hiking to the top of the city-and sienna-and one crazy night

so yesterday we left pretty early and hiked to the top of the city with Luca, our host dad. the view was incredible from up there-i have never seen anything like it. it was a pretty long hike though. after our hike, we went to get some really really good gelatto-and went for lunch with Luca. i dont know why, but i just dont like all this real italian food. YUCK! every place serves pate'-this nasty liver on bruchetta bread as an appetizer. these italians think i am crazy when they clear my plate and all the food is still on it! all of us girls ventured to IKEA after lunch-and spent 4 hours there. there is a free shuttle that runs to it, but it only picks up from IKEA once every hour-we didnt know that, and missed it by 10 mins and waited an hour for the next one. i got some new sheets, a douve cover, and a blanket for my bed here. that way i can stop using the scummy ones that were on the bed when i got here. on our way home from IKEA, we saw a lady who was hit by a car on her moped. it was the most disgusting site i have ever seen. she was laying face down in the street, not moving, and there was a pool of blood all around her body and people wiping her off with paper towels. i dont know if she survived or not, but riding or driving in these streets is SO dangerous. no one follows the traffic laws and there really isnt any enforcement of them either.

last night was pretty interesting...we all ventured to the fish pub where half of the group had been drinking before we even left-the rest of us just went along for the ride and to play mom. haha. we left there and went to this club called twice and we just danced-it was fun, but a good portion of our group was really trashed-and the rest of us really annoyed. when i see that, i remember why i dont like alcohol. it was still a fun night to say the least.

after we got back though, i had quite the rough night. its so hard being here and not really being able to talk to people back home. and it stinks when you do share a conversation with someone back home and it turns out sour. it was my fault, but really sad and upsetting. i got myself so worked up that i didnt even go to bed until 4:30 am...i was so tired when i woke up at 8:30...

we went to sienna for the day today. it was such a quaint little town and quite beautiful. nothing like florence. it was quiet, and not very much traffic on the streets. it was so nice. we spent a good amount of time in the piazza di campo-which is one of the most famous city squares in europe-but i loved the view of the countryside the most. today was also the first time i have had pizza since i have been over here-it was AMAZING. the peperoni is not like usa meat-its legit, real, pepperoni! after a day of walking around with no plans (which was great), we decided to come on home. we are all pretty exhausted tonight-and classes start tomorrow. i dont have class on mondays though, so i think i will venture to the academia to see the real david tomorrow morning!