I met a cute Italian boy

I met a cute Italian boy last night! I have to tell about it...After some training at Miseriaccordia with some fellow Americans, me Kyle and Maura met up with Jessica and Ella and we went out on the town... ok so we got some beer at sat at the Piazza del Campo with tons of locals... the bars are different than in the USA. They have signs that say bars.. but they are open all day and serve coffee breakfast lunch...etc... also alcohol... so all day people could say °lets go to the bar° and it is no big deal. At night people go inside, get a beer or drink, and then go stand outside in the Piazza and mingle. Inside the bar it is really quite small... So these random sketchy Italian boys come sit down by us..and one was wearing a ring and hitting on Jessica... so she was being all sassy back to him and calling him on lying..He kept saying his sister gave it to him... yeah.. so that was funny. Then they left finally.... A few minutes later, a group of 7 Italian boys came and sat very close to us. Piere had a little guitar and they were all singing along. It was surreal.. so Kyle started talking to them and then they joined our group and we made a big circle... tried to communicate in a language that consisted of some English and really poor Italian. hahah.. it was interesting but somehow it worked. I tried to play a song on the guitar! Then Maura played a few songs... This one boy named Erriccholo (Eric) started asking me questions... he was really hot and we talked for a long time. He was super cool and down to Earth and very sweet. We hung out the rest of the night.. Then at 2 am we decided to leave to go home. Our groups parted... we did the kiss on each cheek thing.. and then all of the other boys kissed me on the cheeks...caio caio mwah mwah... hahaha i love it. So I started walking with my friends but then Eric came back to walk with me after like 10 minutes and we talked a lot. then we had to part ways.. and did the kiss thing again... then he ran to his friends and they all we like 'WOOOOoooooOOooo!!!' hahahhaha....So cute.... i loved it.. he was talking about seeing me again. So i hope i see him again....
Yesterday, I worked in the garden and planted tomatoes... it was lovely... today i woke up and missed my bus... then got on bus 10... and to Piazza Gramchi... then missed a second bus... so I went shopping. I found a dress and a bra... for pretty cheap too... things arent that much more expensive here.. but I did realize 1 universal truth is that i have a shopping problem in USA and Italy..
Last night we did a training for the ambulance center. There were kids there from BYU that were studying abroad. We made friends with them.... we did neckbrace, back stretcher training stuff...
Italian class is going really well... Our teacher Marianna is freakin hot. Kyle has a crush on her.. me too. hahaha jk... she is awesome. Today on the bus I started noticing I was picking out words and understanding them... its awesome!
OH! Yesterday we went to a nice dinner.. all of us.. I had Gniocchi.... it was delish... and we had a cheese plate and proschiutto and melon... mmmmmmmmmm... and lots of red wine......
I love this place
Caio

So, i have been in Siena for 3days now..(forgive my typing this keyboard is very strange) and i love love love it here!!! And that is probably an understatement... my host family is a sweet older couple. They make us awesome food and pack us lunches ... Italian coffee in the morning and yogurt. I have a roomate named Maura. She is so cool and sweet. She is from Baltimore we immediately clicked. There is another boy named Kyle from Alabama who is one of our pals. We hang around together... we call ourselves the 'A Team'... haha.. they are both pre med students. I really like everyone else though too... we have a group of 10 from all over the states. Very cool people... um.... for my volunteering i have been working in 2 different ambulance centers. its very cool. me kyle and maura work in the Misereccordia together and we got 'Italian' CPR certified and practiced using the stretcher. If our Italian gets better we may actually get to go on an ambulance call which would be soooo cool. All the boys here are ridiculously gorgeous.. oh my god. they werent lying...all the people here are beautiful. Ihavent really seen any 'ugly' people... Me and my friends have a ritual of going to the Piazza de Campo and having 1 beer. It is the equivalent of central park i guess. All the locals chill there and drink and people watch. We saw a group of awesome old ladies all dressed up sitting by the fountain. We called them the °Sienese Golden Girls°... haha. I took a picture... pictures will come soon... i forgot my cord at my 'home' today. We are taking weekend trips to Pisa, Florence, Lucca, a really nice vineyard with wine tasting, cooking lessons, picnics.... and we have two free weekends. I think we are taking a bus to the beach. There are so many hills in Siena... I am going to have awesome legs when i get home because i walk everywhere. its really not that expensive here either. for one 9% strength of yummy local italian beer 'birra' it is £3 which is about 5$... same as a bar and you dont have to buy as many. i just usually buy 1 and that is enough to get a very very nice buzz. a slice of pizza is like $3... its pretty awesome. I am learning Italian pretty quickly... Our host family doesnt speak any English really so we HAVE to learn it fast to communicate. Its really awesome... I am so happy I came with this program... today i woke up at 7 am and got ready, caught the bus, and went to work in Mike's garden for a few hours with Kyle and Mandy... I planted pomodori or tomatoes... very relaxing and sooooooooooooo beautiful. its almost tropical looking here... somewhat humid... lots of flowers. The green rolling hills in the countryside have splotches of red color. They are poppies... its like a painter flicked a paintbrush full of red paint onto the hillside... GORGEOUS:::....I am so happy. I feel alive... I could definatley live here.. perhaps i will come back soon... after nursing school... lovelovelove....caio bella

Nerves

So I have spent the whole day packing (which has been sooo hard)... and getting everything together for my 3 month European Adventure!!! I am starting to get really nervous. I am so excited! I will be checking my email so feel free to email me if you miss me.
natasha3hilton@yahoo.com
I leave Sunday at 5 in the a.m.
Peace Love and Light

Through my sails..

