebeca, Cora, and I took a tour of the museum, and it is humungous. It used to be a hospital in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but then was transformed into a museum. There are many levels, including crypt-like areas featuring many dark corridors and empty rooms—in other words, creepy (but awesome). There was even an old mass grave, and you can still see all the bones piled on top of each other. Too much information?
Anyway, it was an adventure, and we are all anxious to start our work tomorrow morning! After the museum, Rebeca, Cora, and I went to grab some lunch then did some grocery shopping and just talked for a while.
Tonight we had a dinner at the Torre contrada. Here in Siena, the contrade are like a religion. You can be baptized into a contrada and it becomes your family. The contrade also have enemies amongst themselves—very very serious enemies. For example, the Torre's (Tower) enemy is the Oca (Goose) contrada, and they hate each other. This is especially apparent during the Palio (the horse race). There really isn't something to compare it to in America—you'll just have to take my word for it, I guess. Anyway Cinzia and the director of the school in Siena are both of the Torre contrada, so we took a tour of the Torre region of the city and went to the museum where they have Torre memorabilia and all the Palio awards they've won, etc. etc. Also, each contrada has a church, so we saw that as well.
Afterward we had dinner—a simple dinner cooked by volunteers. Our whole study abroad group sat together and we had a good time telling stories and riddles.
And that was about it for today! Tomorrow I start work at the museum.
A domani,
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment