Homeland

Alright, everyone is asking me about school. Obviously this is my least favorite part of Italy, but it’s still pretty sweet.
This is a view from my classroom window. Not bad right? My school is called Dante Alighieri. There are people of all ages and from all over the world here to take intensive language classes. We are the rebels and only have five hours of language a week. I’m in my own Italian class, just me and my teacher, Simona. She is from Siena and totally awesome. Hopefully I can pull out a good grade in this class since it is completely catered to me. 95% of the time I understand what is going on, but that doesn’t mean I can actually speak it.

Our “Humanities” class is really a culture class starting with ancient Greece, and it appears that compared to BYU Civ. classes it is going to be a piece of cake. There are 23 of us in this class and not a single one of us knows what is going on. Our teacher, Alessandro, is some sort of genius/mad scientist who knows SO MUCH but doesn’t know how to teach it to other people. I have a constant headache in that class just trying to understand what he is saying, and the amount of info we get in the 2 hours of class could be said in ten minutes if he could speak English well. He is also constantly tripping, spilling water, and getting marker all over himself. I have to try really hard to contain my laughter.

My art classes are pretty sweet. My director, Peter, teaches them, and he is crazy, as are most artists, but cool. Yesterday we went to Florence for class...no big deal. I love Florence, more to come on that.
This is the Piazza Del Campo where everything in Siena goes down. It's kind of like "The Max" in Saved by the Bell...the after school hangout I always wanted in high school. Since we don't have cell phones here I just head to the Campo and usually find someone I know hanging out there.

Fiasco of the Day: Our toilet is in the shower. I feel like I could stop there, but I will explain more. Our shower consists of a shower head, toilet, and bidet. Besides the fact that this is strange, it is very wet. Toilet and toilet paper get soaking wet every time you shower...awesome.