Do it for the culture

Race Day!

So I'm an absolute terrible morning person and usually on days I have a chance to sleep in I always take the opportunity. The morning of the race was a different story though because even though I slept in I realized I was missing one of the ceremonies for the race. So I jumped out of bed and ran up to the piazza to see the last few teams getting their barrels branded. I'm so glad I didn't just decide to sit at home until the actual festival itself because this was definitely something really cool to see. I also liked that I wasn't super crowded up in the city to be able to see it or I didn't have to pay anything for once. Each team was coming into the piazza and they would do flag tricks by throwing them into the air then at the end they would get their barrel branded for the current year of the race. Also the racers would sit on the steps with their barrels until everyone was all finished. By the time the were done a lot of the important people in each contrada had to go into the church to get blessed before the big race. I'm still not used to seeing something so different from what I'm used to at home so everything I see that's new I'm so amazed and interested by. 

After seeing the opening ceremony I walked by down to my house to hang out for a bit until the the most exciting part of the day started. We attempted to make cupcakes again because everyone was getting together to watch the barrel race and I must say we did much better than the first time. We did have an advantage though and found one bag full of premixed cake mix that we just had to pour into the cupcake holders. This absolutely made the whole process easier which we liked. But overall if it makes things easier I'm definitely fine with that and it saves us time to actually focus on getting some homework done.   

After a week of seeing the practises and all the events for the bravio festival the exciting moment had arrived. It was so crazy to me to see how many people were in the piazza for a festival in a small town in Tuscany. But after seeing the entire barrel race itself I can say it is one of the coolest things I've seen before. People back home kept asking me what kind of sport I was watching. Honestly its something that I don't know how to explain besides the fact its some renaissance sport that's been going on for so many years in a small town. Definitely the highlight of my trip so far and one of the funnest weekends Ive had here so far. 

Best Day EVER??

Honestly this might be me over exaggerating but this day was awesome. I didn't feel so good when I woke up but as the day went on it got even better because you know what I got to eat? McDonald's! I never eat it at home because I absolutely hate it but after eating so much Italian food since we arrived has been extremely annoying. All I want is to have a variety in my meals instead of only pasta, tomatoes, and cheese. Don't get me wrong Italian food is delicious but any opportunity I get to eat something other than what I have to eat everyday I'm gonna take it. Especially when I go to Rome ill be eating at the Hard Rock Cafe or even some Mexican food and I have no shame about it. 

The funniest part of this adventure was me and Lauren decided to get extra cheeseburgers so we could take them home to reheat it when we want something besides pasta. 

Montepulciano 

Every chance I get while I have time to myself I like to try and take in as much beauty as possible that I'm surrounded by. As I've been here for a few weeks already Ive realized that I've slowly gotten into the habit of not really taking in as much as I can of the views.
When I actually take a second to look around at the beauty of Tuscany I think to myself how crazy that this is my home for almost 2 months. Like I've said before Ive never been out the country or even to Europe so this experience is one in a lifetime opportunity that I want to get the best out of. Besides the immense amount of homework I have to do everyday Im glad that I get to spend my class days here in Tuscany rather than the Kennesaw campus. Its also an advantage to me because I don't have to worry about work while I'm here so I can just focus on school and the fact that Im in Italy for two months.
Overall since I've only been here for 3 weeks I've really gotten see the Italian lifestyle and it makes me eager to see what the rest of this trip has in store for me.