Parle Italiano?

È possible?! Buonasera tutti! Well I feel like my Italian is starting
to make progress. Slowly but still. I attended a special event this
evening about the Palio and the contradas. They are something very
unique to Siena. You should look them up! I live in the contrada of
the turtle, or in italiano: io abito in la contrada di tortuca.
Anyway. They gave a lecture on the history and origins etc...in
Italian! It's pretty intense. I hardly understood any of it but for
the most part I was able to gather the main ideas from what he told
us. Then after we went to the contrada of the panther and were given
permission to go into their museum. Each contrada has a museum (not
open to the public) containing special things for their contrada and
their heritage. It's sort of like a really big family. That's a good
way of thinking of it. It was interesting. It's all medievil so it's
interesting to see that part of Italian history. They also had a big
huge contrada cooked dinner afterwards (for the panther contrada) but
I didn't do that. Molto caro e non ho soldi! Va bene. Tomorrow we are
going to San Gimignano! I don't know much about it but it is supposed
to be really cool! Hopefully the weather is cool too! The heat is
killing me. I nearly passed out today. I drink TONS of water and sweat
like a pig but sometimes I just get woozy and have to get some fresh
air. I think perhaps I need some protein too.... I might have to
splurge on my shopping and buy some meat *sigh* Molto caro! Very
expensive! Oh well. Alora...Ciao a domani!