New Apartment, Spoiled American & Zzzzzzzzzz

A few nights ago was my first night at my new apartment...it is quite lovely...in a country setting 28 km from Siena in a village called Tocchi...it's actually a lot like the studio I lived in in Santa Barbara a couple of years ago. It is a beautiful country setting with lots of farm animals actually -- a horse named Mary Lou, a dog named Mose and a cat named Puffa. I can also get fresh eggs if I want! The home is owned by Claudio and Mary Gregario and I actually found out about their rental on craigslist 6 months ago!

Allow me to start with saying that the past five weeks living with my host family has been the most memorable experience...the characters and food were crazy good! At the same time...I was cold 99% of the time (the temp in Siena has been and still is 40-50 degrees). Inside the house was not much warmer. (Please know I am not complaining just stating a fact and giving detail for story-sake:) The house was only heated once a day and that was at night for awhile. This made simple things like studying in my room during the day hard for me. And you know the shower story...well for 5 weeks, I took a 2-3 warm shower every other day only to step out into the cold. And as much as I loved the food and watching Silvana and every one at dinner, it was also stressful because I couldn't express myself and I knew they wanted me to speak...but my Italian just wasn't happening. All of this to say that for 5 weeks I had the time of my life, but I think also for 5 weeks I was cold on the inside, I was tense and tight all over my body, cold, and frustrated at my surroundings. I got up every morning at 7 am to go to school and even on Saturday I couldn't sleep in because the cleaning lady came in. I am such a spoiled American!:)

So I arrived at my new studio apartment....the studio is downstairs from the main house, which is a beautiful Tuscan home like the ones you see in books...as I got settled, I noticed right away that it was so warm (two heaters!), a bathroom, a kitchen...
Well, let me just say that after I got unpacked, I was very "American" again...I turned on the TV and watched Lord of the Rings (in Italian), made hot tea in my lovely little kitchen, took a 45 minute scolding hot shower (I looked like a lobster when I got out!)...and I didn't want to get out...put on pj's, sat on a cozy little couch, read an English Cosmo magazing left behind by the former tourists (read an article titled "How to know if he really loves you"... who writes this shit...oh ya, writer's like myself!:)

And then I went to bed in the most comfortable bed in a loft with soft pillows (sidenote: the pillows at the other house were so stiff and killed my neck so I had been using my mini travel pillow for 5 weeks.) So anyway...went to bed at 11:00 pm...and didn't wake up until 2:00 pm the next day!!! I woke up to a beautiful view of Mary Lou (the horse) just outside my window.