I am cramming in as much Neil Young and other music as possible before I leave to Europe and I have to part ways with my little ipod for 3 whole months...... I can't wait to see Neil Young live in concert in Belgium!!!!
Just checking off things left and right off the "Dream" list...
I love my life.... and I really love this song.


"Through My Sails" - Neil Young (1975)

Still glaring
from the city lights
Into paradise I soared
Unable to come down
For reasons I'd ignored.

Total confusion,
Disillusion
New things I'm knowin'.

I'm standing on the shoreline
It's so fine out there
Leaving with the wind blowing
But love takes care.

Know me, know me
Show me, show me
New things I'm knowin'.

Wind blowing through my sails
It feels like I'm gone
Leaving with the wind blowing
Through my sails.

Before I Kick the Bucket...

I want to play and swim in phosphoresence in the ocean again during one of those beautiful, perfect nights (its like the stars are in the ocean).......I want to dance in a burlesque show....boo boo bee doop!...I want to sail around the world.....and swim with dolphins, sea horses, and whale sharks........and Great Whites (but in a cage)..... I want to climb and have a picnic on Machu Picchu........I want to live in South America for 1 year... I want to see the Belizean sun set on one side of an island and run to the other side to see the moonrise... I want to be hugged by a chimpanzee.....I want to body surf all day long in the Pacific Ocean... I want to kiss someone inside a Redwood Tree....and see starfish in tidepools... I want to have a vinyard and make my own wine... I want a daughter named Siena (like the city in Italy, the oil paint color "burnt siena" and after actress Sienna Miller)....I want to meet more cool people, I have met so many awesome, inspirational people on my travels (Shawn, Lisa, Marta, Dice).....I want to go to Cuba and see all the old cars and do some serious salsa dancing....I want to join the Peace Corps...I want to adopt a child...I want to be a traveling nurse...I want to work for the United Nations...I want to see the aurora borealis....Go to Carnival in Venice and wear one of those masks...and then go to Carnival in Brazil... I want to sit naked on a nude beach all day long in the French Riviera...I want to charm a snake...smoke a hookah in Instanbul....hop around the Greek Islands and see all ruins in Athens so I can put a picture to all the Greek Mythology I have read...I want to Gamble in Monaco...see the running of the bulls.......I want to backpack around Asia, South America, and New Zealand (checking Europe off the list this summer)......I HAVE to see the Flaming Lips and Neil Young in concert..... I want to make people smile....I want to leave the world a better place.......I want to always follow my heart, and have a passion for everything I do.....I want to become a skilled rock climber.....I want to go to Africa and see lions and giraffes....... I want to own a house in SLC-the Avenues- (because my family is here), Roatan (Honduras), and Montana .........I am not sure where I want to call home and live yet, but it will have a pond with ducks that I can feed bread to and forest in my backyard (and a rope swing over my pond) ...........I want to catch a really big trout with my fly rod and eat him.......I want to know what it feels like to be in a good relationship that isn't controlling and that is based on trust..and then....I want a huge garden with lilac bushes and every flower you can think of... and a vegetable garden....I want to marry that sweet man and be ridiculously in love and have some babies (when I am 30).............I want to travel with my hubby before we have babies.........I want to take turns reading books with my hubby before bedtime...I want to experience holding my baby and rocking in a rocking chair and breastfeeding him or her (you know... the whole bonding thing)...... I want to write a book..... take lots of pictures of everything and pretend to be a professional photographer for National Geographic....and then paint those pretty pictures...I want a fulfilling career.... I want a Master's degree and possibly a Doctorate maybe from an ivy league school (Columbia)........I want to become trilingual (Spanish, Italian, English)...... I want to be able to jam out on a guitar like I mean business.....I want to make lots of beautiful art........one morning, when I am laying in bed with my baby, my love, and my doggy on the foot of the bed I will think to myself - "this is what life is all about."........ I want to see the Earth from space........I want to write poems..... read every book I possibly can...... Run a marathon........ see shooting stars and make wishes (every summer)........ explore (inside and out)........ I want to have naked picnics....and have the best friends anyone could ask for (I already have this! love you guys)....... I want to be able to thank and give back to my grandma after everything she has done for me.......and to my Mother (i love her) ....... I want to succeed and see all the people I love do the same.

"All the people I love are here"

I thought butterflies were supposed to be fun...

I am getting major nervousness/butterflies... I have never been to a foreign country alone...
This is gonna be insane... but Lora told me that she had a friend that went backpacking through Europe alone and now he is living in Germany cause he met a girl and fell in love... now he is going to a University over there.. not that I want that to happen... but ...... if I fall in love with Italy I could teach English at a University there because you have to have a Bachelors degree... and I just got that!! so... we shall see we shall see....
I hope everything works out and that I am safe. I am sure it will lovely."... like a Nazi hoedown..."
hahahah!