Day 3

I lied. Today was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. I’ll probs write another novel. Click the X if your bored. I can’t fathom how youd be bored though. Maybe Amy, I know you can’t read long things in one sitting. Do it in two parts sweetheart. K so Today was the Palio in Siena. Nicole (who is so badass, shes a dual citizen in the USA and ITALY, she grew up in Manhattan, and had fam all over Italy and a house in Lake Cuomo. NBD She invited me to stay after the program with her family. I might have to say yes. I want to see George Clooney and say whats up. ) Where was i? Oh yeah Nicole was telling us how the Palio is like the equivalent of the US’s superbowl. So of course we went. I can already tell that Rachel Gwen Nicole and I are going to be butt buddies the whole trip. Gwen is HILARIOUS. From the bay so she says hella…I overlook it. She goes to UCLA and is pursuing a music career. Fun Fact: She sang with Bone Thugs ‘N’ Harmony in LA. I LOVE this about her. I laugh constantly. And you already know how I adore Rachel. We were sharing our deep deep passionate love for abreevs today. Gigz. And she loves volcanoes. Standard. So we take a bus to Siena which was the equivalent to driving through the movie “Letters to Juliet.” Gorge. We get there and all buy scarves with our respective horses mascots on them. So dorky but people go CRAZY for this horse race and everyone wears them. Christina, who knows nothing, picks a horse with a mascot of a Goose. Not any Goose; this goose had a blinged out chain on and a crown which earned me the nickname “Gangster Goose.” The fact that I wore it bandana style a la Tupac (RIP) may or may not have helped the creation of this. Also, I never saw another Goose fan…out of the thousands of other attendees. Odd. Nicole’s cousin that lives in Siena picked us up after the scarf purchases and accompanying photo shoot, and we took a bus to his apartment which had an adorable little balcony that we all sat on. He and his friends were the BEST hosts despite the fact that they didn’t speak English and only Gwen and Nicole spoke Italian. They were hilarious. We basically finished 10 bottles of wine which could have contributed to that. But Still. BEST MEAL EVER ALERT. They made us homemade pasta (iuhfiuhdsiugdf) with red sauce and Italian sausage. Pork Cutlets with a Lemon Cream Sauce. Tomato Salad with the best tomatoes ive ever put in my mouth. And for dessert they brought out 2 baskets of fresh peaches which we cut up to put in our wine. I was literally dying of happiness. They sang Italian songs and we talked about the World Cup (Argentina’s taking it fo shoooo) and had the best day ever. So we drunkenly took the bus back to town and Rachel and I took a series of “Walking Pictures” which are nothing more than pictures of Rachel and I walking. Thrilling looking back through those, let me tell you. So then we got into the stadium which is where the latest James Bond movie was filmed. It also looks extremely like Volterra for all my people out there that know what that is. We kept assuming Edward was chilling in the towers. I think Abbie said “didn’t you see that group of tourists go in there? Sad.” OMG forgot about Abbie. I love her too. She’s from Pennsylvania and is the cutest thing ever. PS: Theres a real Volterra in Italy where Rachel and I plan to go to reinact the scene where bella runs through the fountain into his arms. Rachel said she’d be Edward and we’d make her look like a junkie. We’re dorky obvi. We met some guys from South Carolina who were going out with tomorrow night. Then I had what had to be a heat stroke. Like I kept having to sit down and I was dizzy and it was horrible. I must have looked like a freak. Then everyone came out in all their authentic garb and OMG it was amazing. Thousands of people waving these scarves in this old school stadium! It was perfect. Then flag wavers and the horseys came out and the entire thing lasted all of like… 3 minutes at most. Abbie thought she won so she was jumping up and down but then we had to break the bad news that she, in fact, did not win…and to stop jumping. We took the bus back and I was exhausted so I slept the entire way back. We got home and went to Club McD’s for dinner. Let me tell you about this McDonalds. First of all…It has a bouncer. Like WTMF (That’s for you Jessica). Also some neon lighting and bar seating. Hilarious. Rachel got a sandwich called the “Chicken Legend.” I can’t count all the jokes we made about this. Oh and some B made fun of Rachel for using a credit card at Club McD. Like really? Then we watched the end of the Ghana/Uruguay game in a bar and then outside of a restaurant. That was exciting. We had no idea that multi platinum recording artist, Seal, played for Ghana. Fascinating. Then me, Rach, Nicole, Gwen, and Sarah walked around the city and got gelato. I was laughing so hard. All in all it was a near-perfect day and I can’t believe I get to be here for like…5 more weeks. Ish. Bindi’s here so im stoked to meet up with her btw. Tomorrow we go to Chianti/Umbria/Tuscany for wine tasting then out with those fools from the palio. I miss everyone at home and wish you could be experiencing this with me. CIAO CIAO CIAO. <3