My favorite parts of this weekend*:

1. Teaching English went so well. My students paid attention, liked the lesson I made up, were picking up on new words, and we had fun.  That’s all I can ask for.

2. I discovered that Kopo Kabana, my favorite gelato shop, is open again.  I had a celebratory cone of ricotta & fig with rose petal.  Rose petal was actually not as good as it sounds.  It was in fact really horrible.  I had to throw that entire half away.  It did taste like a rose petal though so I’ll admit the fault was my own, not Kopo Kabana’s. 

3. I almost went to a classical concert then realized I wasn’t in the mood.  So instead I went out with my friend Sean and a group of Italian friends.  We ran into almost everyone I know in Siena that night: American friends, other Italian friends, European friends, everyone.  Sometimes I forget how small this city is.  I ended up floating around from group to group of some of my favorite people, staying out until about 4am.  I’m normally the one who is tired at midnight, so this was very unusual. I had so much fun and realized that at this point Siena really feels like home to me.

4. I bought a very short Herman Hesse book in Italian.  In the store I read the back, understood it.  Read the first page, understood it.  I can’t wait to read it all.

5.  It’s 13 degrees C, 55 degrees F, and sunny today.  My friends Francesco and Mattia are in a photography group, so in about an hour or two I get to play the role of model for them.  They both live in the countryside so it should be fun to see where we go for this photo-shoot.

*Weekend definition: Thursday – Sunday.  Because I’m a full year student and in an internship my schedule somehow happened that I only have class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Although I am literally in class all day long for three days in a row, I’m definitely not complaining that my weekend is longer than my weekday.