Summer School

On Sunday, after the rain, Matt and I had a siesta which was interrupted by the sound of drums. We looked out the window to find a parade of men and boys dressed in medieval-looking uniforms, marching, drumming and waving red and white banners. We discovered that the people were residents of the giraffe neighborhood (right next to ours). Members of our neighborhood (contrada del bruco) went out and started to waive our flag in the middle of the giraffe parade. It was pretty cool to watch. I guess these kind of “rivalries” continue until the big Palio horse race in July. Matt said he was waiting for a fight to break out because it looked like something “straight out of West Side Story.” Hahaha…

Sunday night we had our “Orientation,” which is to be applied in a loose way. We arrived at the law school (facolta di guirizprudenza) at about 6:30 and were the first ones there. Around 7pm, other students and faculty began to arrive and Professor Gordley greeted us all. We had a brief overview of the program and had pizza at a little outdoor restaurant overlooking the back side of the Piazza. After several glasses of wine and several slices of pizza similar to American pizza, we made the trek back to Casa di Guglielmi.

Monday morning was a quick one. Jumped up, got dressed, had breakfast and headed to school. Today was just a quick overview of the themes of the classes and the material we intend to cover. Our first class was “International Legal Framework for the Protection of Art and Cultural Property,” taught by Sienese Professor Francioni and Tulane Law Professor Gordley. Our other class is “From Grey to Black: The Markets in Stolen and Looted Art and Antiquities” taught in conjunction by Professor Larson, director of Tulane Law foreign programs and a criminal defender, and Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, author of “Thieves of Bagdad” and a criminal prosecutor in the NYC Das office. Col. Bogdanos was in charge of restoring items that had been looted from the Iraq Museum in Bagdad, when the US occupied the city in 2003. Pretty cool.
We have Internet access at the school, though they are operating off of ancient PCs with what is reminiscent of mid-1990s internet speed. Almost as slow as dial-up. Almost. But, this will allow us at least some method of communication with the outside world. That was how we were able to upload the first blog post. We apologize for the length. We have a lot to say!

The afternoon was spent trying to fix the washing machine and the internet. After calling the UK booking agency and their local person in Siena, we received a call from the owner of the condo, who lives in PA. She was very nice and spent lots of time on the phone with us, talking about local places to go (she told us about a grocery store that has a much bigger selection of American products). She called the "caretaker" for us, the Italian who gave us our keys, and he came over to fix the washing machine. Lo and behold, we are simply dumb Americans. The water had been turned off. Good news is that we don't have to hike to a lavanderia to do clothes. Funny thing is, all we have is a clothes line. If you could have seen me yesterday, hanging out of the window, trying to figure out the best way to efficiently hang clothes on a line...I bet everyone would have laughed. It's not as easy as you would think!!

Sadder news with the internet though. The IT guys (and I use that in the loosest sense of the word) are sick and we can't get them to come look at the router until Thursday. So more blogging from the ancient computers at school...

Today has been a bit scattered. We had our early class this morning, but the second one was postponed until 2pm. Matt and I took this break as an opportunity to see if the IT office was open (which, after a phone call, we discovered that they are out side for the next few days). We made the decision to have McDonalds for lunch, simply as a method of comparison. I will now make the following recommendation: When in a foreign country, skip McDonalds. The ones at home are much better. For starters, they only have a Big Mac, chicken nuggets, the Royale (which is a crappier version of a Quarter Pounder) and a double patty bacon variation. They also had curly fries, which was cool. They had some Italian variations too, like a burger with parmesean cheese, a chicken foccaccia type thing...interesting. Another reason to forego the foreign McD's experience is the price! It was 13 euro for two value meals!! And they were not up to my standards, as an American fast food expert. My sandwich was meat, bread, cheese, lots of onions and a huge glob of mayo. And no self serve ketchup! No thanks, Italian McDs...

So that was our cross-cultural experience of the day. Now, it's time for class and then lots and lots of reading to do!!

Arrivederci! Hope all is well for everyone in the states.