Buon Compleano?

Apparently it’s my birthday despite everything feeling like it’s not. Definitely not a complaint I just don’t feel that old these days and no singing of happy birthday or cookie cake so it’s all slightly different from what I am use to. It is crazy to think of all that has happened though in the past year, wow! I would never have imagined I would be celebrating the big 2-1 in Italy so this is one for the memory books. I must say my life has been quite the adventure which makes me only excited to see what happens next. Although it could be a let down considering this summer has been well amazingly perfect. As for my birthday I am sad to report that the day was not as glamorous as one would hope. Church starts at 9 but most of us opted to show up for sacrament at 10:50. Guiseppe informed us that breakfast was at 9. Frederique and Fiorella were already gone and I am pretty sure he was waiting around to show us breakfast then he left. I already knew breakfast was small so my expectations were pretty low and I was not disappointed. Italians do not own toasters so they buy toast in a bag haha it is quite hilarious actually. For some reason the slices are of dwarfed proportions and are no bigger than a deck of cards. We ate premade toast with some fruit jam and these little breakfast cookies. I think we were given this drink that would be of the equivalent of Postum. We warmed the water and added this brown matter and it was as gross as it smelled. Sorry mom I just couldn’t do it. I was glad nobody was around so I could just throw it down the drain. Funny story: so they had a pretty modest kitchen that contains the essentials fridge, small sink, and tiny stove. But no worries they have a meat slicer haha. (Seinfeld lovers it is just like the meat slicer from the episode where Elaine tries to shorten her heel of her pump and bends the blade). That contraption seems somewhat fancy in comparison to everything else.

Of course I was running a few minutes late. We had our map in hand from Guiseppe that he highlighted for us with our intended destination. We never got lost we just missed the road that we needed twice. Luckily we were turning around to re-correct our mistake and there was Peter with everyone else. How glad we were to see them and glad to know we would not be missing sacrament. Church was right outside the city walls. We basically walked from one side to the other haha across Siena. This is a very very small branch. I think they had less than ten people total. I have evidence that the Mormon world truly is a small place. I noticed on the stand a familiar face. I knew one of the elders serving in the ward because me and Anziano White went to high school together. How random is that that I know someone in this tiny tiny branch that I am attending while living in a foreign country. An elder was conducting sacrament and it turns out that he is the branch president. I have heard of that happening but wow talk about responsibility. Singing in Italian is still a struggle I can’t seem to remember the difference on how to say the c’s and ch’s but hopefully not too much longer. I was a little worried for fast and testimony meeting with such few people but it turned out to be an awesome meeting.

After church we walked with Peter to find the school. On our way when passing by the Il Campo we ran into a procession of a contrada (neighborhoods, Siena is divided up into different contrada’s). They were all dressed up in their traditional costume. First it was guys playing drums and then guys with flags and that continued what seemed like forever. The young boys were first and the men kept getting older as the line went on. It was so cool to see and I realized how serious all this neighborhood distinction really is. I have been very curious what neighborhood we are apart of and who won the palio this year. Once we finally arrived at the school it wasn’t what I expected. It was a plain old building. I would have though a little bit more going on with the façade but nope. I can’t believe I will be starting classes so soon. I actually can’t wait to start learning Italian. It is so frustrating to be here and lack all communication and having to resort to hand gestures and pointing. Then we were all awkwardly standing around trying to figure out what to do. I suggested go sit in the Il Campo since there was no reason to go home to awkwardly sit around there. After a few minutes everyone decided to walk there. But when we finally got there we were all ahh…what do we do now. At this point we all split up and kind of went our separate ways. I was with the group that wanted to find food. I just tagged along and sat around while everyone ate enjoying the air conditioning which is a rare find.

After walking aimlessly we all decided to go back to our homes. This road by our house I noticed lots of cute little stores with clothing that is actually in my price range. I feel as though I might be doing quite a bit of shopping here which excites me to the core. While walking home we found Lillian and Sydney just sitting on the sidewalk. They mentioned they were waiting for the internet café to open so we stayed and chatted with them. They mentioned that if you pay one euro to some Tabbachi that you could have unlimited internet so I am all for that if we can find where ever that is. We checked out this Valley that is behind our apartment. We are not quite sure what it is but it sure is beautiful and I definitely don’t mind the green view. The trek seemed long and we were tired. I know its going to be a long semester of walking. Now I won’t feel so bad for my gelato addiction.

Luckily no one was home. We chatted for a while but ended up falling asleep. I swear I never in my life had been so tired. "Resting my eyes" for a minute ended up me falling asleep again. We were so out of it. Finally after I regained some consciousness I wrote in my journal. I am really trying hard to document everything and all awkward experiences. I was more than ready for dinner. We are typing away when we hear Sibley…Liman… so they call us by our last names. The first night when we introduced ourselves as Autumn and Karli they gave us the most confused face ever. At dinner they asked Sibley? Limon? So we indicated which was which and they have continued to call us that. Italians usually put your last name first and then your first name so they think our last name is our first haha whatever it is its hilarious. We laugh every time they refer to us. After our first day of class we will be able to truly introduce ourselves haha.

Dinner was again very delicious. If these two meals are any indicator of what is to come then I am in for some yummy food the next few months. Tonight the pasta dish was just like these little noodles in chicken broth with mozzarella. The main course was tomato and cucumber salad with oils. The meat dish was scraped out zucchini’s with some undisclosed meat product mixed in with the zucchini and the leftover picante carrots from the night before. Tonight I also did not make the mistake of pouring myself con gasse acqua, yuck! It is only naturale for me. I mentioned that it was Me Compleano (my birthday) today pointing downward indicating today. They were ohh….. The daughter asked how old and I indicated 21 (ventuno) After dinner was over they brought out these chocolates. Guiseppe indicated it was like a birthday cake blowing out the candles on top. Then Fiorella brought out the fruit bowl. Me and Karli shared the most glorious peach my mouth has ever tasted. I must say Italy has great fresh fruit!!! Oh my so delicious. That will be my lunch everyday frequenting the local fruit shops and its so cheap. Frederique grabbed something from the drawer and ran into the kitchen. She then comes out with these pink 21 candles!! I actually thought it was really nice of her. Especially considering I didn’t think she liked us very much. I truly appreciated the nice gesture. They had me try another chocolate and Guiseppe offered me a black licorice and I said no because I hate black licorice. But he insisted and they could tell by the look on my face that I was not enjoying it. They motioned for me to spit it out which I gladly did. As disgusting as that might seem I was ok with it. Frederique spit hers out as well so I didn’t feel as bad. We attempted to tell them that Karli’s birthday was next Sunday but it was a struggle. After this point conversation went downhill fast. The conversation about school in the morning was difficult. It was a failed attempt to plan breakfast in the morning haha or so we think thats what they were saying. Me and Karli left just laughing having no idea what just happened. I initially though Fiorella and Frederique didn’t like us I just think they don’t know how to communicate so they just feel weird. We felt huge from dinner so we decided to go for a walk and make our way to the internet store. The weather was perfect and it felt great outside. The internet was an amazing choice. I loved seeing all my e-mails wishing me a happy birthday and saying hello. I got to talk to mom and dad which was nice. Not for very long sadly but enough to raise the spirits. Thank you so much everyone for the e-mails I love hearing from you all!!! We came back to the house to take pictures of our room to document life in our humble dwelling.