About three weeks ago was the last time I wrote. Sorry for the delay! A lot has been going on around here since then. After we went to Florence, we had a few days of class and then came Thanksgiving break! When I first got to Siena, I didn’t think we would have any type of break for Thanksgiving because it is a very American holiday. I was thrilled to find out that we had four days off (including the weekend). We began planning an out of town trip a few weeks beforehand. We decided to get away to Spain for those days, to Valencia. We got there Thursday midday and left Saturday evening. We finally got ourselves to a beach, ate traditional Spanish dishes full of seafood (paella, tapas, etc) and drank sangria. The night we got there, we went on a pub-crawl too and went to a bunch of bars and clubs that we never would have found without it. We got some Starbucks (oh how we missed that place!), walked around the city, picked oranges from the trees that lined the entire city, and went to the Central Market where we bought a lot of food for lunch, which ended up only costing about thirteen Euro altogether. We sat in front of a large fountain in the center of the city and ate everything before getting to the airport for our flight. Needless to say, we had a great time wandering around and didn’t spend too much money. This trip was mostly to be relaxing and cheap, since there weren’t very many museums or anything. Let’s face it: we were already getting down to the last of our savings so it needed to be fairly inexpensive. We definitely succeeded. Oh, one more thing. While we were searching for a place for lunch on the beach, one had a parrot in a cage outside (not sure why). BUT, we were staring at it because it was actually a really pretty parrot. Then it said “ciao!” How crazy is that? It’s as if it knew that we spoke Italian.

For the not so great part, on November 29, in the early hours of the morning, my mother passed away. I got the news from my dad later that day, after class. My first thought was “How am I going to get home?” Since it’s nearly the end of the semester, I definitely did not have the eight hundred dollars for a flight. Thankfully, my mom’s aunt saw on Facebook that I was not able to get home and bought my ticket for me. I got back into Washington, DC last Wednesday night and returned to Siena this Tuesday evening. I was able to see my family, including many relatives that I have not seen in years. I just wish it were under better circumstances. Nevertheless, it was great to see my family again, all ten of us siblings, and lay my mother to rest with her mother and grandparents. I was even given the opportunity to finish out the semester at home, through email, but I had already bought the ticket to come back plus the ticket to leave Italy for good. I would not have had time to pack or say goodbye to my friends here, so I think it was a good idea to come back to Siena and sort of get my mind off things. I will never be “over” my mother’s death, but it will become easier with time. The people involved with this program – my resident director, the Italy director, my professors, my friends, and the CET people in Washington – were so wonderful in accommodating me and trying to get me home. I was and am so grateful that I did not have to worry about everything I was missing (a final exam, presentations, papers, classes) and could go home. These are just a few reasons why I would recommend this program to anyone thinking about studying abroad. J

Anyway, on a lighter note, the night before I left, we visited the Tea Room behind the Campo. A few of us went a few weeks ago and it was really fun. This time it was the entire group of us, sponsored by CET. The first time I went, I ordered some kind of chamomile tea. This time, I ordered “Giamaica” (pronounced like the country Jamaica); I can’t remember what exactly was in it but it was calming and tasted like vanilla. Yum. In addition to the teas, we ordered delicious desserts that had flaming sugar on them! Yeah, it was pretty sweet. A few of us stayed a little later to study, read, do crossword puzzles, etc. If you’ve ever been to a hookah bar, it had that sort of feel, but nicer and minus the hookah smoke. I really, really enjoy the atmosphere there and if any of you decide to go to Siena in the future, try to make it out to the Tea Room.

Check back next week for my FINAL blog! I can’t believe we’re leaving in a week. This semester has absolutely flown by. I’ll have updates on the Christmas markets in Florence, our Christmas party we’re throwing at our apartment, and my last days here! L

CET Siena Student Correspondent, Fall 2010

Melanie Bianco